Dust Cwaine wants to be your ’90’s Darling in their sweetly nostalgic new single and video — premiering exclusively on Tinnitist.
The lead single from the Vancouver artist’s upcoming LP Arcana, the track seamlessly and cleverly blends Dust’s youthful joy, wistful vocals and vintage pop-culture references (“Be kind, rewind”) with some vintage alt-rock production from Josh Eastman to paint a warm, welcoming portrait of days gone by. Crafted to feel like it belongs in the liminal space between a memory and our immediate reality, ’90’s Darling feels like a song you could have heard in a Zeller’s Diner on a trip with your grandma to pick up a VHS of Disney’s underrated animated movie musical Hercules in 1997.
“This song brings me back to my childhood, the things that distracted me from the world and shaped me,” Dust says. “It has a sense of longing for sillier times. I really wanted the lyrics to acknowledge the present moment uniquely. When I sing it, it feels like I’m singing into a time machine. Sonically it feels both new and familiar, which was a conscious effort by Josh Eastman, who produced this track. This song sits among an album of songs that are navel gazey. It’s one of many little jaunts to the past we take on the journey that is Arcana.”
Dust Cwaine (aka David Cutting) is a singer-songwriter and drag artist from
Vancouver. They are a Non-Binary Aromantic, known for their bright and earthy creativity. Dust’s art centers itself in the political nature of queer identity, evoking a sense of belonging and togetherness with their presence in live spaces.
Dust’s music draws inspiration from the alt-rock insurgence of the late ’90s and early 2000s, lyrically weaving earnestness with humour for an emotional familiarity that is immediately disarming. Their debut LP titled Arcana, set to be released Sept. 23, explores themes of fatness, sexuality, death, Aromanticism and sacrifice. A nostalgia-pop navel-gaze for grown theater kids, Arcana was produced in collaboration with Eastman at Helm Studios and features production from PLEASEBENiCE and Ashton. Also featured on the album is Calgary rapper Tea Fannie.
Watch ’90’s Darling above, check out more music from Dust Cwaine below, and find them at their website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
