Peking Duk (24/12/2013)
The dictionary defines Peking duck, as a famous "Chinese dish consisting of roasted duck meat and strips of crispy duck skin topped with scallions and sauce and wrapped in thin pancakes." Now take away the ‘C’ from the word ‘duck’ and you get Adam Hyde and Reuben Styles of ‘Peking Duk.’ A duo served with a dish of electro fuse, a side of house and marinated with a galvanizing slowed down beat. And as to how they formed the name from the oriental dish,
“Actually it’s a funny story but I don’t think it’s very suitable for interviews. So I guess for the actual thing we have to tell you in person, but lets just say it has something to do with partying.”
Hailing from the Australian capital of Canberra and sharing mutual friends. Adam and Reuben constantly crossed paths at house parties and events before finally settling at the same school for year 11 and 12. Forming a close friendship, the duo began to develop a taste for house and electronic music before deciding on making their own.
“Well we were friends and we never really heard any club or electronic music that really excited us. Then a mutual friend of ours called Tom gave us this little burnt CD he made full of house records like Fake Blood, Crookers and a lot of old stuff like old Bloody Beetroots. We both had the CDs and so did all of our friends and they were like, ‘Oh you have to hear this stuff.’ So we listened to it and we completely fell in love with the music because it was just so different, sort of weird in a way. So we sort of kept listening to it and then we thought, ‘Hey lets try and start making this music.’ Reuben at the time was in an indie rock band and I was doing a bit of Hip Hop stuff and I don’t really know how it happened but it just sort of came together quite naturally. Like it just happened and before we knew it we were making music together and we brought these pair of turntables that were shocking. Like the worst possible set of decks you could get and then we got a copy of ‘Reason’, the music software and then it happened sort of naturally and here we’re now.”
Peking Duk’s music has hailed an onslaught of praise from well-established EDM pioneers such as Tiesto, Steven Aoki and many more across the dance music spectrum. Playing at festivals such as Parklife to Foreshore, Adam and Reuben have garnered enough attention for their music to play at the famous Big Day Out festival next year in January.
“Cannot wait man, absolutely cannot wait. It’s going to be awesome, we got a whole bunch of cool stuff lined up for our set and there are so many good acts on the bill. It’s just going to be a great tour, so we can’t wait.”
Adam continues, “I haven’t seen Tame Impala and I really want to see Tame Impala. Definitely the homies Rufus and Flume and Major Lazor always puts on a good show. Can’t wait to see Snoop Dog, like the whole line up is awesome, it’s going to be one hell of a tour.”
Despite an array of festivals under their belts, Adam and Reuben still play locally in the Australian club scene. Headlining shows at local Australian clubs such as Anyway at the Palace Theatre in Melbourne and HQ in Adelaide. Adam and Reuben’s billing has also expanded to Asia with the duo recently finishing off a tour that included countries such as South Korea, Thailand and Cambodia. Despite all these shows, Adam explains that the crowd response is quite different but also hard to differentiate.
“HQ in Adelaide is huge, I think that’s the biggest club in the southern hemisphere and that place is out of control. Anyway in Melbourne was incredible, that was a really fun show; we’re really looking forward to getting back there. We played a show in South Korea a while back and that club was crazy. It looked like they spent a billion dollars just on the design of the club, like just how beautiful it was. It looked so professional and lush at the same time, but that club had a really good vibe and the Koreans know how to party. We also played at the Sky Garden in Bali that was sick; the vibe in there was really good. It was like stinking hot and everyone was sweating it having a good time.”
As to how to how they ignite their crowds into more of are frenzy, “We like to involve them a lot. Sometimes we try and get people to come up on stage, like we did at an MTV party on the weekend and we got everyone to get up on stage to try and dance. Security kicked them off straight away but everyone was smiling and having a good time. But we sort of try and make them have as much as party as they can, whether that be feeding them the vodka or getting them up on stage, dancing with them or telling people to do certain things and telling the other people to applaud them for their work, but it varies from show to show. Show-wise, we just like to have a lot of fun and try to turn the atmosphere into one big party, so that everyone is having a good time.”
“Musically-wise like the music that we’re working on at the moment. Well we got a bunch of finished music but we’re just sort of trying to figure out how to put it out and when. That’s a whole bunch of different styles, but I think it’s a bit of diversity; it can’t all be the same sort of stuff.”
With the sudden surge of fame, it was to no surprise that their single ‘I Love To Rap’ shot straight to the ARIA top 10-club chart and stayed there for a total of four weeks. In a familiar contrast, the release of ‘The Way You Are’ saw the song become a regular request on Triple J and holding the number one spot for six weeks on the ARIA club charts again. Yet in a world of arrogant stars such as Justin Bieber and Kanye West, Adam explained the feeling of fame but also the need for modesty.
“It feels good man, it feels really good. Trying to keep our heads down and keep working. But it’s a really good feeling to have, for artists that you look up to respect your work and it’s really good to meet some of the people you look up to as well. To know them as people and to really get to know them and sort of find out that they’re actually really interesting human beings. Like it’s all really new and exciting but everyday we’re learning and we couldn’t be more thankful for it.”
