People R Ugly‘s name might have started as a one-off idea for a show, but four and a half years later, the green jumpsuits, garage band style music, and rapidly growing festival résumé say otherwise.
Fresh off the release of their debut album GARAGE, which was written and recorded entirely in front man Zak Dossi’s home studio space, and a whirlwind run of major festivals like Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo, the LA-based quartet are proving they’re much more than a few viral TikTok moments.
Before their set at Warped Tour Orlando, Melodic Magazine caught up with the band to talk about the happy accident that glued them together, how a karaoke night turned into one of their biggest songs, and what’s next as they look ahead to 2026.
Your band name… you chose it for a one-off show and it kind of stuck. What was the reason it stuck?
Bill: I think it had a mix of funny and reality.
You guys had a lot of praise for your nineties rock. Is that your inspiration and what you guys grew up on?
Zak: We all grew up on different stuff. I’d say the nineties is definitely a common ground, but it’s not the point of reference. I think the point of reference is just whatever we happen to be listening to that week and whatever we like, really.
We have rap music on the album. We have a house electronic song on the album. We have so many different styles that we like to blend, and I don’t think it’s based in any one era or genre. Nineties is one of the bigger ones we draw from.
The first time you guys blew up online was with your cover of “What’s Up?” Why that song compared to a song that’s trendier now?
Zak: Tristan was [singing] it at karaoke and I had never heard the song before, I had heard the He-Man version on YouTube, a parody version of that song. So I [asked], ‘oh, how do you know this song?’ because I thought it was just YouTube meme. I never heard [the real version]. So then I guess for some reason we decided to cover it and then I just made up a lot of the melodies because I didn’t know the song and it worked.
Tristan: We did it for fun in a rehearsal and the reason our song doesn’t sound that much like the original, it’s a very unique, attention-grabbing cover, is because he had never heard it before that and you were just singing it how you thought you would sing it.
Now it’s in your set list, will you guys ever get rid of it?
Zak: Hopefully, that’s the goal.
Tristan: Well, for now, that is always our final song that we end on. Also, the original singer reposted it and gave us her blessing. So that was really nice.
You also caught a lot of attention with “Brain Dead” online. It reminds me in the same vein of “1985” Bowling for Soup. Was that the inspiration behind it?
Zak: That [song] was our first viral TikTok moment. The inspiration was specifically “Star” by Bampen.
Bill: In “Star,” it’s just a bunch of pop culture references and random cool rap lines. And we were just up in the cabin one night writing music and we were like, let’s make something along that line. And within an hour we had the full song done because we were just joking, being like, Will Smith’s a rapper. Did you know this? Did you know that? And it’s kind of how it came about.
Tristan: Also, last in DC we met Jared, the singer of Bowling for Soup, in our hotel. We said hi, we introduced ourselves. So a lot of people comment that our song, it reminds them of you.. and then he said thank you. And then DM’d the next day. He’s like, ‘oh my God, I didn’t realize you were the green suit guys.’ So he knew us before this, and then ever since then, every Warped Tour we see him, we go to say hi.
@peopleruglyofficial Replying to @lil miri go listen to brain d3ad if ya havent 😏 #punk #poppunk #hyperpop #blink182 #100gecs #bowlingforsoup #band #musician
Now, fast forward 2025, GARAGE, which was recorded in Zak’s garage, is out! Why a garage? Why not a studio?
Zak: Because I have everything that I’ll ever need in my garage and it’s at my house and it’s a lovely space to be in and exist in with my music.
There’s obviously the advantage of we don’t have to pay for studio time. Also I love producing and I produced the entire record and I wouldn’t do that out of a big studio and I’ve set up this entire garage to work for recording us and making music.
Tristan: We were thinking of album titles for like a month because we made the album without knowing and then it was right in front of us the whole time. And then it was the most obvious choice to be the album because we made the whole album in the garage.
There’s a current TikTok “trend” where people are begging for bands to make music in garage’s again. Saying ‘hey garage bands, where are you?’
Tristan: The white boys get back in the garage, that one! Well, we’re in the garage. Come find us.
You’re still fairly new to the scene, compared to some of these bands who are playing on these lineups you on. How does it feel playing Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo?
Zak: We played Bonnaroo before it got shut down.
How does it feel playing these bigger festivals with these people who’ve probably been doing music?
Zak: It’s awesome. We’re so lucky to be able to play these festivals. Lolla was the fucking time of our lives. Even this, our set today was so much fucking fun. The crowd was just amazing.
Tristan: It’s awesome. Any developing artist our size goes and does a headline tour or a headline show and maybe five to six hundred people are in the crowd. And that’s amazing because they know all of your songs. But then you come here and you’re playing, like today, I’d say there was a couple thousand people out there in our crowd and we don’t get to experience that every day.
I think all of us were pinching ourselves every time we look in the crowd. We’re like, wow, this is happening. It’s just fucking awesome.
Are there any other dream festivals you want to play?
All: Coachella.
Zak: Red Rocks is my dream venue. Coachella is my dream festival. After I do those two, I will die happy.
What’s next? You know, 2026 is around the corner.
Tristan: Today was actually the first show that we played most of our album live for the first time. So what we really wanna do next year is get the album out to people live, get people hearing it live. That’s what everyone wants to do.
A lot of Europe fans, a lot of Australia fans, a lot of Asian fans are always DMing us. So hopefully a tour out there, to one of them one day soon this year. And also another album. Probably another album.
