Synth-pop trio Filthy Dukes started out promoting club nights and DJing before they formed as a band in 2005. They’ve supported music-masters such as Mylo, Hot Chip and LCD Soundsystem, and they are hailed as rising stars of the electro-pop world, filling dancefloors with their 80’s-tinged synth-drenched beats. Single ‘Tupac Robot Club Rock‘ was received extremely well upon its release late in 2008, and the follow-up ‘This Rhythm’ is due out on 9 Mar, and features Samuel Dust from fellow darlings of the electro world, Late Of The Pier. It is sure to make the same impact. The band’s debut album, ‘Nonsense In The Dark’ will follow on 16 Mar through Fiction. The Olly Dixon third of the group has answered our Same Six Questions.

Q1 How did you start out making music?
It started with our club, Kill Em All. Tim and I met at The Lock Tavern in Camden, where we both worked and just started playing records together. Kill Em All was a night inspired by the music we loved, everything from the emerging DFA label from New York and Output stuff in the UK to old bands like Roxy Music, Can and Bowie. Kill Em All became quite successful so we moved it to Fabric and started DJing at loads of other parties. We got asked to do a remix for The Rakes and we didn’t really know what we were doing so hooked up with my friend Mark who was a producer. Something just worked between us so we started working on more stuff together and the three of us became Filthy Dukes. We did a remix for The Maccabees and their label, Fiction, loved it, and offered us some development money to work on some original material and after a year or so in the studio we are signed to Fiction and have a finished album.

Q2 What inspired your latest single, ‘This Rhythm’?
Nights out, acid house, David Bowie, Roxy Music, vodka, Late Of The Pier, the ARP 2600.

Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
Our album has nine different vocalists on it, so every track was created slightly differently. All started with us making the basic track and then, if we felt it needed vocals, we would send it off to a band or artist that we knew, or who had played Kill Em All, who we thought would fit the track. Generally artists record a demo vocal and send it back to us, we then make some suggestions before they come into the studio to spend a day recording it with us. Then we work on the track again for a few weeks or sometimes months. It’s been a long process making the album, but that’s what has allowed it to be so good, I think. Nothing was rushed. The other big factor in the album’s sound came from all the music being played on analogue synths, ARP 2600, Juno 60, Moog Voyager and Roland 101. Plus, we recorded it all through a mixing desk that was built and used by the Krautrock producer Connie Plank. I think there is a definite krautrock feel to a lot of the tracks. We use a lot of live drums mixed with electronic, live bass and guitars and other bits of percussion and strings so the album has a live sound.

Filthy Dukes – This Rhythm from Filthy Dukes on Vimeo.

Q4 Which artists influence your work?
Bands who have influenced us range from Can to LCD Sound System, Roxy Music to Daft Punk, Kraftwerk to Soulwax, Pink Floyd to Chemical Brothers.

Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
I think our music is fairly self-explanatory, it is a very varied album, but nothing needs an explanation

Q6 What are your ambitions for your album, and for the future?
I’m not sure what our ambitions are for the album. We hope it sells well because we love it and have worked very hard on it. I think now as a live band, and as DJs and producers we want to carry on creating music, playing music and putting on great parties. We always have tons of ideas of what we want to do next and how we want to move things on, so as long as we can do that we will be happy. We are starting Kill Em All as a record label so that’s the next thing for us to get our teeth into. Interview from CMU

Download: We Are Blah Blah Blah Blah EP11 – Filthy Dukes

Tracklist

1. Filthy Dukes – This Rhythm (Emperor Machine Remix Edit)
2. LSB – Cosmic Wild Boar
3. They Came From The Stars I Saw Them – Moon Song (Serge Santiago Totally Different Mix)
4. Astro Kid – I Will Destroy Your Spaceship
5. Charlie – Space Woman
6. Opera House – Change In Nature (Filthy Dukes Remix)
7. LCD Soundsystem – Get Innocuous (Soulwax Remix)
8. Beni – My Love Needs You
9. Filthy Dukes – Twenty Six Hundred
10. Filthy Dukes – This Rhythm (Kill Em All Remix)
11. Format:B – Edding 850
12. Nacho Lovers – Acid Life
13. Zombie Nation – Forza
14. Mr Oizo – Gay Dentist
15. Dance Area – AA 24 7 (Instrumental Mix)
16. Bloc Party – One Month Off (Filthy Dukes Remix)
17. Heloise and the Savoir Faire – Illusions (Filthy Dukes Remix)

Tags: Filthy Dukes, Kill Em All

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