The Dukes

THE DUKES is an indie-rock group created in January 2010 by Shanka (guitar/vocals) and Greg Jacks (drums). Having already shared a stage together for several years with another group (No One is Innocent) and performing more than 150 concerts together in 2 years, the two musicians knew each other well. Through their mutual desire to create a project that brings together all the things that make them want to devote their life to rock, THE DUKES was born. And in just a couple months the project became a very serious deal due to passion, professionalism and a relentless DIY attitude.
The musicians of THE DUKES are influenced by bands and artists such The MC5, The Dandy Warhols, William Blake, The White Stripes, McLusky, Future of the Left, Black Sabbath, Weezer, Queens of the Stone Age, Elliott Murphy, The Velvet Underground, Pink Floyd, The Dead Weather, Leonard Cohen, Nirvana, Patti Smith, The Subways, The Stooges, Barkmarket, Fugazi, The Rolling Stones, John Spencer, NIN, NoMeansNo, Cult of Luna, Unsane, The Melvins, and The Smashing Pumpkins, just to name a few.
In January/February 2010, the pieces, written and composed by Shanka in 2009, were rearranged and finalized by Greg and Shanka. Gaspard Murphy (guitar/backing vocals), a longtime American musician friend of Shanka and songwriter Elliot Murphy’s son, joined them to finalize the album. They made a quick decision to record the album in Umea, Sweden at Tonteknik Studios (Refused, Poison the Well…) with Magnus Lindberg (Cult of Luna) and the group flew off to Sweden at the beginning of March, bearing an average temperature at -20°C in order to give life to their first album. When Shanka met Magnus the previous year while he was touring with Cult of Luna (Shanka and his previous group were headlining that tour), the two musicians/producers promised to work together as soon as possible…and it happened less than a year later! The motto for those two weeks of production would be:  « sweet songs with unsweet sounds ». In other words catchy songs and guitar melodies, breaking away from the indie rock influences of the group… Somewhere between The White Stripes, The Editors and Foo Fighters, with just a hint of acidity reminiscent of the movement Noise. The takes produced in Tonteknik Studios, which used to be a psychiatric hospital, gave the album a timeless and haunted atmosphere, evoking the surreal vibe of the takes.
Next the group decided to mix the titles in Brussels with Charles de Schutter in order to find that « fat » sound of power-pop groups from the 90s, the Swedish guitar sound of modern Swedish guitar acts, and get a real « live » sound.
After that the bassist Stephen Galtera joined the band for their first concerts in Europe in the spring of 2010 for the presentation of the film « The Oxbow Waterman Experience », which made its début in September 2010 and was produced by the surf wear brand Oxbow and features surf superstars such as Laird Hamilton and Levi Siver who also toured. The film’s soundtrack has 4 songs from The Dukes.  The concerts showed the bands explosive and spontaneous nature on stage, causing Levi Siver to shout: « you guys are the new Sex Pistols! ».
For Oxbow’s 20th anniversary, Virgin Mobile released a cell phone throughout Europe with two exclusive tracks from The Dukes: Laughter and Resilient Lovers.
Not long after, the band was spotted by the label PIAS and signed with the label in September 2010. The EP, « Resilient Lover » is set to be released October 2010, followed by a European tour in December and the album release in Spring 2011.