A sick band, with some amazing parts, and one that is not by far unheard of! If you dance at their shows you are in love, if they capture your hearts, they won't let go, and if you're there in the morning, you'll know it's so. I don't know why I said that, it serves no purpose, but Duck, Little Brother, Duck! Is sick and you should support and get a shirt to sleep in.
1. Where did the name Duck, Little Brother, Duck!, come from?
It’s from the book “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair. Jon was reading the book at the time, and it is an all time favorite book of mine (Kyle Souder) as well. We needed a name, and particularly liked the part of the book that line was a part of, so we went with it. We changed the punctuation though like a bunch of nerds.
2. How long has the band been together? When did it start up, and how long have you guys all known each other? Who are the members and what do they bring to the group?
We started the band in March 2009, so I guess that means it’s been about three and a half years now. Three of the four of us (Myself, Jon Scheid and Kyle Parisi) have known each other for a long time; probably since we were around 10 or 11 years old. We grew up for the most part, in the same shitty suburb outside of Portland, went to the same schools, had the same friends etc...
Jon and Phil were in a band together that started probably around 2005-2006. It was called the Jezebel Spirit (it was REALLY good, you should check it out). Kyle Parisi was briefly in that band as well.
The members are Myself (Kyle Souder), Jon Scheid, Kyle Parisi, and Phil Cleary. I play bass, Jon plays guitar and does vocals, Kyle plays guitar and does vocals, Phil plays the drums. In terms of what each of us bring outside of the instruments we play, that is kind of hard to describe.
3. What do you have in the works right now as in new music, or maybe a tour?
We are currently working on some new music. We actually have a ton of “new” music even since the recording of Don’t Take Our Filth Away. We had a lot of material that didn’t get used for that record, but that we still would like to use. We have also been working on getting back into the swing of writing since we returned from our U.S. tour in July. We have a six way split in the works as well with some other really awesome bands. Hopefully that ends up panning out if all continues accordingly. I don’t want to say any more on that really though, in fear of jynxing it.
We don’t have any concrete plans to tour in the near future. We just got back from a pretty long excursion, and we are hoping to devote our energy to writing for a new record. There are some tentative plans for a tour next summer, that one will be a pretty big deal if it all works out. There are also some plans to maybe do some smaller things between now and then also, but none absolutely concrete as well (Washington trips, SXSW). Again though, I don’t want to jynx anything, so I am not going to divulge too much.
There’s also new music from members of this band performing in other bands. Kyle and Phil have a band called Soft Skills, and it’s absolutely incredible. It’s other members are Keith McGraw who recorded Don’t Take Our Filth Away and Pat Dougherty who was in the Jezebel Spirit. There isn’t much from it floating around online, aside from a few videos perhaps, but it’s worth trying to look for.. It’s genuinely really amazing.
Jon and Phil also have a band called U Sco, with Ryan Miller who was formerly in With Eyes Abstract. This band is pretty crazy, and if you want to have your face melted off, it’s definitely worth checking out.
4. How has the sound between records changed? Whether it just be the song writing, or how the songs are composed?
I think the sound between Survival Is Not A Workout and Don’t Take Our Filth Away has changed drastically. Our approach has changed since the first record, as well as the way we look at the band. Survival... was just us writing music, and playing together. The band wasn’t initially started with the intent to necessarily keep being a band. We played together for a year, and recorded everything we wrote. I recorded it, so we had the opportunity to do a lot of crazy production stuff, and mess around a lot. None of us really ever even thought people might hear that record.
Since Survival Is Not A Workout we also got rid of all of our pedals for the most part. Where a lot of the “noise” on that record is a bunch of nob turning, now we have gotten really into feedback. Now the only pedals that are used, are two Fuzz Factory’s.
The lyrics, and music itself has also taken a much more serious direction. The newer material is definitely influenced by a different aesthetic, that we feel like we don’t really see/hear. It’s our hopes to kind of try to bring that out a little in what we have been doing. Not to rehash something that’s already been done, but to borrow from things that we feel are pretty underrated.
There is also currently a shift from how we approached Don’t Take Our Filth Away, to where we want to be now. We are kind of examining how we work together as a band, and what we’d like to do differently right now. We want to try to make the next record the best we can, and keep changing like we have thus far. We are trying to find out what is going to enable us to do that again.
5. One thing I love about your songs are the words, even though they can be few and far apart, not including the ahhh's and ohhh's which are in fact wonderful, but what is the comprising factor in the words going into the songs, whether it be past experiences or lost love?
Kyle and Jon mostly write all the words. The process is kind of interesting, they both have different approaches to what they want to say/convey. Occasionally they will agree with each other. “Calvin Young” is a good example, it was a collective lyric writing process, and it’s pretty much all about our Summer ‘11 tour.
Typically though, Kyle likes to write about more tangible experiences; his approach seems a bit more blunt, and to the point. Kyle would also be the one more likely to write about love. Jon seems more concerned with imagery. His lyrics are usually a lot more ambiguous. He writes a lot about ideas and feelings, things that aren’t really tangible or “real” in the physical sense. Jon usually draws more from past experiences and how they have shaped him (In Duck. Kyle does plenty of this in his other band).
Despite having pretty different approaches, and ideas, in the end they usually manage to come together and create something pretty cohesive.
6. What is something you want people to keep in mind about your music, or when they come out and see you guys play in a awesome small basement?
I am not sure what I’d want people to keep in mind when listening to the music. Everyone’s listening experience is different, and what they take away from each experience is different as well. I guess the only thing I could suggest is the reassurance that the people making it really love what they’re doing.
When people come to a show, have a good time, think about the music, don’t over think it.
7. Have you been keeping yourself real busy this year? What are some of your accomplishments that you have achieved in this band?
Definitely have been pretty busy this year. We put out a record on Topshelf Records. It was released this August. We had a real good mini-tour in Washington. We did a [mostly] full U.S. tour this summer, most of which we were joined by our friends in Octaves. That is pretty much it; we still have two more months of 2012 though, to try to do something really crazy.
Jon, Kyle and Phil’s other bands should also all have some recordings, or new recordings available before the year is over.
8. What is the best show you have played to date? Whether it be you got to play with some awesome friends, or just the atmoshpere was one on another level?
This is a really tough question actually. We’ve played A LOT of really awesome shows. From just this summer alone there were some super memorable ones. Our tour kickoff show with Zoogirl, and Lee Corey Oswald was pretty insane. Denton, TX was pretty awesome. It was in a barn... In Texas. We played with our friends in Innards and Father Figure, Slingshot Dakota played, we made new friends with Sohns, who are also amazing; it was just a pretty ideal show. Boston, MA was awesome also. There were no local bands on the show, and a really solid group of people still came out. We played with Adaje, who we had just done several dates with leading up to this show, Octaves, and our friends in Fugue(RIP) for the last show of 3 shows with them.
