Interview: Peking Duk, one of Australia's finest electronic music exports
Peking Duk love their Nando’s chicken.
“Their chicken is f*cking sick,” said Adam Hyde, one half of the Duk duo. But that was the general consensus in the room, as other half, Reuben Styles agreed as well. On a hot, sunny day at this year’s FVDED In The Park, we caught up with the duo after their set in Galantis’ trailer.
Delicious spiced chicken aside, Peking Duk has had a solid few days- having recently been signed to an exclusive global deal by BMG, and having celebrated Canada Day right here in British Columbia.
“Canada feels like a second home,” Hyde said. The duo had been in the province for a few days, and spent Canada Day playing a show in Whistler. “Maybe it’s because Canada is used to Australians being around, and eventually we don’t seem so bad,” Style said. “We did Australia Day here in Whistler, and we did Canada day here in Whistler. We’ll probably celebrate every Australia Day in Canada, and every Canada day in Canada. We may as well move here.”
“We’re pretty much citizens,” Hyde added. “We’re pretty much Canadian.”
Having these two as Canadians may not be the worst idea. Besides the fact that they are a multi-platinum, award-winning duo, Peking Duk are also arguably the warmest and funniest guys in the industry. Having been together since 2010, Peking Duk began by releasing remix bootlegs and uploading their tracks on Soundcloud – as many producers today do.
“When we first started getting Soundcloud plays, most of them were coming from Australia and Canada,” Hyde said. Style said this is possibly because the countries have very similar taste in music. And once their tracks were picked up by global music blogs, they began their life on the road.
As the tour has been pretty much non-stop, Peking Duk are now taking some time off touring to write their new record. Their show at Holland Park on July 3 was their first big show in about three months. “We have been solely dedicating our time to writing,” Styles said. And they are not alone.
Aussie electronic producer Flume just released his latest album Skin, topping charts globally and has already sold-out his upcoming show here in Vancouver in August. It seems like the wave of Australian musicians keeps flowing, and Peking Duk are part of the Aussie wave of pioneers.
“Flume just did his thing five years ago when he got really big in Australia. Everyone in Australia was like, ‘Why should we do that same 128 BPM, the EDM stuff? This guy Flume is doing it, why don’t we give it a crack?,” said Styles.
Brendan Leong @bleongphoto / Blueprint
“Flume definitely broke down the doors to lots of producers,” Hyde agreed. “Have fun with it. You don’t have to stick to a formula.”
Styles said that everyone started to go against the norm from then on. “I think, in turn, it planted a little bit of a path for people to get experimental.” And as these guys begin writing their new tracks, they are taking the experimental paths themselves. “It’s not too dissimilar to what we’ve done in the past,” Styles said, describing their new, erm, style. “There will be little tastes of everything. There’s one song that’s borderline jazzy, which we did recently.”
“There are lots of different styles. We’ve been writing some really fun music, it’s exciting. We’re looking forward to it,” Hyde said. As for a release date, when asked, the boys replied, “you pick a day.” And so I did. Australia Day, January 26, 2017. Will it be released that exact day? Probably not, but hopefully sooner.
Peking Duk are a force of nature when it comes to attending their shows, listening to their tracks, or interviewing them. “We’re in Galantis’ dressing room right now, shout out to Galantis,” said Styles, as we wound down our chat.
“And shout out to lint rollers for keeping the lint off of our clothes,” said Hyde.
And there was also a shout out to Nando’s, in case you’re wondering.
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