Interview with St. Dukes: ‘You can hear the afterglow of genres that we’ve dipped our toes into’

Glasgow based folk band St. Dukes will release their debut self-titled album tomorrow (15 April), giving us 12 tracks that run the full gamut from folky to rocky.

The band, which has been together since 2014, comprises Lewis Douglas (vocals and guitar), Sarah Connor (vocals and guitar), Fraser Hamilton (bass) and Max Orr (drums). Douglas, Connor and Orr met at a songwriting summer school in 2010. ‘Around 30 to 40 kids attended, we all went off and wrote a couple of songs,’ Douglas said. ‘Me, Max and Fraser played in another band together.’ Their name is a reference to Duke Street in Glasgow: ‘It’s the longest street in Europe, apparently,’ Douglas said. ‘We all used to meet on Duke Street when I had a flat there.’

The album is both invigorating and nostalgic, combining playful layered vocals with moody folk riffs. One track on it ‘To Be Home’ was chosen as BBC Radio Scotland’s song of the week, its summer flavour offering a refreshing contrast to the city’s drizzly disposition. Overall, it sees them move in a more folky direction, albeit with rockier tracks, such as ‘Tell Me’ still in the mix: ‘We were much rockier before, we’ve always had a wee bit of that,’ Douglas said. ‘The album is a wee bit of a mish mash. You can hear the afterglow of genres that we’ve dipped our toes into.’

‘When you write a certain song, you need a certain style’

Douglas and Connor both share and trade lead vocals on the album, a decision that they made early on in the band: ‘If Lewis writes a song, he sings it and if I do, then I’ll sing it, most of the time, although sometimes Lewis will write something for me to sing,’ Connor said. Douglas nods: ‘When you write a certain song, you need a certain style,’ he said. ‘That’s what happened with the opener ‘Animal Glue’, it was a phrase I heard that sounded cool. There’s not really a story behind it.’

As the song kicks off: ‘Entwined, we’re passing more than just the time. In my mind, it’s all romantically divine. We work well. Thoughts on which to dwell. But shh, don’t tell. Stop me spinning on this carousel.’

However, initially they’d just planned to release an EP: ‘We recorded six songs with the intention of doing an EP but then COVID happened,’ Connor said. ‘We ended up writing a lot more.’ Interestingly, as the two main songwriters in the group, they have very different writing styles, with Connor taking a lot of inspiration from her own life, whereas Douglas’ lyrics are typically less personal. ‘If Lewis has a song, he normally does all of the melody and I’ll do the same,’ Connor said. ‘That part is fleshed out before we take it to the band. Fraser likes to dabble in songwriting as well. He’s got a few ideas for our second album with some synths and guitar parts.’ Douglas is laughing: ‘He’s done music theory, so he has some interesting progressions!,’ he said.

‘A lot of my songs are just fictional, melancholy tales’

Musically, they share a lot of inspiration: ‘We all like the Pixies and strong, poppy melodies,’ Douglas said. ‘You can hear that in the middle eight a bit in ‘Animal Glue’. A lot of my songs are just fictional, melancholy tales (laughs). I self analyse myself, I’m trying to write some happier songs for the next album! Nirvana, I really love them. Connor interjects: ‘Right now, I love Courtney Barnett, she’s one of my faves. I love her song ‘Avant Gardener’ and her new record (Things Take Time, Take Time, 2021).’ Douglas nods: ‘She’s slacker, melodic garage rock, she’s Australian,’ he said. Connor weighs in: ‘I like HAIM a lot and I watched School of Rock a lot as a kid (the 2003 comedy staring Jack Black as a rock star). Douglas agrees: ‘That film made me want to play guitar, but I break a lot of strings at gigs,’ he joked. ‘We’ve actually thanked them on the album!’

‘Tell Me’ is one one the heavier songs on the album and shows just how versatile Connor’s voice is, fusing soul and rock with a slight 70’s vibe in places: ‘It sounded very different initially when I wrote it on an acoustic guitar,’ she said. ‘It’s about someone I knew years ago who was making bad choices, it’s saying “I need other people to see that your choices need to change”. I think it’s easier to be creative when you’re not feeling the best of yourself.’

That comes across in the lyrics: ‘Tell me something you know for fact, ‘cos I can see that you’re finding it hard to relax. Pretend it’s all just a bad dream, ‘cos when you wake up, you’re gonna scream.’

Other tracks, such as ‘Modern Culture’ have more of a retro feel, with Douglas taking on lead vocals: ‘It has a bit more meaning to it than some of my other songs but not a wild amount (laughs),’ he said. ‘It’s kind of about COVID, it’s been a turbulent time for the last three years. The song’s a surface level snapshot of politics in general, a kind of “What’s going on here?” In the second verse, there’s a reference to when protestors stormed the Michigan state capitol (in April 2020) as Trump came to the end of his presidency. This stuff is never ending. Who knows, maybe aliens will be next – maybe they’ll come and save us!’

As the song goes: ‘Who’d have thunk it. We’ve gone and flunked it. Who’d have known it. We’ve gone and blown it. Another day of fluff on the BBC. The wrong thing in the right wing rubbish heap. When will I return? What will I have learned?’

‘It sounds like something on the Juno soundtrack’

‘Don’t Recognise Mine’ is a perfect closer and is both wistful, full of doubt and dreamy in equal measure, as evidenced by the lyrics: ‘I can’t understand the ground I walk on. It slows me before I try. And I can’t see the faces around me. Sometimes I don’t even recognise mine. My bones they just won’t stop shaking ‘cos I’m so caught up in my mind, my own mind.’ As Connor puts it: ‘It sounds like something on the Juno soundtrack (a 2007 American coming of age comedy-drama about a teenage confronting an unplanned pregnancy). It’s about being caught up in your own troubles. It’s written like a letter, like a snapshot of mine. It’s really old, actually, I wrote it in 2015.’

They released their debut EP ‘Stranger by the Day’ in August 2019 to a sold-out show in Glasgow and have since been played on radio stations including BBC Radio Scotland and BBC Radio nan Gàidheal. In early 2021, they signed to Last Night From Glasgow. They are now working on their second album, with four or five songs underway, according to Connor.

Connor would put AC/DC and The Beatles on her dream line up but Douglas has other plans: ‘Can I have Iggy Pop?,’ he asked. Connor is laughing: ‘My brain is exploding with that question! I love Paramore, it kills people in the band!’ Douglas puts on a pained face then laughs: ‘I was an angsty teenager and got into them for a bit,’ he said. Connor interjects: ‘Everyone was over them when I got into them but I love them anyway, I’m not ashamed!’

(Photo from left to right: Max, Sarah, Fraser and Lewis)