While we can’t say if they come from the landed gentry as their name suggests, The Duke, Detroit are decidedly Scottish, and, you might say, part of an emerging set of electro-indie acts around the Edinburgh / Glasgow area – although they’ve recently offered a contrasting bill when gigging with Honeyblood. The Duke himself filled in the blanks…

Who?

The Duke Detroit are:

Troi Law – Vocals/Guitar
Dom Underwood – Bass
Stephen Dennis – Synth
Jake Lawson – Drums

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When?

The Duke, Detroit was a concept Troi had been working on for some time. After he had written and recorded some demos, he wanted to go out and play them live but needed a band to do so. Instead of just drafting in a backing band to play his solo material, in October of last year he decided to form ‘The Duke Detroit’ into a fully fledged electro four piece who have went on to write and record together. Over the past 6 months The Dukes have been playing shows around Edinburgh and Glasgow Supporting great acts like Honeyblood and playing Legendary venues like King Tut’s .

Where?

Troi and Stephen had played in a separate band prior to The Dukes and Stephen was keen to play synth after hearing Troi was forming his own band. Troi, Jake and Dom all met and bonded over their love of Post Punk music and American sitcoms. “Here, you look like Buddy Holly!” was the first thing Troi ever said to Dom after bumping into each other in the smoking area at Sneaky Pete’s. This prompted them discuss 50s music and the image that went with it, and why it be great to achieve something like that with a more modern sound.

What?

We’re an ‘electro-indie’ band but we come from an eclectic mix of different backgrounds and all write our own music to contribute to the band. This allows us to draw on a number of different influences that we feel gives our stage show and studio work more variety. The instrumentation allows us to dip into other genres and play with some (Earth Wind & Fire) samples while still retaining that Duke sound.

Why?

We are mainly trying to come up with something fresh, whilst referencing things from other genres, past artists or songs that have influenced us or our listeners. It’s our way of giving credit.
Sometime’s you’ve just got the music in you. We are all just lucky to have come together and started playing.
No one should ever compromise your art.

Catch them at…
www.thedukedetroit.co.uk
www.facebook.com/thedukedetroit