With the release of their latest single ‘Feels Like’, Adam went on to explain the whole creation process behind the song, the involvement of their friend and mentor DCUP and how they got ‘Miami Horror’ vocalist ‘Josh Moriarty’ to feature.
“Pretty much we kept working on the beat for a while and we had a whole bunch of different ideas, where we kept going back and forth and we were sort of just sitting there for a while. Then I was chilling in Melbourne and I was listening to a lot of Miami Horror at the time. I remember the day very clearly actually, I was in Brunswick just drinking a bit of wine, enjoying the sun and listening to Miami Horror and I thought, ‘Damn this dude has a sick voice, imagine him on that beat. Who do I know that knows Miami Horror?’ So then I sent a text to DCUP, our long time mentor since day one and a best friend of ours and said, ‘Hey dude, do you know Josh from Miami Horror?’ and literally a minute later he wrote back with ‘Intros’ as a reply and then I checked my email and he introduced us through email. Then it was just a matter of days, he would sent us draft vocals and then we just worked on it from there and got the song 3 weeks later.”
In regards to the whole local-dance teacher idea for the music clip, “Actually it was the director, Jeff Johnson who runs Frank Meets Wolf, his production company, his just a very eccentric person with a very eccentric mind. His are very good friends of ours and he did a few club videos of ours and we were at splendour actually, we were getting drunk at splendour and as Flume was playing, he was like ‘Oh I have a really good idea for you guys. I would love to do a clip of you guys.’ So of course we said yes and then we fast-forwarded a few months were we had to get some ideas for the video clip. So we hit him up and the next day he sent over the whole storyboard, like the idea and vibe for the clip and we were like, ‘Yeah, that’s it, that’s incredible.’ And it came out so well, it came out really well and he such a professional guy, always on the ball, very hard working and very good with everything. So it was really good working with him and we will definitely be working with him again in the future.”
While Peking Duk have released their own stand-alone singles, they’re perhaps most famous for their remixes. And while for some artists, they choose to deviate from the original single and make an entirely new beat but still aligning close enough that the listener is able associate the two tracks together. For others, they wing the creation process and see what sound they develop based solely on their skill and imagination. For Adam and Reuben, the duo sees the latter as the better scheme when remixing songs.
“Definitely wing it, it’s always exciting doing a remix and thinking at the back of your head of what you could do to it and how you could put your little flip on it. So once you put your stems into a project and start working with it, its always exciting, I think remixes are really, really exciting in that way. But its usually see what develops, like you always have a rough idea in your head of what you want and what it sounds like. I think along the way its always going to change and unexpected and happy accidents will happen. So it’s a bit of both, a combination I guess. I think we’re still searching for it, but I would say our sound is influenced from indie rock and hip hop and mesh together with a bass from dance music."
Jason Cheung
“Actually it’s a funny story but I don’t think it’s very suitable for interviews. So I guess for the actual thing we have to tell you in person, but lets just say it has something to do with partying.”
Hailing from the Australian capital of Canberra and sharing mutual friends. Adam and Reuben constantly crossed paths at house parties and events before finally settling at the same school for year 11 and 12. Forming a close friendship, the duo began to develop a taste for house and electronic music before deciding on making their own.
“Well we were friends and we never really heard any club or electronic music that really excited us. Then a mutual friend of ours called Tom gave us this little burnt CD he made full of house records like Fake Blood, Crookers and a lot of old stuff like old Bloody Beetroots. We both had the CDs and so did all of our friends and they were like, ‘Oh you have to hear this stuff.’ So we listened to it and we completely fell in love with the music because it was just so different, sort of weird in a way. So we sort of kept listening to it and then we thought, ‘Hey lets try and start making this music.’ Reuben at the time was in an indie rock band and I was doing a bit of Hip Hop stuff and I don’t really know how it happened but it just sort of came together quite naturally. Like it just happened and before we knew it we were making music together and we brought these pair of turntables that were shocking. Like the worst possible set of decks you could get and then we got a copy of ‘Reason’, the music software and then it happened sort of naturally and here we’re now.”
Peking Duk’s music has hailed an onslaught of praise from well-established EDM pioneers such as Tiesto, Steven Aoki and many more across the dance music spectrum. Playing at festivals such as Parklife to Foreshore, Adam and Reuben have garnered enough attention for their music to play at the famous Big Day Out festival next year in January.
“Cannot wait man, absolutely cannot wait. It’s going to be awesome, we got a whole bunch of cool stuff lined up for our set and there are so many good acts on the bill. It’s just going to be a great tour, so we can’t wait.”
Adam continues, “I haven’t seen Tame Impala and I really want to see Tame Impala. Definitely the homies Rufus and Flume and Major Lazor always puts on a good show. Can’t wait to see Snoop Dog, like the whole line up is awesome, it’s going to be one hell of a tour.”
Despite an array of festivals under their belts, Adam and Reuben still play locally in the Australian club scene. Headlining shows at local Australian clubs such as Anyway at the Palace Theatre in Melbourne and HQ in Adelaide. Adam and Reuben’s billing has also expanded to Asia with the duo recently finishing off a tour that included countries such as South Korea, Thailand and Cambodia. Despite all these shows, Adam explains that the crowd response is quite different but also hard to differentiate.
