Australian singer-songwriter Dustin Tebbutt returns with another collection of beautifully crafted songs on forthcoming EP, Chasing Gold, out later this year via Eleven: A Music Company.
From the offset, the EP soars into a textured blend of intricate indie-folk. Previous single Love Is Blind feels instantly uplifting, with Tebbutt’s signature smooth falsetto continuously hypnotizing every step of the way over ambient pop tones. Upcoming single All Your Love was co-written with top Australian electronic duo Flight Facilities, and was originally released as a dance track featuring Dustin’s soothing vocals – gaining over one million streams in its debut week. Now, it’s been stripped back to just Tebbutt’s delicate delivery, understated acoustic harmonies and cascading folk sensibilities to create something truly humbling. Fans of the likes of early Bon Iver and Sufjan Stevens will certainly feel at home here, with wintry tinges of melancholia and crisp musicality effortlessly free-flowing throughout this poignant EP.
In this interview spotlight, I chat with Dustin about the latest project, motivations, challenges and more.
Full Q&A along with links and music below.
Let’s dive a little deeper into You, the artist and your music. What attracted you to this genre(s) or style(s)?
I started out in music playing guitar, and as I got more into sound and production that love for acoustic instruments kinda continued. I guess too, the role music played in my life was always centered around travel, or relaxing, so when I started making music, that was the emotional landscape I was most familiar with.
What led you into this journey with music? And further, what drives you to push it out to the public?
My dad played a lot of guitar when I was growing up, and we had a bunch of musical instruments lying around the house, so I guess I was bound to pick one of them up at some stage. From there for a long time it was more a private discovery. I went to Uni and studied music, and played in bands, but it wasn’t till I was about 26 and started really singing and finding my own voice that I was really making music of my own to share. I think finding that sound within was pretty empowering and gave me the confidence to start sharing more. Now that there’s a body of work out there and growing, and an audience listening, that’s certainly a great driver. It’s not like I feel like I really have anything profound or important to say, but there’s just stories to tell, and I enjoy the process of finding them and crafting them into songs and then letting them take on new meaning via listeners.
Who or what influences your creativity? Have your tastes in music changed over time?
I think everything goes in there a bit.. definitely music that I’m currently listening too, but also movies, conversations, fleeting moments with strangers.. going to an art gallery or reading a book. Musically I think my tastes do shift around a bit, but I’m not one of those people that listen to every genre under the sun. I love film music, and contemporaries in the folk world, also electronic music when it’s closer to the chill end of the scale. I’ve been listening to more ‘pop’ recently which has been cool.. there’s so many production and songwriting lessons to learn there.
Were you trying to accomplish anything specific on this new project? Creatively or otherwise?
I think this E.P. was really me trying to consolidate the last few years of experiments into a bit more of a controlled outcome. I picked a small bunch of sounds that are used throughout the record and then really stuck to those. It was a challenge as I’d usually just throw everything in there, but I really like the common thread throughout. I also wanted the songs to be songs, and not just a bunch of sounds worked up in a studio with some singing over the top.. so I did all the writing first, before starting to take the songs into the studio and record them.
What was the last song you listened to?
My track of the week and I can’t stop playing it is ‘Live’ by Billie Marten
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?
I actually love the convenience of Mp3’s. I know they don’t quite sound as warm as vinyl, but for me having all the music in your pocket is invaluable.
How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?
Spotify is personally my favourite, just because I think they’ve really got the algorithm side of things down, and I find that I discover more new music than I used to when I’m using the platform. I think Bandcamp is a great platform for indie bands that really want to have total ownership of their product, but it’s hard to compete with the existing user bases of Apple and Spotify.
Other than the digital era overwhelming us with access to an abundance of music, what is the biggest challenge you face when trying to connect with or find new fans?
I think outside the music world, it’s really just cutting through in anyway on social media. It’s a space that every industry is really competing for, not just musicians, and a lot of the time the algorithms favour highly reactive content, usually things that are controversial, shocking, or involve animals doing funny things. So if your trying to tell a quieter story, it’s hard to get and keep the attention of anyone in that sphere. The other tricky thing I think is to try not to be too swayed by current trends, but also keep evolving. It seems like sometimes there’s little new genres popping up and I always think… ah, maybe I should try making music more like that! Cause it sounds fresh and exciting but then it kinda bubbles for a bit and evolves into something else.. and it moves too quickly to keep up with so you’ve got to try to just carve your own path a bit.
Where is the best place to connect with you online? Discover more music?
I think youtube and Spotify/Apple are probably the easiest ways to get a sense of an artist’s larger body of work.. they are still focused on the long form content, so that’s my pick. Social media certainly gives another perspective, but at the end of the day if you’re a musician, people are (hopefully!) interested in you because of your music.
