Our Interview with Duchess Leo: Poking Around In the Golden Gray Matter

I love Duchess Leo. Not the same way I love Justene Jaro mind you. Don't get me wrong, the love is just as powerful... it's just different. Justene Jaro makes my man parts feel like I just climbed the rope in gym class, whereas Duchess Leo have that same effect, but on my ears, heart and mind. Their album Golden Gray is something special.

So special that I've placed them on a Track Marks and I begged Tim to let me make them a BandCamp Artist of the Week. He agreed as long as I promised to stop emailing him.

Of course I couldn't stop there. I felt like it was my duty to track the dudes down who made such a big beautiful album. I needed to learn more about Duchess Leo. I went out and got my inner Chris Hansen on and sat the band down for some serious hard hitting questions. Here are the results:

SYFFAL: For our readers who may not know you all that well let's do this introduction in a "Dateline: To Catch a Predator style": in lieu of chat handles like SeXIgURl14 please tell us your names and A/S/L?

Todd: Todd 32 male Brooklyn, NY

Dan: Dan 32 male Brooklyn, NY

SYFFAL: Really? That's it? I'm shocked to learn that there are only two of you making the big spiraling sounds I hear on Golden Gray. Who does what in the band?

Todd: For the most part, I play keys, synths and make beats. Dan plays guitars, synths and sings. But those roles overlap. Golden Gray was the culmination of two or three years of hanging out, making music together. During that time I was taking piano and writing songs. Dan started making beats and working in the computer. So after a lot of swapping sessions, adding parts and rearranging, who did what when kind of became a blur. But the ownership of parts is irrelevant; it's a Duchess Leo song.

SYFFAL: I saw that the Village Voice called you guys Rainy Day Crooners and Drizzly Bear. Care to comment on that?

Dan: The comparisons are fun for the "Really? We sound like that?" moment, but they're equally difficult to take seriously.

Todd: It's cool. I think our music can sound like a lot of things. What we're writing now doesn't sound anything like Golden Gray so future references are wide open.

SYFFAL: "Your Sweet Love" the opening track on Golden Gray takes my mind to an alternative reality Jurassic Park where Sam Neil, still rocking a flaming red neckerchief, sees his first brontosaurs and it is also wearing a red neckerchief. It's kismet. Was that the response you were going for?

Todd: I hear it playing as the Knicks are being announced. It's stadium huge. All strings and bows and beats and reverb and sunbursts guitars...

Dan: I was on a car trip for new years and my buddy, Oscar, introduced me to Lee Hazelwood, who I'd heard before but never really heard before. The track that did it was his Your Sweet Love. (We even stole the title) The strings that start that beautiful song were on a loop in my head all weekend. The vocals and arrangement came later with Todd.

SYFFAL: Every time I hear "Bloom" I can't help but compare you guys to Local Natives. Does that make me a dick?

Dan: No. Well... No.

Todd: I don't know who local natives are so I guess not. I hope not, I guess.

SYFFAL: The album title track "Golden Gray" is so goddamn beautiful. It is like a sonic interpretation of Justene Jaro's physical presence. She's dreamy. If you had to classify "Golden Gray" as a lady who would it be and why?

Todd: That song came together fast, fun and easy. I don't hear it as a woman, I hear it during a montage at the end of a Michael Mann film; automatic weapons, half pony tails, hi def, slow mo.

Dan: Somewhere between Helen Mirren and Winona Ryder in the 90s. It's angst-y, but it's got class.

SYFFAL: "The Play" features guest vocals by Lille and if you don't mind me saying, she really adds another layer to the Duchess sound. Any plans to flesh out the band to incorporate more members full time?

Dan: Actually, the opposite. Incorporate less members and flesh out the sound. Collaboration was a big part of our process before and it still is, but we're focused on being what we are now. Two guys.

Todd: Grace could make anything sound amazing. She is a huge talent. I can't wait for Lille's full length. Daniel Whitt is probably the closest to a third member we have. He co-produced Golden Gray and played drums on some tracks. Golden Gray was recorded with him at his studio, Metaltern, in Alabama. It was something of a family affair. We had Grace there and Keith from Little Horn too.

Dan: I spent all week chasing Grace's performances.

SYFFAL: You guys seem smart. Musically speaking of course. Do you give back to the community and teach kids music composition and theory or are you too busy being awesome?

Todd: Dan does... way to put me on the spot, dude.

Dan: Yes, most recently I taught song composition with a non-profit called Daniel's Music Foundation in Manhattan. They provide free music programs for people with disabilities in the New York City area.

SYFFAL: Big brains I know you're the ones that can help me on something that has troubled me my entire life: Is it grey or gray...and what's the difference?

Todd: Gray is the American spelling while "grey" is British. We had to Google it.

SYFFAL: Watch the Throne. Thoughts?

Todd: It sounds to me like they were bored of making great shit and tried too hard to make something that sounded different. Lyricism has moments and I still love both of them. I just wish they wouldn't try and reinvent the wheel.

Dan: I like it.

SYFFAL: Greatest band to come out of New Jersey not named Duchess Leo?

Todd: NJ Joystick

Dan: Springsteen.

