Gold Dust by Gold Dust

Gold Dust’s self-titled debut full-length—the first solo release from Stephen Pierce of Kindling and Ampere—is deeply rooted in discovery, both personal and musical. The album is a confluence of dreamy folk rock and homespun psychedelia that celebrates the universal experience of finding something new in familiar places.

The origins of Gold Dust are tied to this sense of exploration. From the blistering hardcore of Ampere to the towering shoegaze of Kindling, much of Pierce’s work has thrived on sounds that are distorted and loud, a fact that might belie his passion for folk rock. “Psych rock and folk rock were the first detours I ever took from punk music,” the Easthampton, MA-based musician explains. “It never fails to amaze me just how much is out there to find, if you’re looking. I’ve been on this ‘deep dive’ for nearly two decades and I’m still finding out about records that blow my doors off.” Pierce’s interest in the genre spans the globe—from influential Japanese groups like Happy End, to UK cult heroes Richard and Linda Thompson—as well as levels of notoriety—from private press unknowns like Gary Higgins and Hill Andon, to legends like The Byrds or The Grateful Dead. His appetite for discovery is so unending that he’s even working on a book that catalogues international psych and folk rock from the ‘60s and ‘70s.

Pierce’s immersion in the genre eventually led to a desire to push his own music out of its volume-centric comfort zones. “I grew up learning to play guitar on Johnny Ramone and Kevin Shields, I love that kind of playing but it’s a completely different skill set than what’s being used in a lot of folk music,” Pierce says. “I was really impressed by acoustic guitar playing but I didn’t really know how to do it—it was like a different language. So I started trying to unlearn and relearn guitar.” He began teaching himself to fingerpick and play guitar in an unfamiliar way, and with new techniques came new songs. As the Gold Dust record began to take shape, Pierce started recording the songs piecemeal at home. “There’s a challenge to making something that’s literally just you,” he says. “There’s not a lot of smoke and mirrors. I’m not too versed in the art of recording so I approached it as more of a utilitarian thing to document the journey from idea to song.” He eventually shared the songs with engineer Justin Pizzoferrato (Dinosaur Jr, The Pixies, Speedy Ortiz), whose mixing and mastering brought out the warmth and depth of Pierce’s recordings without losing their homemade charms.

The result is an album with one foot planted in the moss of earthy folk and one foot stepping out into clouds of otherworldly psych. Gold Dust opens with the lush “Water St, 2am” before diving into “Oh Well,” a hazily inviting blend of winding guitars and layered vocals that introduce Pierce’s conversational approach to existential lyricism. “My aim was to make an honest record, and part of that honesty, in my mind, is looking straight into the void and reporting back,” he explains. “Obviously we’ve all been in a low place the past year and a half and that informs a lot of the record, but I guess one of the silver linings is this weird, bleak camaraderie in experiencing the same collective depression. We’re brought together in a strange way by trying to navigate this thing together and maybe that’s exposed a new sort of compassion or understanding.” Gold Dust may have been written and recorded in isolation but much of the album deals with one’s connectivity to the world around them. Songs like “Brookside Cemetery Blues” or “All’s Well That Ends” sound like J Spaceman accompanied by Crazy Horse, while standout track “Run Into Clouds” highlights the droning, intimate psychedelia that runs throughout the record. On the latter, Pierce describes a fluid attachment to reality. “Some days you feel of this world, some days you feel completely disconnected,” he says.

While rooted in Pierce’s obsessive knowledge and affection for ‘60s and ‘70s folk rock, Gold Dust’s debut has an identity that’s decidedly its own. The musician’s background in punk and shoegaze brings a DIY directness with atmosphere to spare, bending genre conventions and paying tribute to them at the same time. “To me, a lot of the stuff that’s really transcendent has roots in that long folk tradition, but also employs some other element,” he explains. “You can’t be too anchored to history.” It’s fitting, then, that Gold Dust feels like a contented walk through different influences, with Pierce taking the time to admire the sounds that he fell in love with, while still moving forward. After all—there’s always something new to discover.

--James Goodman--

An oven in self-cleaning mode

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