Q & A with Dustin Tebbutt
With his new single “First Light” getting lots of love from triple j and community radio right now, Dustin Tebbutt has announced an Australian tour.
The First Light Album Tour will kick off right around the August 5 release of Dustin’s highly anticipated debut album which will also be called “First Light”.
While his breakthrough song, “The Breach” was inspired by a painful breakup, the forthcoming LP explores the opposite end of a relationship – it’s all about falling in love, then getting up and seeing the world in a whole new way.
Dustin will be heading our way very shortly, playing Solbar on August 6…
Hi Dustin, First Light is such a fantastic album and I’m loving the textures in these tracks. Word is that you produced the majority of the album yourself (with a little help from your friends). Where did you lay down these tracks?
Most of the record was recorded in the back shed/studio at my folks place on the coast north of Sydney, I’d spend days in there tinkering around with the songs and sounds which eventually grew into the tracks you hear today! We did a bunch of the drum recording in studios in Sydney and a few of the tracks were recorded at other studios, ‘Wooden Heart’ over in Perth, and ‘Still In My Heart’ Down in Melbourne, so it’s a bit of a jigsaw puzzle really!
First Light is quite a contrast to (earlier releases) Home and The Breach particularly with the latter focusing on a painful break-up, yet First Light is inspired by a brand new relationship. With love driving the new record, did the songs pour out? Which track was written first, and do you remember the moment when you wrote it?
I’m not sure exactly, but I think First Light was one of the earlier tracks. I remember writing it right after I got back from Splendour In The Grass last year. I’d driven from Byron back to Sydney in one hit late at night, and was really exhausted. I woke up a few hours later and the song kinda fell out. The others were all a bit different, but all in all it was a really easy writing period.
How did your muse handle knowing that the album was inspired by them?
Well, it’s been pretty interesting for her having these songs come to light. I think I’m kind of used to laying it all bear, but it’s probably not the norm for someone else. We’ve always been really open with each other, and my music was always a part of the relationship, so she’s been really good about it all to be honest.
I’ll be honest and say First Light was my first Dustin Tebbutt experience, and on the initial listen, I was picking up some Josh Pyke vibes, but as I dug deeper into the album, there’s a lot of Elliott Smith poking through, particularly in your vocal style, (and a little Ben Gibbard from Death Cab to boot). Have these artists had a slight influence on your style at all?
Well, I guess people will hear all sorts of things in there, I wouldn’t say any of these references are particularly strong influences on me, but that’s not to say you’re wrong! I’d been listening to a bunch of The National, James Vincent McMorrow, Caribou, Fourtet and Radiohead, so I kinda hear more of those.. !
Given that you’ve done an album about love, and releases about a break-up/pain, which are the two most common themes in modern music, can we expect the next release to be about rebellion (the next most popular theme in modern music)? I think that would actually be quite cool…
Haha, that would be! I guess I’d need something pretty strong to rebel against. It’s funny, I don’t really choose what to write about. It’s more just a process of abstracting things in my life but maybe that’s an idea for the future!
And finally, I noticed today that you’ve been announced as support for Bernard Fanning’s tour later this year. Not saying this is actually happening, but should you end up do a collaboration on stage with Bernard, would there be a particular song that would have you fist pumping when you get off stage?
I was a massive fan of Powderfinger growing up, ‘These Days’ would be amazing to see him do. Failing that, I really enjoyed his first solo album ‘Tea and Sympathy’, I’d just looking forward to meeting hime. I’m sure he’s had an incredible life, and he seems like a dude.
Thanks Dustin. First Light is a great album! All the best with the rest of the tour, and we’ll see you and we’ll see you at Solbar on August 6.