Amateur Theater: The Podcast

The final track of this collection wraps up the three-album trilogy by exploring the conflicting concepts of mortality; between faith and doubt, the certainty of death and the instinct for survival, the balance of the duality of nature, and ultimately what tips the scales in the legacy we leave behind.

Common themes like love, loss, and survival are all foundations of great songwriting. In this installment, we discover how a daredevil circus act can represent the full range of creation.

Dustin attempts to explain how this particular song illustrates his sadistic tendency to make his characters suffer as much as possible in the pursuit of redemption.

"It's an Amateur Theater..." in this song about the artificial products of premature achievement.

Dustin discusses the importance of binary symbolism in cocktail etiquette.

How the ghosts of Gruene Hall became an inspiration for this song of hope and rebuilding.

An existential crises through the long dark night of the soul.

This is a song about a portion of the novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, by author Jonathan Safran Foer. It talks about loss and grief and trauma through the lens of someone who can't actually talk themself.

Dustin discusses founding the non-profit organization, Soldier Songs and Voices, and the realizations which lead to this song; written with Jeremiah Nelson and John Fullbright.

The Corruption of Power, the Ivory Tower Syndrome, and The Sword of Damocles.

The strange story of writing the haunted character in the second song of the album.

Dustin talks about the tall-tale he spins in the opening track, and discusses the idea for his three-part collection of albums, culminating with Amateur Theater.