(Editor’s Note: Yes, another late one that was conducted on the 20th of April, I just didn’t get around the uploading in until now.)
Newcastle post-punks dust have been slaying it recently both at home and abroad. They’ve opened for DZ Deathrays, Bloc Party, and Interpol, toured across the UK and Europe, and made quite the impression at SXSW in Austin, Texas. They’re a mind melting live act of swirling energy, with terms like fusion and genre-defying generally being used by anyone attempting to describe them. We were lucky enough to catch them at their first show back in Australia at The Brightside in Brisbane when they headlined GRAIN’s SILO 20. We sat down with members Liam Smith (bass) and Gabriel “Gabe” Sove (guitar and vocals) and asked them five quickfire questions in a very rainy beer garden.
1. You get to hijack all the screens in Times Square for a few minutes just to play one song of yours, what song would you play to the world?
Liam: A song of ours? Probably the new one, Three Strings or Tim…
Gabe and Liam: Trust U See!
Liam: Sorry, we just gave you three different names for the one new song!
Gabe: Yeah, it’s the newest song coming up 24th April, so that makes sense, I guess.
Liam: Yeah, promo the new song mate.
Gabe: And with the new clip for the song too, look out for that.
Liam: We could do one of the many remixes?
Gabe: Yeah, one of them.
2. What’s the one album that you’d choose to be sent off into space to be listened to by aliens as their very first taste of human music?
OB: It doesn’t have to be yours
Liam: Damn. Well, there goes my answer.
OB: dust, dust, dust!
Gabe: Yeah, more dust. One I’ve been listening to a lot recently is Flux by Love Spirals Downward. That’s cool, it’s kind of spacey vibes. I don’t know if the aliens would approve.
Liam: I’m going to chose something a bit heavier, like maybe a Have Heart album… Yeah hardcore, or the new Fiddlehead albums, the yellow and black one….
(While Liam and Gabe determine what specific album, Dakota agrees to educate me and get me up to speed on several of these artists!)
Liam: Fiddlehead, Death is Nothing to Us. Great album, and if you want to get into the Fiddlehead grind you’ve got to listen to Between the Riches. That whole album yeah.
Gabe: Just keep adding more albums, add, add, add.
3. If you had to choose another Australian artist to cover one of your songs for Like a Version, who would they be and why? And perhaps what song you’d chose?
Gabe: Eartheater, to get that ethereal version of our songs…
Liam: Are Eartheater Australian? If not along a similar spectrum I’d go Purient, and I’d want them to cover Alternator. Purient is like a single member (Kate Durman) from the three-piece Acopia from Melbourne, it’s very atmospheric, low-fi… Actually Acopia doing Alternator!
Gabe: True! That would be sick, to cover those ethereal vibes of the song in a stripped back version, would be great I reckon. (Gabe and Liam are excitedly relishing this selection.)
4. Being 4/20 today, if you had the chance to partner with a dispensary and have weed strain after your band, what would you name it?
Gabe: I don’t really know weed strains, that well.
Liam: It would have to be an indica.
Gabe: Call it the (response cut for censorship purposes).
Liam: Oh no we can’t call it the (response cut for censorship purposes)! (Both laughing) Maybe, the Moc.
Gabe: Yeah, call it the Moc. An indica, it’s the only strain.
OB: And what would the qualities be of it?
Liam: Oh, it would just send you to the fucking moon!
Gabe: Go and visit the aliens, laced with acid.
OB: With a big sax solo in the background
Liam: Hahaha! Yeah, a real hallucinogenic ride.
5. The lineup for SILO 21 got announced the other day which meant I had to change this question, but if you had to put forward another Australian artist or band to play SILO 22, who would they be and why?
OB: Perhaps someone else from Newcastle?
Liam: I’ve got one from Adelaide actually, Twine. They would be sick.
Gabe: Twine and The Empty Threats on the same bill maybe. Be economically efficient as they share band mates.
Liam: Agreed, good choices, if I was to select someone from Newcastle it would be Crater Face. A cool little rap duo yeah, that are really sick.
A big thank you to Dakota (@strictly.sentimental) for the photos of dust, it’s quite hard to take photos on film in the rain so she’s done a very good job of it!
Also Quintin would like to take this opportunity to say that their saxophonist Adam is still yet to send his missus the report on mynah birds.
You can listen to dust’s latest single below: