"Soul Dust" is a reflection of what our songs are about and what our music is intended to do. The songs are about life and all the ups and downs that go along with being a part of humanity. It is about the dust of this world that settles and accumulates on our souls and sometimes tarnishes our lives and buries our hopes.
As someone once put it "Music washes away from our souls the dust of everyday life." ...That's exactly what we try to do with our music. We try to blow that dust away.
And that's why we call ourselves "Soul Dust".

It has changed the way people acquire music and has threatened major label profits. It has given the opportunity for indie bands to be heard. It has given some power to the struggling artist who all too often gets passed by. It has also pissed Metallica and others off immensely.

Of course. Providing we retain creative control of our music. We aren't willing to sell out our creativity for a contract though. If we have to circumvent the labels altogether and market this ourselves, then that would be preferable to losing creative control.

The band has been together for about 8 years now. The band consists of guitarist Andre "Dre" Bourget, Vocalist Rev (Roy Van Den Brook), Bassist Hilton Hartwell and A.J. Badali on drums and percussion. All members have played in their fair share of cover and original bands during the course of their musical careers and eventually needed to do something more creative. Something more gratifying. Who has ever played covers for any number of years and can still even listen to certain songs like "cocaine" and "brown-eyed girl"? Or what about those poor souls unfortunate enough to have songs like "Roxy Roller" appear on their set lists for years...is it any wonder they hung up their instruments and became accountants?

Point is, playing other people's songs over and over (& over & over...etc.) can make you physically ill after awhile! You can easily lose your taste for playing altogether. Because you aren't playing for you and you aren't playing anything that was forged from the depths of your soul.

Anyway, (back to the band) Dre and Hilton have been playing together since 1998, starting off in a couple of cover bands together and gradually shifting to original compositions.

Soul Dust has had a number of singers come and go over the years. But none, though some were very talented, seemed to spark any long lasting chemistry with the band.


After a long search, Soul Dust finally hooked up with Vancouver rock scene veteran Myk Shaflik and the magic was born. Myk's soulful and emotional vocals was exactly what SD's music needed. Myk added not only vocals to the songs...but also emotion and pure energy. He made every song a part of him and it is apparent in his delivery...especially in tracks like 'Resurrect Me' and 'Salvation'. Myk is just simply the perfect front man for Soul Dust and it didn't take more than one session for everyone to realize this! Soul Dust recorded several songs with Myk over a few years time and had only a couple of live appearances together. The material produced from that era with Myk on vocals can be found here on SOUNDCLICK and are available as FREE downloads for only a short time. They will be remixed and mastered and offered for sale at some point. There are some amazing performances from Myk on these songs.

But unfortunately, Myk's committment to Soul Dust wasn't very solid and was eventually outweighed by his committments to his own musical projects, Catapult and Tarnish by Grey. In 2007 Myk and Soul Dust parted ways, marking the end of a great collaboration between the band and Myk Shaflik.

In late 2007, Soul Dust found their replacement for Myk...not an easy task. But fate brought singer Rev (Roy Van Den Brook) into the picture and when Dre and Hilton heard Rev's performances with former band 24 Unity, they were completely blown away and knew right away they had found their new lead singer. Rev and Myk are completely different singers, so a slight change of musical direction was in order to match the band's overall sound to Rev's vocal style. The result is a fresh, new and powerful sound for Soul Dust that all the band members are very excited about. Rev's incredible vocal range and the pure soul of his performances have breathed new life into the SD project!

In October 2008 Soul Dust added A.J. Badali on drums and percussion to the line-up. A.J.'s intense grooves and immense chops have greatly added to the sound and 'tightness' of the band. The chemistry between all members was instant and amazing. Great new sounds to follow!!

Bassist Hilton Hartwell owns Soundworks studios in Langley, BC and that's where the band rehearses, creates and records all of Soul Dust's music.

The songs on this site are our gift of music to you..."Music for the soul!"

Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Alice in Chains, S.T.P., Audioslave, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, the Allman Bro.s, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Chick Corea, Miles Davis, Robert Johnson, Muddy waters, Deep Purple, G n R, Stevie Ray Vauhan, Crosby Stills Nash & Young.... aaahh! There's so many! Much too many to start listing. Let's just say ...Just about anything that GROOVES and is well done, regardless of genre, will influence us.

We love Vancouver BC!! And Mexico!

Hilton - uses Ernie ball (Musicman), G&L and Fender basses, Eden amplification.

Dre - uses Gibson, Fender, Godin, Larrivee and Taylor guitars. He uses Soldano, Fuchs and Koch amps.

Rev will sing through just about anything and make it sound good!

AJ uses Ayotte drums.

We realize our songs are of varied styles. This sometimes confuses people and they ask "Well, what are you? Rock? Hard rock? Southern rock? Blues...what?" The answer is: we don't really care to label ourselves and restrict our creativity. We are not what you might call one-dimensional in our approach to songwriting. We believe that music should be a canvas for you to create whatever your soul needs to release. That may come out with a twist of jazz, bluegrass, ragtime or country. Whatever happened to bands like Led Zeppelin that used to explore all types of musical genres? Why do bands today seem to gravitate towards "formulas" and status quos?

Because of $$$$, that's why. Because formulas are perfect for this fast-paced, ever-changing world of ours where no one has much time to relax.
Formulas are quickly digested and they taste good. They also often have no nutritional value for the soul or the mind. They are designed to sell quickly and make $$$$. Lots of $$$$! Comparable to the fast-food industry in many ways, when you stop to look at it for what it is.
Formulas also explain why no bands have any real staying power anymore. Many bands are hot today and cold, distant memories tomorrow. That's because people eventually get sick of the same taste and move on to another tasty little "formula".

It's time to let the many musical influences of this world back into modern rock music. Time to enrich our minds and expand our horizons. Time to brush off the dust and put the soul back into the music we listen to.

'Nuff said.

Peace.