Amber Dust

Amber Dust is a duo from southern New Hampshire. official website: www.amberdustmusic.com myspace: www.myspace.com/amberdustmusic Band Members: Jesse Nickerson - Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Keyboards, and Mandolin Shayne Greene - Bass, Banjo, Electric Guitar previous contributors: Mike Harvey - piano, keyboards, synthesizers ( on "Without Windows") A.J Piga - pedal steel guitar (on "Good Things, Bad Timing")

Amber Dust is a duo from southern New Hampshire. official website: www.amberdustmusic.com myspace: www.myspace.com/amberdustmusic Band Members: Jesse Nickerson - Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Keyboards, and Mandolin Shayne Greene - Bass, Banjo, Electric Guitar previous contributors: Mike Harvey - piano, keyboards, synthesizers ( on "Without Windows") A.J Piga - pedal steel guitar (on "Good Things, Bad Timing") Amber Dust was formed in April of 2005. For the next several months, the band rehearsed and worked on bits of songs, in hopes of understanding the direction that was to be taken. A few drummers were present occasionally, but it never really worked out.

The same could be said for the few other musicians that were to sit in on rehearsal over the next few months. In the end, the best fit, and best musical communication was between the three original members. The recording sessions for what would later become "without windows" began in December of 2005. Due to the fact that there were only 3 members of Amber Dust, rehearsing the songs with all possible instruments was completely impossible.

Most of the songs only contained a handful of ideas before they were put to tape. It was only through dilligent retracking that most of the tracks began to take shape. Each member would contribute a track on their primary instrument at first, and then 2-4 tracks after that. Recording was put on hold in April of 2005, when Amber Dust played their first and only show.

A benefit show, where the songs were played in their basic format with 3 members. Recording continued until late October of 2006, followed by a few weeks worth of re-mixing, compiling of artwork, and website updates. In all, about 18 tracks were recorded. "without windows" was mastered by Jim Bob Aiken, who also mastered the Will Oldham tribute album "I am a cold rock, I am dull grass", and Travel By Sea's "shadows rise".

The album was released on November 30th, 2005. Since the release, the album was voted #33 in the Altcountrytab.ca Gambler Awards. Amber Dust took December and most of January to relax and regroup. During this time, due to a change in location almost 2 hours away, Mike Harvey felt it was best to leave the band.

There were no hard feelings, and the rest of Amber Dust decided to stick to 2 members and leave the primary piano spot open, should Mike ever decide to return at a later date. Work on the follow up to "without windows" began in March of 2007. After working on new songs, it became apparent that the EP "Good Things, Bad Timing" would be the first release to come from the recording sessions. In early 2008, the band handpicked 7 songs out of the many that were recorded, and on April 15th, 2008, the EP was released.

The decision to work towards a somewhat traditional alt-country EP came after a guest musician A.J Piga recorded several pedal steel tracks for the songs. The band was so thrilled with the results, that the songs for the EP were picked based on the direction that things seemed to be going. "Good Things, Bad Timing" featured 5 brand new tracks, as well as 2 tracks that were re-recorded versions of songs from the "Without Windows" sessions. The EP was self recorded by the band, and mixed by Jesse Nickerson.

The mastering was performed by Jim Bob Aiken, just as it was on the debut LP. All artwork and photography for the album was done by Shayne Greene. The EP was released in zip file format for free on the bands official website. Amber Dust also continued recording for the full length LP, due out sometime in the early months of 2010.

The band began working on an original film score for a film directed by Jeremy Collins called "The Moon Under Glass". For several months during 2009, the instrumental score was written and recorded by Jesse and Shayne, also joined by Michael Palmer for this particular project. On February 19th 2010, the score was released in zip format on the band's official website. Like all previous releases, the download is available for free, and contains digital artwork that includes a cover, track list, and information page. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL..