Brett Stepanik
The players on Future Dust (from left): Ben Brooks, Emili Earhart, Bobby Hussy, Tyler Spatz.
Bobby Hussy is one of Madison’s busiest musicians. Best known as the leader of guitar-burning garage rockers The Hussy, he’s also a member of Fire Heads and TIT, and has occupied the producer’s chair for a number of local bands, including Wood Chickens and Proud Parents.
But on Jan. 13 at High Noon Saloon, Hussy is unveiling a more personal project — Future Dust, a debut album from the synth-laden darkwave project Cave Curse. The album was released last June on Bandcamp, but the event celebrates the physical release.
The name references the house, called “The Cave,” where Hussy stayed while creating this music.
“I needed to get out of a living situation, so I actually crashed on a futon in a hallway there. I had my little hallway space,” says Hussy. “The bathroom was right across from my bed.”
It was at The Cave that Hussy began experimenting with synthesizers, and the result was Stoned and Dethroned, a 7-inch that was released in 2015.
“I made the 7-inch, and I thought I’d never do anything with it!” says Hussy. “I told the label (Volar Records) I wasn’t really going to play or anything. And then I met Will.”
Hussy is referring to drummer Will Gunnerson, a Kansas native. Initially, Hussy tried to coax his friend into joining Wood Chickens, which was looking for a drummer at the time. But Gunnerson passed, citing ambivalence about touring.That made him a perfect fit for Cave Curse, which Hussy described as being, in its infancy, a “bedroom-only” project.
“I said, ‘Will, why don’t we jam? I’m really not looking to tour with (Cave Curse). I’m looking to play maybe a couple shows a year.’ Just have fun with it and do something different.”
The result of those jam sessions is Future Dust, a concise, melancholic album that marks Hussy’s most personal release since his mother’s death in a car accident in 2015. Raw emotion is on full display in Future Dust’s nine tracks.
And though Gunnerson has since moved back to Kansas, Cave Curse lives on as a four-piece, rounded out by Ben Brooks on drums, Tyler Spatz on bass, and Emili Earhart on synths. The new project offers Hussy a chance to step outside of The Hussy’s well-oiled system, which is an equal creative split between Hussy and drummer/songwriter Heather Sawyer.
“We’re going to record a record where it’s the four of us,” Hussy says. “I think we’re going to get back more to that collaborative sense. So this is actually a long time coming, a collaborative band for me. You gotta shake the box up a little.”
Cave Curse will debut the Future Dust LP as part of a showcase hosted by local cassette label Rare Plant. They will be joined by Cult of Lip, Tippy, Sundial Mottos and Proud Parents.
