Noble Dust
Boston indie band Noble Dust recently released their first full length CD, And The Tide Rises, and it is furthering their bond with old fans while serving as a calling card to an ever growing fan base. Having started out two years ago, Noble Dust has already played in Boston with many of the city’s notable bands. Singer Emily Cunningham explained how they got around.
“Boston is just such a small music community. It’s really wonderful,” Cunningham said. “We love to go out and support music and it’s easy to meet people and to form friendships. We’ve been lucky to play with some wonderful local bands.”
Cunningham said the creation of Noble Dust was a process that took several years.
“We’ve been playing together in one form or another since high school,” she said. “We actually started out as a Ska band. We’ve evolved from there,” Cunningham said. “We were all interested in collaborative songwriting. Some of us studied music in school. Others are just passionate about music.”
Noble Dust, taking a walk
Cunningham and her band mates enjoying bringing together different elements of music to fill out what they consider to be their signature progressive sound. The band’s quirky lyrics, eerily delivered by singer Emily Cunningham and her unique timbre, create poetic images in their listeners’ minds. Their story songs play out amidst a sounds cape of Pink Floydian guitars and keyboards, classical and modern trumpet, and unusual percussion patterns. Noble Dust began playing out and recording under the name San Lorenzo until they found out that there were at least two other bands with the name San Lorenzo that kept coming up in Google searches. One had been defunct since the early 2000’s. The other is located on the west coast.
“We switched to Noble Dust which is actually the name of our first EP,” she said. “It actually comes from a line in Hamlet. He’s talking about the inevitable death of great men and poor men and in the end it doesn’t matter because in the end we’re all just dust. We really liked that meaning behind that and the ascetic, and it kind of fits our style and sound so switched to that name.”
The sounds on the new debut CD were inspired by their desire to be a folk band in their story telling approach to songwriting while adding other flavors to their musical recipe. “To support that we try to bring in elements of other styles of music including classical and just other genres and textures that help us paint a better picture of the backdrop for the story we’re trying to tell.”
Noble Dust
The singer also said that the album is loosely based around the theme of the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem “The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls.”
“To me,” Cunningham began, “the poem is a reminder of how people move through the world absorbed in their own tasks and trying to make themselves busy in order to have a purpose, but ultimately the universe doesn’t care or pay attention, no matter what we do, the tide rises and falls, and once we realize that, it’s both beautiful and terrifying to be so small and to be a part of something so grand.”
One of the most striking songs on And The Tide Rises is titled “Where I Left You,” a rocked up number brimming with horns and peppy drums. “We all kind of co-wrote that song over a long period of time,” Cunningham said. “I had to get some input from the horn players and the drummer on that one.” Cunningham continued with “the song centers around longing and loss. The instrumental section is a call and response between a mother and child.”
Another of their songs, “Bricklayer,” finds Cunningham swagger in slow and cool and when she pauses her vocal, the horns blows more loudly than the vocal hit. The song structure was inspired by an image Cunningham had in her head of “people building a cathedral that was bigger than themselves and they’d never see the completion of it.
“They were building it for future generations,”. she said. “The idea with that song was to have lots of instrumental layers and to have echoey vocals in the beginning to signify that the voices of the people that are there in the present and in the past and just have a chorus of the ancestors and the people who will come after them. So, it starts a little blustery and ghostly and builds into something stronger.”
Noble Dust album cover And The Tide Rises
“Bricklayer” features a lot of color from the guitar of Matt Thomlin who left the band to move to Pennsylvania after a lengthy stint in Noble Dust. Another song, “Witness,” finds Thomlin playing a screamy lead guitar while the guitar and the other instruments create a feeling of dread and unease to match its theme.
Tying all of the songs together is Cunningham’s unique vocal timbre. She’s not affected. “That’s just how it sounds,” she said. Cunningham receives as much feedback for the horns, the keys, or the band’s unique percussion style. “I think it varies based on the craft,” she said.
Noble Dust has been traveling in the right circles. Cunningham and her band mates received a grant from Club Passim’s Iguana Music Fund to finance the recording of the debut CD and had their release show at the well respected venue. Noble Dust received the grant after filling out an open application the club sends out every year.
“We were lucky enough to get the grant and they’ve been wonderfully supportive,” Cunningham said “They financed a big portion of the album so we’re very grateful to them We played there a few times. We were part of the (Club Passim events) Campfire Festival which is were made a lot of good friends and connections. It’s over Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends. They will bring in different acts that are up and coming and bask in the New England vibe.”
Aside from vocals Cunningham also plays guitar. Currently in the band with her is trumpet player and singer Lindsey Cook who is classically trained on trumpet and voice. Trombonist Evan Spetrini is also competent on voice, bass, and trumpet and can write complimentary lines; keyboardist Dave Smith is an arranger who can fill out Noble Dust‘s sounds; percussionist Matt Futterlieb rounds out the band with his unique patterns. Cellist Kaitlin Crull is the newest member. She is versatility in style (influences from classical and new music) and possesses the uncanny ability to jump between low end and melodic voice. Cunningham, who brings the song skeletons to the band, couldn’t praise her fellows enough:
Noble Dust live
“I think that Dave is great at arranging and throwing out the sounds. He’s a keyboard player, Cunningham said. “Lindsay is a classically trained trumpet player. She brings this very unique, beautiful trumpet sound to the band. Even is an all around utility person. He’s played bass on some songs. He plays trombone. He also sings. He’s also good at arranging or finding the right part to fit in a given song. Kaitlin just joined. She’s been wonderful. She just finished her graduate degree at Longy School of Music in cello. Matt, the drummer, has a really unique, different style. It’s difficult to find a ‘soft drummer’ to accompany folk music.”
Calling their music “folk” is a bit of the stretch. Cunningham’s quirky voice, the colorful guitars, eerie keyboard sounds, and other unusual touches might remind a listener of every artist from The Motels to Pink Floyd to maybe even R&B legends. Noble Dust could probably open for just about any kind of band.
“We do try to draw on different genres and different types of orchestrations,” she said. “Our bass player that just left was a huge Pink Floyd fan, and I think everyone in the band likes them.”
Like all successful bands, Noble Dust has ever further plans. From here, Cunningham’s next step for Noble Dust is writing for the next album while touring around New England.
“We’d love to bring our music to as many towns and cities around the country that we can and create new songs to share.”
