The Duke Spirit: Interview
By Deirdre Corley
As she wails over a wash of dissonant guitars, Duke Spirit
front woman Leila Moss is redefining the term “blue eyed soul.”
On their debut album “Cuts Across the Land,” she and
her London five piece combine dirty guitars and clamoring drum beats
with a heavy dose of soul and sex appeal, kind of like the Jesus
and Mary Chain if they had been signed to Motown.
Stranded in Stereo caught up with the Leila and the boys between
gigs on their current tour with Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, to
discuss their new album, impromptu sidewalk dance parties and the
nasty chafing issues a touring rock band must endure.
Deirdre: You guys all met in art school, correct?
Leila: No, not really. That’s one of those
aberrations. Just something that was said the first time around.
Dan’s the only guy to do the proper art school thing, he’s
a proper trained artiste. Myself, Luke and Toby, we actually met
in my hometown and we all moved to London at the same time. We had
a few years of making music that wasn’t really the kind we
wanted to make, but we were just kind of trying, and finding our
way around what we didn’t like. About the time that that came
to an end, we we’re hanging out with Dan and had this new
idea of making a noisy energetic band, with loads of power, and
a good groove going on. We were just feeling like we wanted to make
a more dissonant louder statement than what we were doing before
so that was like, two and half years ago, so from there, we rehearsed
a lot, and we just sorted it out.
Deirdre: You guys had some problems with your
first label going bankrupt, what was that experience like?
Leila: We were lucky because as soon as we had
some ideas and some demos, that first label was really encouraging.
And it was really making us work faster. And it was because of that
and the excitement with that that we managed to consider ourselves
a band, because we were just kind of friends playing, and then we
were like, “Fuck! Let’s be a band.” In some ways
we were lucky that we were on a really small indie label. Because
they were supporting us, and we were excited, but there wasn’t
that big corporate pressure straight away. The downside being, they
ran out of money, and we were stuck.
Deirdre: What is your tour dynamic like with you
being the only girl in the band? Are you one of the boys, or is
the rest of the band sort of protective of you?
Leila: There’s kind of no need for the protective
thing. There’s not much machismo. These guys are like, proper
good guys. The kind of guys that all girls wish existed. There isn’t
much kind of, appalling boy band behavior. It’s pretty good…
until we all hit the booze at night, but then we are more of a euphoric
sort of party band.
Deirdre: Have you guys had much in the way of
tour antics since you hit the states?
Leila: Yeah, well recently we’ve been pretty
polite, we’re just kind of reading and listening to music.
But as the gig happens, and the adrenaline rises, we get a bit silly.
The other night we got kicked out of the bar, because it was time
to go home, but we didn’t want to stop, so this guy we had
been talking to about soul music went, “Hold on I’ll
get my car!” He just pulled his car around to the front of
the venue and we were just sitting on the street and he was like
DJing different soul tunes out his car stereo, which was brilliant
of him. Everyone just started pulling moves, like Leroy from Fame
or something. Bit by bit everyone was coming out of the venue and
joining us so we had this like huge dancing mass. It was legendary
I’d say.
Deirdre: Do you guys have any interesting requests
on your dressing room rider?
Leila: If we’re feeling quite snotty and
political, we’ll ask for organic food and crap kinds of candy,
because its all full of shit. But apart from that, the only thing
we’ve asked for is maybe some socks and briefs, because when
you are on tour, and you haven’t got enough time to wash your
stuff, you’ll end up going commando. And that’s not
always good for chafing issues. Dan [The Duke Spirit’s guitar
player] is shouting from the back that we only need bananas and
whiskey to keep us on the road.
Deirdre: That’s all anyone needs for sustenance
really. So, what do you hope to achieve in the states? Have you
been happy with your tour so far, and the stateside response to
your album?
Leila: Yeah, it’s been really good. Our
very first tour in England was probably smaller than the scale we’re
working on now, so this is the first time we’re really properly
around the states. And it feels like we’re playing to a more
energetic crowd that we really expected, so I’m totally happy.
It’s all the cool chicks who are coming up to us and feeling
empowered.
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