The Duke Spirit

Many bands claim to practise the dark arts of rock'n'roll, but hardly any truly understand them. The Duke Spirit – a five-piece from London - are one of the few that do. Since their inception in 2002, they've been locked away, slaving over their own unique and jagged take on the history of rock'n'roll music. The first public notice of their intentions arrived last year, when they released both a critically-acclaimed single ('Darling, You’re Mean') and mini-album ('Roll, Spirit, Roll') via the City Rockers label. Both showcased a scuffed and beautiful guitar aesthetic, redolent of everyone from the Velvets and Nico through to Patti Smith and The Gun Club. Everything about these records - from the arcane imagery on the sleeves (drawn from 17th Century English woodcuts) through to the primitive and instinctive recording techniques used to capture their initial sound - underlined that here was a band that knew precisely what they wanted to achieve... "We're a raw, rock'n'roll band," explains guitarist Luke Ford from the nook of an east London bar, "but at the same time we want to make music that drags our listeners right down to the bottom of the pit. We want there to be real heartbreak on there." "We want our music to be redemptive," continues singer Liela Moss. "We want to expose emotions without spelling it out. I want a generosity of spirit there, a baton for people to hold onto. I write in a fast, intuitive way. I fill books with words. As the music is coming out of the boys, I'm there thinking about it, thinking about the colours of it, thinking about what I’m going to do the whole time..." The Duke Spirit (Luke and Liela are augmented by Dan Higgins - guitar, Olly ‘The Kid’ Betts - drums and Toby Butler - bass) are a group for whom this kind of music, and life, comes naturally. It's there in everything they do, from their name... Luke: "We just wanted something that captured the healing power of the music. When we thought of it, we were listening to things like (Jonathan Richman's) 'Roadrunner', (The Lovin' Spoonful's) 'Do You Believe In Magic?' and (The Velvet Underground's) 'Rock'n'Roll'. They're all songs that immediately make you understand how music can change your mood and life in an instant." That's to say, a ‘real’ rock'n'roll group. And that’s rarer than you think…