AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH PEKING DUK

Peking Duk is Adam Hyde and Reuben Styles.  The duo from down under serve up a delicious blend of electro fused house that's been crushing dance floors for a minute now.  FCK YES! first found out about Peking Duk when we reviewed "I love to Rap" and we've been hooked ever since!  Check out the awesome duk sauce below.

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FCK YES! - How the FCK are you today?

Peking Duk - Heaps FCKen great today, thank you! We actually just listened in live to the premiere of our new single on Triple J (fav Aus radio station), so there are indeed loads of tingles running through the blood right now.

FY! - I love the name Peking Duk!  How did you come up with the name?

PD - It came purely from a love of nightlife and partying, some details are better left out here haha so we'll have to tell you the full story in person.

FY! - When/how did you guys meet? 

PD - We actually met at the local skate park, we had a bunch of mutual friends around Canberra as it is quite a small town so it was nice and easy to intro.. From there we just kept crossing paths at underage house parties, events etc. then eventually went to the same school for 11th and 12th grade where we became good mates. 

FY! - What point did you start making music together?

PD - We were about 19.. Adam was rapping in a hip hop crew and I was in an indie rock band at the time. We never really knew about club music apart from top 40 dance tracks, then our mate took us to this old Canberra nightclub called Lot 33.. Where the capacity was only 200 people but they hosted acts such as Bloody Beetroots, Mightyfools, Crookers etc. Needless to say the club music was different and made a very strong impact on us. Immediately from there Adam and I saved up and bought the production software Reason and Ableton and then super shitty turntables.

Even with no idea what we were doing we quite quickly found ourselves spending every second of every day trying to figure out how the software and decks worked. Eventually we discovered Canberra had a fair community of producers, so we started jamming with anyone and everyone every chance we could. Seeing first hand how other people produce would have to be by far the greatest way to gain your own confidence and in turn write your own music. So thinking back we never really planned to start making music together, we just got into the same stuff together at the same time and before we realized it we were writing songs together.

FY! - How is the electronic music scene down under? 

PD - The scene for electronic music here is slowly getting bigger and better. There are so many amazing electronic artists starting to receive great commercial success for their hard work. Artists such as Flume and Skrillex over the last 2 years have have done soooo much good for this country's appreciation for electronic music.. Nowadays your average Joe like my little brother (who is 6 years old!) and my own parents are even now telling me often about new electronic music they have discovered. Some people say "(whinge) Skrillex is mainstream, blah, Flume is now a pop star (extra whinge)" but artists like that are inspiring more and more amazing acts to emerge every day, and in turn make our scene constantly grow bigger and better. The more music the merrier.

FY! - Did you expect "The way you are" to blow up as big as it did? 

PD - Not at all. We had a much greater response from our friends and fam when we showed them early versions of it compared to previous tunes, but we didn't realize it could get to the point where it did. I got a text the other day from a mate in a country town in England, 'at a grungy old pub in the middle of nowhere in England and the way you are just came on the video jukebox randomly". That was great feeling and certainly felt like a big milestone for us. We aren't aiming for big commercial success at all and never would, but it is a very nice feeling to know your music and hard work is starting to get appreciated!

FY! - We need some Duk in our lives!  When are you going to make it over to the states? 

PD - We are heading up in March to check out SXSW and go back to Miami for WMC again. The few shows we did last March in Miami were so amazing so we definitely have to come back... Only this time we'll make sure we stay for longer and play much more shows around the country instead of just 2 weeks in Miami!

FY! - Tell us about your next single "Feels Like"

PD - Our new single Feels Like features the vocalist Josh Moriarty from Miami Horror. The song is way more stripped back than The Way You Are, but kinda maintains that warm summer feel.. Also the video came out exactly how we wanted it to so overall, we're pretty excited!

FY! - What is your favorite part about performing live? 

PD - My favourite part would have to be seeing the reactions of the crowd when playing our own music. As dj's we play a lot of other artist's music, which is great because we get to share our taste in music and play songs we know the crowd will love.. But by far the best part is seeing people lose it to your own music. Ideally in future we will incorporate live guitars/drums, and we will have a set purely consisting of Peking Duk tunes.

FY! - What is the funniest thing that has ever happened to you while performing live?

PD - Some girl was right up the front during a show in central coast NSW, she was dancing hilariously like a complete maniac until she slipped down onto her face.. I saw the security run in and pick her up off the ground, these 2 guards then showed us the 2 front teeth of hers they picked up. None of this was really that funny until the next day we saw her post on our Facebook page 

Now thinking back on her falling down, after dancing the way she was makes me tear with laughter every time.. What a woman.

FY! - What's next for Peking Duk?  Give us the dirty details.

PD - We have brand spankin' new remix we just finished with CRNKN coming out on Mad Decent.  Also our remix for LA band Fitz and the Tantrums just dropped on iTunes US.. Pretty much we are slowly step by step trying to infiltrate the people of the US and expose everyone to our dirty minds. Being real we are potentially keen to move to LA in the next couple years as lots of Aussies have recently, they have all said it is a must. Show-wise, we are pretty FCKen excited to be doing the full Big Day Out tour in January, as well as loads of stuff through the new years period.

FY! - Finish this sentence:  EDM is... 

PD - A 3 letter acronym.

FY! - Thank you sirs!  I'm going to stay locked on your live dates next year and hopefully catch you somewhere in the states.

Peking Duk:  Soundcloud - Facebook - Website