Zeitgeist moment for Peking Duk
 |
|
Mystery man … Australian dance duo Peking Duk are staying silent on their Say My Name vocalist. Picture: Supplied
Source: Supplied
NAUGHTY but nice dance duo Peking Duk are doing the shout outs.
They love Brisbane producer/vocalist wunderkind Joy and 17-year-old Melbourne rapper Baro. They gush like fanboys over how much they respect Tame Impala and its creative controller Kevin Parker.
“There’s beef almost everywhere in the music world but in Australia, there never is, it’s all love. Everyone’s friends with everyone,” Reuben Styles says with unashamed pride.
Styles and his best mate Adam Hyde should be given some diplomatic posting as Australia’s official music ambassadors.
The Canberra DJs turned pop chart-toppers have been in a prime position to observe how homegrown artists are kicking it at festivals and clubs throughout America and Europe.
Getting Duk’d … Reuben Styles and Adam Hyde seek out new artists to work with on their songs. Picture: Supplied
Source: Supplied
They do enough travelling in cars and vans to know who is getting airtime on the radio.
And they hang out at enough festivals backstage to hear the constant refrain “You’re from Australia, that’s cool.”
“Right now it’s a really good time to be an Australian musician. We’re stoked to be a part of it all. I feel the momentum is just getting more and more and more for everyone. It’s time,” Hyde says.
The duo have lobbed home from their latest overseas tour to launch new single Say My Name, perform at Splendour In The Grass and confirm their booking as local headliner for the Stereosonic festival in November.
At last year’s Stereosonic gigs, they provoked crowd glee and a pop culture meltdown when they were introduced by a video featuring another popular Australian larrikin, Karl Stefanovic.
They reached critical crossover mass last month when they were the subject of a question on Millionaire Hot Seat. Not bad for a duo whose first gig in Sydney at Chinese Laundry just a few years ago was attended by 50 of their mates who drove up from Canberra for the night.
Peking Duk’s moment in the Zeitgeist arrived when the charismatic pair released their single High, featuring the vocals of another rising Australian talent Nicole Millar, in early 2014.
It peaked at No. 5 on the ARIA charts, sold triple platinum, won an ARIA Award for Best Dance Release and finished up at No. 2 on Triple J’s Hottest 100.
Dynamic duo … Peking Duk are set to boost their profile with an appearance at the Splendour in the Grass festival.
Source: Supplied
By the end of the year, they were celebrating their second chart hit with Take Me Over, a collaboration with the buzzworthy Canberra electro trio SAFIA.
They have become one of the most in-demand Australian acts on the planet, playing all the major festivals here and in the US, including the legendary Coachella and Lollapalooza events this year.
Both men credit landing gigs on eclectic bills, even on Australian tours, for significantly broadening their audience beyond the dancefloor.
“We’ll have a show with Violent Soho, or Illy, or Sticky Fingers and then have a show with Will Sparks or Aston Shuffle. A lot of people in America listen to a certain genre and nothing else but in Australia, a music fan listens to music,” Styles says.
Hyde adds: “We are stoked we have been lucky enough to be put on those shows and Triple J opened us up to a very different audience rather than being treated strictly as club DJs. And then we got the chance to meet — and party — with those people. They became friends.”
Party starters … The Duk have become one of the biggest festival acts in Australia. Picture: Elise Derwin.
Source: News Corp Australia
Their disparate tastes will finally be housed on one album, when they eventually finish it.
Say My Name, featuring Benjamin Joseph hints that loud guitars, pounding drums and brattish “lalalalas” may be a part of that mix. Could the Duk bring back the rock?
“We’ve got dance songs, we’ve got rap songs, rock songs,” Hyde says.
“We like to do a bit of everything, we’re not confined to doing one thing.”
Say My Name, which should make an impressive debut on the charts this week and score a boost up the top 40 courtesy of Splendour, features the vocals of a member of the Duk family.
The blogosphere appears to be in agreement that the voice belongs to SAFIA’s Ben Woolner.
“Benjamin Joseph is a family member. Some could say we have worked with him before,” Styles says.
“There’s a little bit of mystery and shade behind his character. It shall prevail in the following years as his character emerges. Give it a couple of years and you will know him better. Benjamin Joseph wants to keep a little mystery about himself and we respect that.”
Peking Duk, like most of their Australian electronic music peers, are not interested in the “power combo” feature.
Most American dance pop and R & B singles rely on the power of two or more names to get it on radio and on the charts.
As voracious music fans themselves, Styles and Hyde prefer to enlist vocalists or collaborators who are either relative unknowns or new friends.
“We have always steered away from that exact thing, a power combo. Tomorrow we are getting in the studio with a band we discovered on Unearthed. We are working with as many artists that we don’t know and most people don’t know. The music should speak for itself,” Styles says.
Hyde adds: “One day we might work with someone who has some rep.”
With a few months up their sleeve, the Duk lads are now scheming to outdo their Stefanovic intro video for their year’s Stereosonic tour.
Dancing girls, major lasers? What will they unleash on their unsuspecting fans?
“The ball is still in everyone’s court because there isn’t anyone yet who has raised it to the pop concert level. We won’t be getting any twerkers,” Styles says, laughing.
“But we are going to do something fun.”
Stereosonic kicks off at Sydney Showgrounds on November 28 before travelling to Perth’s Claremont Showground on November 29, Melbourne Showground and Adelaide’s Bonython Park on December 5 and Brisbane Showgrounds on December 6.
The Mastercard pre-sale kicks off on July 27 from 10am, Moshtix and Stereosonic members pre-sale on July 29 and general tickets on July 30.
