Introducing #123 - Dust In The Sunlight
Let us introduce you to Dust In The Sunlight, the creation of singer-songwriters Billy Wright and Annie Rew Shaw - who met by chance while recording backing vocals for Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly in his studio. They have just released their debut track - self titled ‘Dust In The Sunlight’, they duo took a moment to talk to us about how the band came together.
So, how did you meet? What made you want to create music together?
A: We met in August 2017 at Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly’s studio in Southend. We’d each been individually invited to come and record backing vocals on his new album. When we started singing and harmonising there was a lightbulb moment of realising how well our voice melded together...
B: We approach songs from different directions. But when we work on them together, it makes a lot of sense.
A: Yeah, it feels pretty effortless writing together - when one of us is stuck on something, the other brings something to the table.
What is the meaning behind the band’s name - ‘Dust In The Sunlight’?
B: ‘Dust In The Sunlight’ was the name of one of the first songs that we wrote together and we both loved the imagery of the title. It’s an unusual name for a band but I think that’s why it works. It makes you think of an image, and our music provides the backdrop.
A: It’s also kind of mystic - something that you know is there but isn’t quite tangible.
Your debut track is out now, can you tell us what it is about?
B: We wrote that in a warehouse project that Annie was living in in Manor House, North London. We were experimenting with our voices, trying out overlapped vocals and leaving lots of space in the chorus. The song really came into its own once we started working on it in the studio with our producer Aviv Cohen.
The song is about changing parts of your personality in order to make someone stay with you. This usually comes from a place of insecurity and not valuing yourself enough.
What musical influences do you both share that help create your sound?
A: We’re both big fans artists like Elliott Smith and Sufjan Stevens, and also really admire songwriters like Nick Cave, Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen. The storytelling element of songwriting is really important to both of us.
In terms of shaping our sound, we built the songs up with electronic elements and atmospheric soundscapes to add texture and depth. Ultimately, I think the thread that runs through all of our music is our voices.
You have signed to Project Melody, how did that come about?
B: We were put in touch with Andrew Radix (Project Melody head honcho), through a mutual friend that I met during the Grenfell Tower clean up effort back in 2017.
Tyson Joseph knew how obsessed with music both of us were and sent Andrew our E.P.
Pretty much straight afterwards, Andrew came to our first acoustic show in July 2019 and we started the conversation about releasing music together.
It’s still very early in our career, but Andrew shares a lot of our passion for creating music with freedom and not chasing trends.
Now the debut track is out there, what next?
A: We’ve got a brilliant music video for the first single that we filmed in Berlin last year coming out soon - really excited to share that.
B: After that we’ve got our second single “Strangest Places”, and then our first E.P at the end of the summer. It’s just the beginning!