Honesty a priority for innovative Duke Special

Innovative and always entertaining, Duke Special will be showcasing songs from his new album, Look Out Machines! due to be released in April when he plays Róisín Dubh this Friday, February 27.

Duke has written music for theatrical productions and recorded a collection of songs inspired by Paul Auster’s novel The Book of Illusions, but this latest record doesn’t adhere to one particular concept or theme, as he explains.

“These songs came as they wanted to,” he says. “I’d been looking at old comic from the early 1900s, about the machines taking over and the humans fighting back. Then, ironically, on the record there are a lot of machines. I just liked the title and the various things it could mean.”

Some of the machines in question are Moog synthesisers and computers that are used to create drumbeats and string parts.

“Every record has its own soundscape, I try to go somewhere different each time,” Duke says. “I’d used drum machines before, but when I was doing this it just felt really natural to continue with that. The synthetic sounds on those demos I really enjoyed.”

The money needed to make Look Out Machines! came via the crowdfunding website Pledge Music.

“It’s not the first time I’ve done it, I did it in 2009 for a record,” Duke says. “Ash are doing their new record on it, Frankie Goes To Hollywood – people who have a wee bit of an established fanbase are choosing to do that outside of a record label.”

Contributions started at €11 for a digital download, and went as high as €2,000 for a Duke Special Suitcase.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune