Buc-ee’s “petrol” stations and single-stitch tees: quintessential Texas culture, a summation reached after my interview with two accented foreigners from Newcastle, Australia.
Formed five years ago, the post-punk quintet dust released their debut album, Sky is Falling, last October. Since then, the album has earned critical applause throughout their earlier headlining United Kingdom/European tour, now continuing across the U.S. to support The Belair Lip Bombs and New York City’s noise rockers Laveda. Their only previous trip to the States ensued for an official 2024 South by Southwest Showcase on Austin’s infamous Dirty Sixth, but this tour promises to take them beyond the city’s notorious college-bar strip.
Six months after marinating with the release of their debut album, I sat down with dust’s two vocalists before their show at 29th Street Ballroom in Austin on April 19th to catch up on their American tour adventures and figure out what’s coming next.
Welcome back to Austin and to the US. How does it feel being back in a completely different context?
Justin Teale [Vocals & Guitar]: It’s been really, really, really cool, very challenging. Probably our most challenging tour. We knew it was going to be a big hurdle, but you never really know until you do it. It’s also gone quite quickly, but we’ve also been here for a long time. We’ve had some really big hurdles. Halfway through the tour, both bands, The Belair Lip Bombs and dust got really sick, so we had a big COVID problem. But the shows have been really cool. Going to all the cities has been amazing. It’s hard to see most of the cities when all you see is the venue, but you still get a lot of American culture. We’re ticking all our tourist boxes.
Gabriel Stove [Vocals & Guitar]: We pass through all of it, see it for a moment, and then we have to pack up and go to the hotel.
Teale: We went to Buc-ees yesterday.
What did you think?
Teale: I’m not going to lie, I was a little bit underwhelmed. I think because I’m at the far end of the American tour that I’ve already had a lot of the shock of things in America. But when I did see all the petrol stations, I was like, ‘Jesus Christ.’ When I went in there, half of it was just Buc-ees merch. We were there at 12am, so there wasn’t much hot food. Had a nice brisket burger.
Stove: I got some caramel beaver chips or whatever. Salted caramel beaver chips, which are really sweet at first and then it gets really salty. Crazy sensation.
Normally they have a mascot there. Did you see him?
Stove: We missed that. We were there pretty late at night.
Teale: Mascot’s gone to bed. The beaver’s gone to his burrow.
What is your opinion of America? How does it compare to where you’re from?
Teale: That’s a strong question [laughing].
Stove: It’s not what I was expecting. We came to Austin and that was during SXSW in 2024, and I think in my head, I had the idea that everywhere was going to be like that main strip in Austin. Just swarms of people and things going on.
Teale: Snakes.
Stove: Snakes. It’s actually been pretty chill in some areas, and I think the people have been really nice.
Teale: The people have been very, very nice.
Stove: I think there are certain ideas of the culture and the people from an Australian point of view, so it’s been nice to have a different perspective of America by being in it.
Teale: I guess we were never really going to meet Trump supporters, but going to these venues and meeting people at shows, you really meet some really- I guess when coming to America, that’s all you can think about; what America is run by right now. But then when you’re in the thick of it or in the cracks, you’re like, ‘Wow, there’s a lot of really beautiful people here.’
Have fans here been receptive and supportive of your music?
Stove: Yeah, massively. We’ve had a few new fans, I suppose.
Teale: Americans love to have conversations.
Stove: They’ve been very supportive, buying merch and records, and are keen to have a chat after a show.
Teale: Yeah, very engaged. Australians are, but they like to just have a quick chat.
Stove: They’re a bit standoffish. Especially at shows, people are doing their own thing. Whereas Americans seem to be more interested. I got a $20 tip from a guy after a show just for rocking, so that was nice.
You mentioned that it’s been challenging. I was talking with Laveda about how so many things had gone wrong for them. What have some of the challenges been for you?
Teale: Probably the COVID problem. I think it was either the flu or COVID, but Gabe and I were very lucky not to get it. The other three in the band were really, really unwell.
Stove: It floored Kye [Cherry; Drums] and Adam [Ridgway; Guitar & Saxophone] for a week and a half.
Teale: Liam [Smith; Bass] got through it pretty quickly.
Stove: Just the exposure to a new environment or something, and Harrison, the tour manager, got sick and then it started going around. We got two or three weeks into the tour before anyone started getting better. When people get sick, other people have to pick up the slack, I suppose.
Teale: We were working overtime.
Stove: But now everyone’s back and…
Teale: Getting hammered.
Stove: Yeah, we’ve decided that we’re going to get hammered every day until the end of the tour.
Teale: A bit of catching up to do.
My favorite bar is right next door, you should check it out.
Teale: Oh, really? Sick. Did you go to the market next door today?
No, but they do it every Sunday!
Teale: That was bananas. We have that in Australia, but that was definitely the biggest one I’ve ever been to.
Oh yeah. It’s a ton of resellers. Resell culture is very big here because of the bins- do you have Goodwill Bins in Australia?
Teale: Yeah, we’ve got Salvos and Vinnies. They’re our own second-hand shops.
Did you buy anything at the market?
Stove: I got this shirt [wearing].
Teale: I got a hoodie, and I got a shirt with a sheet of music, and there are cats climbing over the sheet of music. So that’s a win.
That’s awesome.
Your album has been out since October! How has the rollout process been since?
Teale: Been really good. It’s been really fun playing the new songs whenever we can, but we’re still at an early point in the band’s reception. It’s our first time in America touring, so we want to showcase all the music. The EP, some singles and the album. Ticking all the boxes. We did a UK tour and an Australian tour, which were really great. We went on tour with sombr. That was definitely a different experience. That was a cool box to tick off, like, teenage fandom? Not even- like teenage and very young girls just [mimicks fangirls screaming].
