Just The Dust

When I started performing live in 2022, I wanted a simple ditty that was just a bit of fun, with a bit for audience participation. The poetic equivalent, if you like, of a We Will Rock You. Although more wordy, obviously.

Just The Dust was the answer. Something with a bit of vibe about it, a nice flow, and a very obvious place for people to join in – I’d say, “We’re just…” and they’d say, “The dust!” It kinda made up for scaring them with No Liars Were Harmed…

It was definitely a ditty. I’d started assembling it on the way home from The Boat Inn, Stoke Bruerne, after a rehearsal session with the band I was in at the time, followed by a practical session of drinking in the boaters’ bar. 

Someone had mentioned the funeral quote “unto dust you shall return” and I’d connected “just” with “dust” and written it down. Heading home, the pace of my footsteps provided a rhythm for the chant “We’re just the dust! We’re just the dust!” and then I remembered the concept of us all being made of stardust. The pints of the tragically discontinued New World ale and the flashing purple fairy lights of my boat in the distance provided the rest.

Just a ditty, I thought. Until I discovered it again and wondered if there was more to it. So I recorded a demo and wondered who to send it to. I’d recently discovered that my journalistic colleague Mike Astley-Brown (editor of the Guitar World group of websites) was in a band, so I thought, “Why not?” 

I’m glad to report he was up for it, because what happened next was quite amazing. Mike’s creativity resulted in a guitar piece I could never have imagined even wanting; and yet I knew it added magnificent width and depth to the words. In a very stirring sense he’d made a story about the size of universe FEEL like the sized of the universe.

And suddenly it wasn’t a ditty any more – it was an observation on all the value we can have, and why it’s worth pursuing ambitions, and everything in between. Just The Dust actually genuinely factually went viral. Other people have suggested why; but I don’t want to think about it. I don’t want to feel like I should repeat that specific creative endeavour. I don’t want to be someone who has a specific riff to use for the rest of forever.

But I wouldn’t mind so many people checking out my work in the future…

(BTW Mike’s band Maebe are worth a listen. I’m tempted to try writing lyrics for their inspiring instrumental soundscapes, but I’ve learned from previous efforts that – even though I’m a drummer – I struggle to work with a set beat.)

Story: Martin Kielty

Music: Michael Astley-Brown 

Video elements from Pexels – Pressmaster, T Honkamies, Nicola Narracci, Colin Jones, Rostislav Uzunov