“HQ in Adelaide is huge, I think that’s the biggest club in the southern hemisphere and that place is out of control. Anyway in Melbourne was incredible, that was a really fun show; we’re really looking forward to getting back there. We played a show in South Korea a while back and that club was crazy. It looked like they spent a billion dollars just on the design of the club, like just how beautiful it was. It looked so professional and lush at the same time, but that club had a really good vibe and the Koreans know how to party. We also played at the Sky Garden in Bali that was sick; the vibe in there was really good. It was like stinking hot and everyone was sweating it having a good time.”
As to how to how they ignite their crowds into more of are frenzy, “We like to involve them a lot. Sometimes we try and get people to come up on stage, like we did at an MTV party on the weekend and we got everyone to get up on stage to try and dance. Security kicked them off straight away but everyone was smiling and having a good time. But we sort of try and make them have as much as party as they can, whether that be feeding them the vodka or getting them up on stage, dancing with them or telling people to do certain things and telling the other people to applaud them for their work, but it varies from show to show. Show-wise, we just like to have a lot of fun and try to turn the atmosphere into one big party, so that everyone is having a good time.”
“Musically-wise like the music that we’re working on at the moment. Well we got a bunch of finished music but we’re just sort of trying to figure out how to put it out and when. That’s a whole bunch of different styles, but I think it’s a bit of diversity; it can’t all be the same sort of stuff.”
With the sudden surge of fame, it was to no surprise that their single ‘I Love To Rap’ shot straight to the ARIA top 10-club chart and stayed there for a total of four weeks. In a familiar contrast, the release of ‘The Way You Are’ saw the song become a regular request on Triple J and holding the number one spot for six weeks on the ARIA club charts again. Yet in a world of arrogant stars such as Justin Bieber and Kanye West, Adam explained the feeling of fame but also the need for modesty.
“It feels good man, it feels really good. Trying to keep our heads down and keep working. But it’s a really good feeling to have, for artists that you look up to respect your work and it’s really good to meet some of the people you look up to as well. To know them as people and to really get to know them and sort of find out that they’re actually really interesting human beings. Like it’s all really new and exciting but everyday we’re learning and we couldn’t be more thankful for it.”
With the release of their latest single ‘Feels Like’, Adam went on to explain the whole creation process behind the song, the involvement of their friend and mentor DCUP and how they got ‘Miami Horror’ vocalist ‘Josh Moriarty’ to feature.
“Pretty much we kept working on the beat for a while and we had a whole bunch of different ideas, where we kept going back and forth and we were sort of just sitting there for a while. Then I was chilling in Melbourne and I was listening to a lot of Miami Horror at the time. I remember the day very clearly actually, I was in Brunswick just drinking a bit of wine, enjoying the sun and listening to Miami Horror and I thought, ‘Damn this dude has a sick voice, imagine him on that beat. Who do I know that knows Miami Horror?’ So then I sent a text to DCUP, our long time mentor since day one and a best friend of ours and said, ‘Hey dude, do you know Josh from Miami Horror?’ and literally a minute later he wrote back with ‘Intros’ as a reply and then I checked my email and he introduced us through email. Then it was just a matter of days, he would sent us draft vocals and then we just worked on it from there and got the song 3 weeks later.”
In regards to the whole local-dance teacher idea for the music clip, “Actually it was the director, Jeff Johnson who runs Frank Meets Wolf, his production company, his just a very eccentric person with a very eccentric mind. His are very good friends of ours and he did a few club videos of ours and we were at splendour actually, we were getting drunk at splendour and as Flume was playing, he was like ‘Oh I have a really good idea for you guys. I would love to do a clip of you guys.’ So of course we said yes and then we fast-forwarded a few months were we had to get some ideas for the video clip. So we hit him up and the next day he sent over the whole storyboard, like the idea and vibe for the clip and we were like, ‘Yeah, that’s it, that’s incredible.’ And it came out so well, it came out really well and he such a professional guy, always on the ball, very hard working and very good with everything. So it was really good working with him and we will definitely be working with him again in the future.”
While Peking Duk have released their own stand-alone singles, they’re perhaps most famous for their remixes. And while for some artists, they choose to deviate from the original single and make an entirely new beat but still aligning close enough that the listener is able associate the two tracks together. For others, they wing the creation process and see what sound they develop based solely on their skill and imagination. For Adam and Reuben, the duo sees the latter as the better scheme when remixing songs.
“Definitely wing it, it’s always exciting doing a remix and thinking at the back of your head of what you could do to it and how you could put your little flip on it. So once you put your stems into a project and start working with it, its always exciting, I think remixes are really, really exciting in that way. But its usually see what develops, like you always have a rough idea in your head of what you want and what it sounds like. I think along the way its always going to change and unexpected and happy accidents will happen. So it’s a bit of both, a combination I guess. I think we’re still searching for it, but I would say our sound is influenced from indie rock and hip hop and mesh together with a bass from dance music."
Jason Cheung