Stove: Screaming after every song he played. Screaming after every song that we played, which is very surprising. That definitely hasn’t been happening on this tour.
Teale: That was pretty funny. He was a nice guy. His band was really nice. We got on stage with him.
Stove: Yeah, it was the last show of the tour. It was in Sydney at Hordern Pavilion. They played the last song five times, and on the fifth time we all got on stage and danced around, which was pretty crazy.
Teale: But yeah, the rollout’s been really fun. Really cool opportunities, like being here. We’re about to go home and write our second album now, which is really exciting.
Stove: We’ll do some one-off shows when we get back. Then I think we’ll probably have a little bit of a break, write another record.
Did you see that sombr announced a tour with Interpol and The Hellp?
Both: Yeah!
I’ve only seen people hating on it.
Teale: I have heard he’s copped a lot of shit. I remember when that tour was happening, he was getting a lot of shit, a lot of backlash.
Stove: Why is he getting shit for that tour?
I think just because his sound is so different from the two others, and it’s a very different crowd that doesn’t mix.
Stove: We supported Interpol in the UK and Europe in 2024, and that was a lot of older dudes that are big fans. Some young people, but a lot of people who were obviously big fans of Interpol in the 90s, so I can imagine sombr and that Interpol crowd in the same room probably wouldn’t mingle well.
Teale: To me, weirdly, it made sense. I’ve met a lot of people who could be in the same fan demographic of really liking Interpol, especially that first album, and then liking sombr. Same with The Hellp. I feel like the people who are into sombr might slowly come to like their music, then get into alternative music and find Interpol and The Hellp. I think it might cross over well. I guess you never know.
Do you feel like your album is very representative of who you all are as a band right now?
Stove: Yeah. It’s very different from the EP. The EP was a lot louder than this record. Although I think there were some songs on the record that encapsulated the older sound, I suppose. We were definitely experimenting with quieter, more arranged songs. Really trying songwriting styles from different genres of music and branching out a bit. I think we weren’t pigeonholing our sound, but we were definitely listening to a lot of bands in the same genre. It’s helpful to think outside the box a bit and find other influences. I’d been listening to a lot of Latin music and trying to incorporate moments of that. I know that Kye definitely branches out in drumming, incorporating different styles and putting it all in a blender.
Teale: Especially that album, it definitely has its sound, and you can hear what it is, but it juggles heaps of different genres, which was what we wanted to do. Try to tick off as many as we could.
I read that Sky is Falling came from the idea of post-tour blues. How are you feeling now that this tour is coming to an end?
Teale: Probably going to get that feeling again.
Stove: It’s the uncertainty of not knowing what’s going to happen next. I think we’ve learned, just with our setup, that you can’t really think too far ahead. Because we haven’t written another record, we don’t know when we’ll be touring next, so having that direction and certainty of what’s gonna happen to the band is always a pretty big fear. For the past four years, we’ve probably played more shows than we ever have. Not knowing what’s gonna happen after that sometimes gets you down, and that was a big theme on the album. We were going so quickly, and then you go home to nothing. You’re trying to figure out your purpose all the time. We’re all in fortunate positions, being able to tour is fucking awesome, and we just want to keep doing it. When that’s not there, you get concerned, and it gets a bit existential.
Teale: Lyrically, it was going off a lot of feelings of your own personal crazies. The things that you think about that really affect you mentally, that was what I was getting from it. Very little specific things like regret and guilt, all that stuff.
Stove: Just the joys of being human.
As you’re in the earlier stages of your second album, do you already know what direction you want to take it? Whether that’s evolving towards something new or finding on the sound of this past release.
Teale: We’ve been a band for a little while now, so we’re at a very strong point, and a bit older now. We’re not as naive and sensitive. And we all have been in the band for so long that we know what the band is, so it’s easy to pump out songs. Definitely a more concise album. We wanted to try more concise songs and experiment in the world of dance. Whether that just be, if the song makes me want to dance. If it makes me want to move, then that’s right. That’s the music we all really like. And exploring with rhythms.
Are there themes/things you plan to experiment with that you didn’t get to on the first?
Stove: Maybe not in terms of the content of things, but I want to explore writing melodies more, like vocal melodies. Making things simpler and maybe wanting to sing more. Some of the songs I’m trying to cram too much into.
Teale: I want to try to write love songs. I’m going to try love songs. Use the word ‘baby,’ I haven’t done that yet, so that’s on the next album.
That’ll be the connection to the sombr fans.
Teale: Exactly. He’s got some very crazy love songs.
Stove: It would be interesting to pair a punky-dancy sound with simple lyrics. I think many post-punk bands explore introspection and existentialism.
Teale: Maybe this one, less overthinking and just go with the flow a bit more.
Do you feel any pressure with a second album now that you have one out?
Teale: Pressure to get it out because we want to keep things moving. No pressure of worrying about what people would think. Obviously, you care whether people like it or not, but I don’t think that has scared us too much. The only pressure is the pressure on ourselves to keep making music and keep the drive going.
Stove: When you don’t have a tour coming up, it can be pretty easy to start looking at your own personal shit in life and thinking about that. I think because when you’re on tour, you don’t neglect that stuff, but you don’t necessarily have to think about it as much. A lot of it is self-driven, and we have to do it ourselves and keep the momentum going. We’ve been a band for five years. Getting into your late 20s, things in life become more pressing, and keeping things going becomes more challenging.
What are you hoping the rest of 2026 looks like for you as a band?
Teale: Probably more touring. We’re about to come back over here pretty soon, and then some more touring in Australia.
Stove: I think because we’re coming to the end of the cycle, we’re just sitting with that for a bit.