Calgary, Canada folk-rock band, The Dust Collectors, make their debut with boot-stomping single “Take A Dive”. Grown from casual Friday night jams with friends soon transpired into something more substantial, with songs coming together easily between the four band members. Each a strong musician in their own right with various other musical projects and bands, Matt Easton (lead vocals, lead guitar), Luke Giblin (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, mandolin), Steve Rozitis (bass, backing vocals), and Scott Stolee (drums, backing vocals), take cue from collectives like The Band and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
By Kamil Bobin
Discovered via Musosoup
Hello, The Dust Collectors. What made you want to become a musician?
Three out of four of us (Matt, Steve and Scott) have been friends since high school and were all in different bands in our teens. The initial passion to play music came out of mutual love for the same bands and healthy competition within our friend circle to hold your own and get invited to whatever jams and open mics were going on. Luke arrived from Ireland and became part of that musical community too, and we decided to put this band together in 2018.
Do you have any hobbies or interests outside of music?
Deck Building! We have each helped build decks at each others home and have helped friends and family with theirs too!
Your latest song is 'Take A Dive'. Can you tell us more about the making of it and if there were any unusual things happening during the process?
The song was recorded during a really productive session last year at Public Lunch Studio in Calgary. It's the story of a boxer who has a crisis of conscience during a rigged fight. The story is set in the 1920's, so we chose to strip back instrumentation to match that time period; No electric guitar's or drums. We added hand claps, piano and violin which make the song feel old and familiar. Recording the chorus as a four-part harmony was fun too.
When you are working through problems in your work, who do you talk to?
Our band is really collaborative. All songs are written as a collective, so we're pretty good at working through any problems and can usually figure them out ourselves. Brutal honesty is a character trait we all share. Outside of the band, we regularly play with other musicians and have lots of friends in the Calgary music community that we can bounce ideas off.
What jobs have you done other than being an artist?
You name it, we've done it. Building houses, excel spreadsheets, stocking shelves, farming, even lifeguard (eat your heart out Hasslehoff)
Describe your favorite and least favorite part about being a musician.
Our favorite is playing live shows, nothing beats the electric feeling of playing for a room of people. Least favorite would be the opposite, having to cancel shows. Everyone had covid-related cancellations over the past couple years and the disappointment during that time felt heavy.
What’s your scariest experience?
Matt tends to attract a lot of static electricity, so he's had some pretty "shocking" microphone experiences onstage. Aside from that, we had a close encounter driving to a show last week which Luke is still blaming on the bass guitar case for blocking the rear window...
What are you focussing on right now?
We have another single release coming up in January, and we release our first EP in February, so we've got a busy couple of months coming up playing release shows and doing promotional work.
If you could change anything about the industry, what would it be?
We'd love to see shows become more affordable to the masses. The ticket price-gouging in the industry is out of control.
What accomplishments do you see yourself achieving in the next five to 10 years?
In the short term our accomplishments are focused around getting our debut EP and album in front of as many ears as possible. Longer term, we have a list of venues and festivals that we'd love to play, with Luke being from Ireland we'd love to tour and possibly record over there.