With The Unwinding Hours on ‘hiatus’ (owing to Iain Cook’s side project, Chvrches, keeping him busy) vocalist Craig B has been quiet of late. Happily, he’s been gainfully occupied, working on his new solo project (if that’s the correct term, and it probably isn’t). Whatever, the debut album from the artist now known as A Mote Of Dust – after Carl Segan’s comment on the insignificance of mankind – truly merits the “long awaited” cliche, and has prompted this casual (re)introduction to Craig B…

Who?

Craig b – Guitar Vocals, Graeme Smillie – Piano/Keyboards

When?

I decided on the name in late 2014 so I guess that’s when the project began. Even though “project” sounds a bit vague, calling it a band or a solo project doesn’t feel right either. I had played a few acoustic shows supporting RM Hubbert and asked Graeme to help out on piano so when it came to recording the album, Graeme was the obvious choice to help out. It’s been a slow and steady process from a few gigs to recording and releasing the album.

Where?

I live in Sheffield, England now but lived in Glasgow for over fifteen years. The album was written and recorded in Scotland so whenever any website asks me to include my location I put Sheffield/Glasgow. Everyone notices my accent down here and I doubt I could claim to be a Yorkshire man so the dual location seems like the most honest answer.

What?

In not more than five words – Acoustic, quiet, melancholic and dark.
In more than five words – It’s primarily acoustic guitar, vocals, acoustic guitar and piano but there are some other layers thrown in and some additional surprises on the album that hopefully make it more substantial than a typical singer/songwriter album might sound. We recorded it with Paul Savage at Chem 19 and he is a fantastic producer who always pushes you in interesting directions. I hope these moments stand out.

Why?

While on tour in Aereogramme we used to have a reoccurring joke where we would ask “Why do we do this to ourselves”? It was funny to us because it always got asked when something bad had happened (like a badly attended show, van breaking down/catching fire, terrible album sales etc…) but the question was genuine. The first song on the Mote of Dust album is a conversation with myself about whether I should continue to make music. I think about walking away from it on an annual basis but the fact that I wrote the song made it clear that I still enjoyed writing and playing so writing the song became a wake up call to stop taking it all so seriously, to let go and enjoy it without any expectations. It was quite liberating.

A Mote of Dust’s self-titled debut album is now available as a download as well as on 12″ vinyl. Also available: a remix by Mogwai’s Dominic Aitchison. More on the ‘band’ on their Facebook page, or at www.amoteofdust.com