I was lucky enough recently to
chat to Duke Special in the middle of his tour of Ireland and I asked him what
we can expect from his imminent album and his forthcoming tour when it hits our
shores later this month.
“The album is called Look Out Machines! and it’s a little bit
of venturing into new territory for me, there’s a lot of synthetic drums and
synthetic strings and a lot of beats; it’s a very rhythmic album. Kind of
tipping the hat to 80s influences like Depeche Mode and The Blue Nile so
there’s influences on there that haven’t really featured so much on previous
records. The songs are very direct on this record, it’s not as concept-based an
album, the songs are there to be whatever they want to be. The tour is
primarily solo on this occasion, with collaborations with guest artists.
There’ll be still plenty happening, I’ll be mixing it up a lot.
The production on the album is by
Dave Izumi and Phil Wilkinson, both are people I’ve worked with many times
before, Phil drums live with me a lot. There’ll be a full band in London,
Dublin and Belfast, the other dates in March and April will be solo with three
different guests at various points, there’s Paul Cook and The Chronicles, She
Makes War and the inventor Thomas Truax.
I’ve worked with Gary Clark on this
album on the song ‘Look Out Machines!’ He was someone I wanted to write with
and it was like a blind date, just going round to his house and meeting him and
hoping that there was something we’d have in common that he’d want to talk
about. He just started playing keyboard and I started scribbling down lyrics and
we came up with ‘Look Out Machines!’ And another song actually, which may see
the light of day sometime called ‘Tennessee Williams is Breaking my Heart’.”
I then quizzed Duke about his
well-known love of old audio equipment and his involvement with the Shellac
Collective.
“Shellac Collective is an
umbrella of enthusiasts of all things gramophone and 78 rpm. It’s headed up by
a guy called Greg Butler, ‘Greg’s Greats’ is his website and he’s an amazing
man, the most knowledgeable person I know, and has the biggest knowledge of
recorded music and he’s probably got the biggest record collection I’ve ever
seen. He has about 150,000 78s and The Collective is basically just like-minded
people who come together for different events such as Camp Bestival and I met
DJ 78 probably around 7 or 8 years ago. He’s from Norwich and I know he’s been
using a gramophone on stage and he offered to come and spin some shellacs in
the foyer of the arts centre I was playing in before I went on stage. That’s
where we first met and then gradually we’ve got to know each other and then
I’ve been roped in to playing the festivals, DJing with him and I’ve set up a
gramophone club in Belfast.
I think that there’s something
about the aesthetic, the attitude, the passion.”
When I turned to the inevitable
question of musical heroes there was none of the hesitation I’ve grown used to
with most artists, just a swift delivery of a very impressive list.
“The Beatles, Elliott Smith,
Magnetic Fields, Tom Waits, Ivor Cutler. I wanna be him when I grow up!” When I
point out that this seems to be a fine ambition my comment is met with a prompt
reply “I could do worse!”
Duke continued to tell me that Look Out Machines! will also be
available on wax cylinder.
“Yes, it’s a very, very limited
run we’re doing. It’s released obviously digitally, on CD, vinyl and wax
cylinder. It’s pretty expensive just because the process is quite expensive;
it’s available on Pledge, through Pledge Music. There’s only a couple
available, I’d say the demand is going to be quite limited. I’ve made 78s
before and vinyl and sometimes people buy stuff like that even if they haven’t
got a player, but it’s definitely easier finding a record player than a wax
cylinder player these days. Maybe this will encourage a renaissance!”
First published by NE:MM (now at nemm.org.uk) and reproduced with kind permission.
The Great Cassette Experiment - The Joy Of Cassettes
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