The Duke Spirit's 'monstrous'’ album
The Duke Spirit Liela said that the Lion Rip rockers decided to distance themselves from the massive “wall of sound” they had created while recording their first two albums so as to generate extra space on the release without giving up the band’s trademark power.
The frontwoman was chatting before the band took to the stage at Sheffield’s Tramlines Festival, and said that “I guess this is our, like, monstrous pagan devotional album”.
Liela added that the London-based group have incorporated “loads more space” on the album – which is a follow-up to 2008 release Neptune – after she and fellow bandmates Luke Ford, Toby Butler, Olly ‘The Kid’ Betts and Marc Sallis “started off saying, ‘Let’s have an opportunity where there aren’t just guitars hitting the same frequencies at the same time’”.
She continued by saying that “we’ve lost the wall of sound we had on the last two records, we’ve kept it really powerful but lean, then sort of let all those voids have breathing space and that’s where the abstract tales are told”.
The singer reckons that there are massive advantages to this new approach, suggesting that, “where you’ve got space, you feel the kick drum and bass really getting in your belly”.
The Duke Spirit recorded the album in London and Los Angeles with two producers, who they believe had distinct and different approaches to the recording process.
Drummer Olly thinks “it’s been a completely nomadic process” after they “worked with Rich File [previously of UNKLE] for a couple of tracks in the UK, working in a metronomic way”.
He added that the band then “went to Los Angeles and worked with a guy called Andrew Sheps, who works closely with [Columbia Records co-president and producer] Rick Rubin and we did the lion’s share of the record with him, which he recorded in a much more lose, natural way”.
Meanwhile, the Tramlines Festival also witnessed shows by acts as varied as Olly Murs, Toddla T and Ash, while hundreds of additional artists also performed in more than 70 venues throughout the South Yorkshire city.
Synthpop act Heaven 17 opened the festival on the Nokia Unannounced Stage, while that venue also saw gigs from Omar and Kate Jackson – the singer with The Long Blondes.