SYFFAL: We have a running feature on SYFFAL where we nominate a seminal album that not everyone has heard but everyone should, and then we give it the gang bang review treatment. Care to nominate one?

Todd: More people should have heard Aphex Twin's "The Richard D James Album". Is that too obvious?? If so, then everyone just go back and listen to it again. It came out in 1994 or 95 and it still sounds ahead of the curve.

Dan: Van Morrison's Astral Weeks. Best spring time record ever.

SYFFAL: Does it bother you that thanks to the Jersey Shore everyone outside of the North Atlantic area assumes that all people from Jersey are mooks and guidos?

Todd: A little. I've never seen the show, but I saw The Situation get booed on Donald trump's roast. New Jersey is a beautiful place and most of the shore is nice too. TV sucks sometimes.

Dan: People will think whatever they want. Their low perception kinda gives the whole state the element of surprise when it turns out to be great. Also, the parts everybody sees, Newark airport and the turnpike, are everybody's least favorite.

SYFFAL: Bandcamp in my opinion is the greatest internet tool for artists today. Why doesn't EVERY band have one?

Dan: No idea. Bandcamp is the shit.

SYFFAL: Speaking of Bandcamp we recently made you our Bandcamp Artists of the Week. Congrats on that. Besides that honor and your perfect attendance awards in eighth grade what accolade(s) are you most proud of?

Todd: I'm very proud of Golden Gray. Lots of great reviews and exposure, met lots of new friends and new listeners through the process. Aside from that, I was a purple belt by the time I was 11 so... I'm not really sweating it either...

Dan: A group of friends named their comedy group after me, they call themselves The Dan Ryan and they are really funny. It's an honor.

SYFFAL: James Blake.... um I don't get the hype. Care to explain?

Todd: I love James Blake. I don't read much music press so I wasn't exposed to the hype as much as everyone else. I have loved jungle, drum and bass, garage, grime, all types of English street music for years. I think the way he is able to combine a dubstep sound with soul hooks and emotional music is exciting. It inspires me and sparks my imagination. It seems to me as though all the shit I listened to in high school and college, all the drum and bass, has snuck its way into all genres of music the way hip hop did in the nineties. I’ve never been the type of person to resent that sort of thing. I'm proud to hear albums that sound like James Blake album or Burial album get huge and nominated for Mercury Awards and stuff. It redeems the jncos I wore all through high school.

Dan: I was unconvinced until I heard the Joni Mitchell cover he does. Dude can sing and play his balls off.

SYFFAL: I was turned on to your album by one of your busty friends. Now it is your chance to return the favor. Do you have any other busty friends to turn me on to...if not what are some other bands that you think the SYFFAL universe should be getting down with?

Todd: Lille is amazing. Little Horn makes some dusty, dirty-ass southern rock that will look you dead in the eye and tell you how it is. They just released an EP. I'm probably stealing Dan's answer here, but Pepepiano is sick. His music makes everything else sound boring.

Dan: Yes, Pepepiano is the shit. Arrange, which is the project of a fine fella named Malcolm Lacey. His record is beautiful, it's called Plantation. Andy & Zeus are owning the ambiance lately too. Our friends and their synthesizers making a vibe you wouldn't believe.

SYFFAL: Why does Spotify get so much love? Are we a nation of hoarders?

Dan: We're a culture of collectors being asked to take up less space.

SYFFAL: I can't watch shows about hoarders, fat people, interventions, or rehabs. They remind me too much of my friend Joel. That doesn't leave much on the table for me as far as programming. Any TV suggestions?

Todd: "Louie" on FX. Great show. Funny, artful, stark realism mixed with strange but familiar urban surrealism. Also, my fiancé reintroduced me to the pleasures of bad TV after 10 years without a cable box in my apartment. I end up watching a lot of "Bridezilla" while I rub feet and shoulders. 3 years ago I would have said some depressing civil war documentary or something.

Dan: Mad Men. Thrones. Boardwalk.

SYFFAL: Speaking of TV, SYFFAL runs a feature called Pop Cultures Collide...if you were asked (hint: I'm asking you!) to cover any song from a movie, tv show, video game what would it be?

Todd: I love the "Last of the Mohicans" sound track. I also love the instrumental version of The Smiths "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want" from Ferris Bueller, but that is already a cover. "The Assassination of Jessie James By the Coward Robert Ford" soundtrack is also amazing. Beautiful film too. Ask Dan. He'll come up with something better.

Dan: No, actually Last of the Mohicans sounds awesome to me.

SYFFAL: So you'll do it?

Todd: Sure.

Dan: Ok.

SYFFAL: (distracted thinking about cover songs) Ummm when's your next show?

Todd: Not sure. Taking a break from shows as we write new stuff. However we do have music coming out in the next few months starting with a collection of demos and songs that we had written around Golden Gray.

SYFFAL: Awesome.So I hate to beat a dead horse but... please tell me you'll do a pop cultures collide... and it's not the theme to Gray's Anatomy or Grey's Anatomy or whatever the Fuck it is called. I can't handle making the Gray and Grey confusion again... oh and I have to assume the theme to that show sucks. HARD.

Todd: I'm confused

Dan: ...

SYFFAL: Thanks. On a scale from 1-10 how needy was that?

Todd: 11

Dan: Needy isn't the word.