Musicadium Blog

Jules, Flawless and Arno collectively form the Gold Coast original reggae funksters known as Anarchist Duck, and have just released their EP Propaganda to the world through iTunes. Musicadium Intern Julia “Ju-ju Bean” Bridger caught up with Flawless between the band’s antics which include; rescuing baby ducks from train tracks, “funk”-ing the system and drinking herbal teas, to find out what being a “Duck” is all about.

The name Anarchist Duck is pretty attention-grabbing and describes your political slant pretty well - but why a duck?

Ducks are amazing creatures and we stared at two holes in the wall that we turned into a duck when we first started jamming. I guess there’s a double entendre for the literary minded also, in that if you question the laws in society, you better duck. Anarchy to us is about the absence of control, not about the absence of respect and probably isn’t intended with the typical connotations. We are all about harmony, community and psychic time travel.

Your style has been described as a mix of Rage Against The Machine, Bob Marley and The Red Hot Chili Peppers among others. That’s quite a mixture, how do you manage to come up with such an eclectic sound?

By listening to A LOT of music all the time and taking all our favourite parts and mixing them together. That mixture is kind of like the mixture of spices you might use for an amazing indian curry, you add the spices and when they blend a completely new flavour is created.

Your music definitely has a political activist sense about it, as people can probably guess from your name. What influences you to help create positive change?

People fighting for what they believe in and being open to what others believe, not being afraid to be different from the ‘norm’. People who can look beneath the facade of society and follow their intuition despite obstacles inspire me to do the same. The absolute beauty that lies within every person is the best inspiration along with nature in all its glory.

I’ve read that your style is like Parliament and you’re heavily influenced by George Clinton, which makes me think of the Mighty Boosh. Do you “got the funk”?

We got the funk, you gotta have the funk. We are perhaps more heavily influenced by the likes of Bjork, Ween, PJ Harvey, Ani diFranco, Rage Against the Machine and the Chili Peppers. The old funk stuff like the Meters, Tower of Power and there is also a strong Bob Marley and 10 ft Ganja plant influence, hence all our funky reggae.

On your MySpace, you say that one of your least favourite past-times is “being asked to play bad covers especially by drunk people who have never heard of burping and blowing it in the OTHER direction.” This quote leads me to two questions- What is the worst cover request you’ve had, and how many people have burped in your face when requesting one?

I guess it’s more that you’re playing your guts out to an audience and then someone asks you to play a cover and it’s like “Ok, I don’t really hear what you have to say, I want to hear something someone else has to say.” Usually we don’t even know the songs being requested and then we have to say no and feel bad. I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve had a burp blown in my face and sometimes it’s by my own band members (or myself!)

You’re performing all the way down the East Coast of Australia in the coming months, what can people expect from your shows?

A worldly experience that blends beautiful harmonies with hard funk and reggae grooves, some rapping and a lot of laughs.

Check out “The Duck” on Facebook, Triple J’s Unearthed and their tour dates are all up on their MySpace

This entry was posted on Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 2:27 pm and is filed under Featured Artist, General, Industry News & Events, Useful Resources. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.