The Duhks Interview
One of the most exciting bands to play this
year’s festival were a Canadian band from Winnipeg, called the Dhuks. It’s
pronounced ducks, but like a lot of people, before I found out the truth, I was
calling the dukes.
The five piece outfit, Leonard Podolak(banjo), Tania
Elizabeth(fiddle), Jordan McConnell(guitar), Scott Senior(drums) and Jessica
Harvey(vocals), have been causing quite a stir back home and now hopefully over
here.
The three sets the band played at Cambridge were their first three on
the European continent, hopefully the first of many.
The band play an
exceptionally varied array of songs and tunes, sometimes slipping into French,
often switching vocalists. I went heavily for the band having heard their self
titled album earlier in the year. It doesn’t do their live spirit
justice.
There’s bucket loads of talent in the band. Their strength and depth
makes them difficult to categorise(hurrah). Blues, maritime folk, Appalachian
swing and Americana being just some of the genres they throw into the
mix.
Band founder Leonard Podolak owns one of the most impressive racks of
banjos that I’ve seen , but still seems to spend an awful amount of time on
stage retuning the one he’s using.
The band came together out of a number of
different projects. Tania Elizabeth used to run her own record label from
where she released two cds before turning sixteen. She also managed to take in a
tour of China.
Scott Senior is a hand percussionist that can rarely be found
reaching for the sticks.
I managed to catch up with Tania and Scott, just
before their appearance on Main Stage.
#N I know it’s the Duhks, but a lot of people first say Dukes, did you
expect these problems when you named the band?
#S We wanted to be
original, it was a play on words. We were having a bit of fun with the spelling.
We never thought we’d get quite so much confusion. We roll with it, don’t hold
it against anyone.
#N I noticed, when you played the Club Tent last
night, that you play with your hands. Are sticks for wimps?
#S Yeah,
pretty much. I’m a percussionist. I played a drum kit when I was very young, but
over the last couple of years, I’ve concentrated on hand percussion. Now with
the band, I have to do a little bit of both. I do use sticks
sometimes.
#N It’s unusual, you don’t see it that often.
#S I
know. It’s good to be different. This is a band that has lots of different
music. The relationships between the different sounds, it’s quite fascinating to
be involved in that.
#N Tania, you were a solo artist before you merged
into the band. What made you move into a group?
#T Well I’d been a
band leader. I started my first band when I was 14, started my record label when
I was fifteen. It’s a lot of work to run your own record label, book your own
shows, be a band leader. I was pretty tired of doing that stuff at fifteen. I’d
just come back from a tour of China and I really didn’t know what I was going to
do. I was thinking of leaving music behind. It was a lot of work and then the
opportunity came up. I didn’t have to think about it, being part of a band. I
moved half way across the country to get on board with the project, left
Victoria and went to Winnipeg.
#N At fifteen to be jaded from running
your own record label almost seems beyond belief.
#T I’m still not sure
how I pulled it off. Looking back I’m very, very proud of what I
did.
#N How much on an insight did it give you into an industry renown
for it’s sharks?
#T I think I learnt how things worked, it gives me
knowledge that’s useful.