of professionalism to the band having played as part of Sting's backing band. Stu Haikney replaced the band's long time drummer, Iain Copeland who left in 2010. Though Copeland's departure "left a big hole to fill", the inaugural run-through that the band had with Haikney left the band surprised to see that he had "written everything out" and thus he counted the band in and "off [they went]." Tickell's affinity with technology had already been used to great effect on the band's live performances and got "completely immersed" when it came to recording Dust. Tickell was noted for his experimental fiddle techniques, having been noted that he could not "stop buying effect pedals", but on the album, himself and producer Calum MacLean "got into recording things", with Tickell playing many individual notes on the fiddle and assigning each to a channel on the desk, followed by MacLean playing the string parts using the faders on the desk. The final takes of the album were recorded at Cumbernauld College. The band described their experience there as about taking them out their comfort zone and "having to work really hard." The band also asked the students to dress up in laboratory coats to look the part, but they were "also fast to learn and always willing to be helpful." The band enjoyed working the students and picked four of them to take part in the engineering process. During the band's stay at the college, MacLean kept tabs on "everything that was going on." Each track was assigned a sheet where all the work that had been done to that track had been logged, so by looking at the sheet it was possible to see how far along the track had been developed. Members were not allowed to work on a track unless they had the sheet, so the sheets were "flying round all the different studios." Music The band took a new direction with the album, and as Folk Radio described it, "there were many new approaches on the album which set it apart from their other work. Some were very original, not just down to new studio techniques but also doing final takes in the studios of Cumbernauld College." The band "wanted to bring a bit more of the live feel to the album and that [listeners] could also really hear the band playing". The album's sound was described by Alex