Dustlot

The band Dustlot was formed in the small farm town of Avon, SD during the early winter months of 2001, by mutual friends Kyle Ridgway and Jason Krull, who were at the time, writing and recording demo material in their rural studio for what would become the first full-length Dustlot album, "Inferno Heaven".

"We didn't start out with the notion of writing songs with a pop-structure in mind at all at the beginning of this," explains Krull. "It was an experiement, mostly just messing around with soft-synths, making sound collages in my bedroom studio on an early version of Cakewalk. Then a lot of those sounds ended up being perfect for certain melodies on that first album."

Through mutual friendships that same winter, Krull and Ridgway recruited bassist Mike Pelton and drummer Nathan Weber to help mold the material and create new music as a four-piece band. The four were heavily influenced individually and collectively by endless forms of both rock and electronic music, as well as orchestral arrangements in classical compositions.

The band released their debut album "Inferno Heaven" independently in the fall of 2003, to much local critcal acclaim. By coming from such a rural enviornment, they cultivated a devoted following and their live shows became an interesting attraction to those who weren't used to local bands experimenting with such odd melodies and soundscapes, as opposed to playing cover songs in bars on weekends.

"It's always been a great thing in this band that we feel the freedom to not exploit any certain movement or genre going on," drummer/programmer Nathan Weber explains. "Living in South Dakota, that stuff tends to evade you anyhow. In that enviornment, it's easier to just write whatever moves you and forget about everything else."

The band relocated to Sioux Falls, SD in 2004 to continue and expand upon their artistic vision and to play bigger shows, as well as begin writing material for their next album. Krull built a recording studio (Synectix Studios) in his new home, and he and Weber, with new visions and tools, began experimenting even further with their writing, working very meticulously on their next record.

By late 2006, Pelton had left the group, and the band brought in a friend by the name of Casey Hanson to perform bass guitar duties.
The new lineup intact, the record finished, and with an evolved stage show and sound, the group are set to release their sophmore album "From The Floor" in 2008.

"This record took a long time to put together but it taught us a lot," says Krull. "We wanted to write songs this time that we're just really 'felt'." For the band, that meant taking a lot of time analyzing the depth of their own sounds and bringing the elements they felt most crucial to the forefront of the mix.

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-Dustlot