dust On Touring With Interpol And Their Spot In The Australian Scene

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With a new single out now, an album on the way, and a tour with Interpol, we chat with dust’s vocalist/guitarist Justin Teale

There’s a lot happening for dust at the moment. Two new singles out, an upcoming album and a tour with Interpol. Is this your second time touring the UK and Europe now?

This is our third. The first time we came over we did a tour with an Australian band called Hockey Dad and then after that, we stuck around and did a few more shows. The second time we came, we did some festivals, did our own shows. And then this time we’re here just with Interpol. It’s been awesome.

You having a good time touring?

You can’t really explain it because it’s so surreal for us. I feel like the position that we’re at as a band is pretty ridiculous, but it’s been really fun. And the shows have been fucking psycho. Some of these venues are like massive arenas, and then some of them are these beautiful seated theatre venues. And for us, being from where we’re from, and just how we even got this opportunity is, to be honest, quite hilarious. It’s awesome.

Do you get into Bristol yesterday?

Yeah, we got in yesterday. We really love Bristol. I’m a big fan of a lot of bands that are from here, like Massive Attack and stuff. All the boats and the sea and the architecture is really, really nice.

You came down from Newcastle?

Yeah it was a massive drive yesterday. We’re kind of in Groundhog Day and it’s all been pretty tough. But we’re coming on to a high now. We’ve been in Glasgow and Wolverhampton and then now we’re here in Bristol. Glasgow was sick. We saw a band from Australia there called Floodlights, they were playing King Tut’s, and they’re a fucking great band. They’re about to take over the world.

dust are generally called post-punk and that’s quite an international scene. Do you think there’s something unequally Australian about your sound?

To us, yes. But there’s a lot of Australian sounds. And there’s like a typical Australian sound I feel like we don’t sound anything like. We’re not a typical raw Australian sounding band or even sound like some of the post-punk bands. We’ve said it ourselves; we get categorized in the post-punk thing but we barely do it justice.

Most of us are from like a real small country town and you can take the person out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the person. Now in Australia there’s heaps of people with all different kinds of sounds but for that raw Australian sound… maybe we do it maybe we don’t.

It seems, especially with these two new singles, there’s a little bit of a 2010’s Brisbane thing going on with dust at the moment. A little bit of Violin Soho, a little bit of DZ Deathrays. When you were coming up was that what you were listening to?

Yeah, definitely. Those bands when I was in high school were a massive influence. I don’t listen to those bands much these days, but I have a lot of respect for them. We’re friends with the DZ guys now and I still think Violin Soho have written some amazing albums. When we started the band, I got really into all that post-punkie stuff. Like when Shame and Fontaines and all that started, but I was also into a lot of other bands like Ice Age.

I was into a lot of electronic music, so I was trying to incorporate that into the band. I was obsessed with Aphex Twin and Autechre and all that stuff. Their ways with melodies and harmonies I found more influence from than certain rock songs, but these days I’ve kind of come back to guitar music. Back into songwriting and the guitar land of like Elliot Smith and Pavement and all that. More simple broken down stuff.  

So how did the project come together during 2020 lockdown, and how did the five of you come together?

Me, Adam and Liam are from a small town in Australia called Maitland. I really was trying to get moved to a different school for my last two years of schooling and I moved to a performing art school then I moved to Newcastle which is where we all live now. Moving there I just met so many more like minded people interested in the same things.

In Maitland if you’re not playing football, you’re a loser. It’s like real country, bogan town. I love it and there’s still so many unique people out there but so many are stuck: they’re brainwashed. Music wasn’t seen very highly there at all. And then when I went to Newcastle, there were all these gigs and being a part of that was really special.

Through that I met Kai and Gabe, and they were already in a band with two of my friends. I wanted to be in that band so fucking bad, but I just couldn’t. And then time went on and I became a lot closer with Kai and Gabe and they were talking about the idea of starting a new band. So, I introduced them and we just all kicked it off really well and all really got along. And here we are, best of pals.

Did you all have the same vision for the band?

We just wanted to all give it a good crack and do it right. So, we were quite selective with picking gigs, not just playing the same show every Thursday at the pub. We really wanted to get ourselves out there and write songs that had their own sound. We didn’t start off like “this is the sound”. It’s just playing around and incorporating things into the writing process. Adam, the saxophone player, was playing guitar and I knew him from year 10 playing saxophone in the school band, and I was like “we should fucking bring the saxophone” and it was fucking sick. Now it’s like the secret weapon.

So, what’s the plan after you finish this tour?

Well, I need to see the Phil Lynott statue in Dublin. I won’t be going home without seeing that. And apart from that we’ll have a couple weeks off and then we record our first album. We’ve got a couple of songs that we’re ready to record. I think it’s going to be pretty busy next year if all things go well. We’ll see what happens.

What’s the direction you’re going in with this album?

It’s like stuff from the previous EP and the new singles but we’re pushing for something new, especially with ‘New High‘. It may not sound like it to the audience but for us that was a big change in step. For ‘New High‘ we really wanted to show dynamics and be able to have more reduced levels rather than being so loud. The album will be like a mix of all the songs that are out so far plus more songs expanding new ideas, soft songs and really big songs.

I’ve seen you say the song is very melancholic but is met with this real dance punk energy. Was that tension intentional?

Not even, not even. I just had that bass line for a long time, and I was really into making beats at the time and I made a couple of beats to that bass line. Then I came up with the chorus and then the chords around it. When we were first doing it as a band it sounded very hardcore. But it suited more of a driven style. I really love listening to music that’s melancholy and has that feeling that you get in the chest like My Bloody Valentine. I also love the rhythms that some of these songs can go with. I guess that’s something I just really want to achieve.

Is it more satisfying when like something comes together in a jam, or a song comes to you in your bedroom?

I think a bit of both. I feel satisfied and really happy when we’re in the jam room and we’ve made something together because everyone’s happy that’s what’s being in a band is about. But then I also really love and cherish those bedroom moments, and you get that click and it hits.

Are you guys generally listening to the same kind music?

Yeah, we generally all have very similar music tastes and we’re always trying to find new music. But some of the guys really love hip hop and rap music and I don’t listen too much of it these days. Adam is a massive pop music fan. Just no shame: loves pop. Really, we have similar interests and feelings towards music, but we’ve all got our little pockets. I’m big on Shoegaze.

So, do you have any bands for us that you’d like to recommend?

I’ll give you some stuff from Australia. This band from Adelaide that are really good called Twine. They’re about to put out their first album, and they are one of the best bands right now. There’s a band called Garage Sale from Melbourne, and a band called Arm Lock too. Both amazing. The Belair Lip Bombs. are taking off right now and their album ‘Lush Life‘ is an amazing indie rock Australian album. Maisie, the singer, she’s got an amazing voice, and Shady Nasty from Sydney.

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Listen to ‘New High’ here:

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