Arcana, the debut album from Vancouver musician/drag artist Dust Cwaine (aka David Cutting) is out now on all digital streaming platforms. The album was produced by Josh Eastman at Helm Studios, and also features production by PLEASEBENiCE on new single ‘Hearts in Atlantis’. Listen to the album here.
Arcana is a nostalgia pop navel gaze for grown theatre kids. Boasting nine tracks, the album balances drama and sweetness in a raw modern observance of queer identity. Dust Cwaine’s lyrics tell a story that is both relatable and new, while Josh Eastman’s guitar sets the pace and tone. With catchy hooks and a mid-tempo rhythm, Arcana brings you through the fire into the river.
“Arcana is about a familiar yet uncomfortable journey,” says Dust. “It’s about digging up what was lost and removing what no longer serves. It’s about falling in love with your friends and being an absolute mess. It’s about the passage of time revealing new, wonderful, and wretched things about you. The album took two years to make, but its form didn’t really show itself until I was in the darkest of spaces. The title track was like a healing talisman for me. When we finished that song, the rest of the album snowballed out of it. I don’t want to romanticize pain because I find it problematic. I will, however, say that I am grateful for art as a great healer. I hope when you hear this album that you find a nugget of yourself in the journey.”
The single that accompanies the release of Arcana is the pop rock anthem ‘Hearts in Atlantis’. The track offers a jolt of energy on the album, with drums that create urgency and a guitar that screeches across the sands of time. Inspired by the phenomenon of déjà vu and the concept of past lives, Dust lyrically leads this catchy song to the lost continent and back. It is Dust Cwaine at their most charming.
Dust explains: “While this song reads like a love song, it’s actually a song about friend love, which I think, as an aromantic person, is a superior love to romance. I wrote this song one afternoon while sitting with a close friend. I was thinking about the idea that there are external forces at play in our minds and bodies that lead to situations and people. I wanted to write a song that played as an acknowledgement of the cycles of time and esoteric concepts we use to explain some types of love and relationships. Belief is funny, and sometimes those little feelings can’t be ignored. I like the idea that we placed our hearts together in one place so that we can find each other and love each other in infinite arrangements. I really love the idea of loving the people I love forever.”
Arcana is available now on Spotify, Apple Music/iTunes, and other digital retailers and streaming services worldwide. For more info, please visit dustcwaine.ca.
