Duels might be the best band you’ve never heard of. Universally applauded (yes, other planets too) for their shiny, scary debut, an effortlessly brilliant piece of pop that almost nobody noticed, the Leeds heroes are back with a record that, promises frontman Jon Foulger, will be the sound of “nature fighting back”.
From their humble University beginnings, Duels (two Jons, two Jims and the occasional lady) have been all about the music. “We exchanged tapes, had a hug and formed a band...” Turning their backs on making Radio Four-style short plays, complete with “crunching gravel and squeaking doors”, Duels decided to make a break for brilliance, releasing the Britpop-as-the-sea-rises single ‘Potential Futures’ in 2005. Since then, they’ve supported fellow Leeds pop-purveyors Kaiser Chiefs, former blur guitarist Graham Coxon, opened T in the Park, crossed the pond to play SXSW and found time to record a debut album ‘The Bright Lights & What I Should Have Learned’ which was so brilliant it managed to scoop album of the week in the Guardian and the Sunday Times, not to mention a nudge and a wink from those acronyms of indie, XFM and NME. So why haven’t you heard of them yet?
Jon Foulger (think David Bowie’s wiry-voiced Just William-alike cousin) puts it down to label trouble, “Things went belly up with our label just after the first record was released,” he reflects. “And because of that there was no money to tour or to promote it - that simple really. It was disappointing.” That would explain why an album full of ecstatic yet exhausted singles, like ‘Animal’ or ‘The Monsters Are Loose’ aren’t inside your head, where they belong. Undeterred, the band set about working on a follow-up. After the neon lights of their debut, Jon says he wanted an album “more bloody and real”, and also “more human and natural than 'Bright Lights'. That was a synthetic sounding record which worked for those songs, but the new ones were much more grounded and based in the elements so we wanted to reflect that.”
Upping sticks to a converted barn on the North Sea Coast, in the middle of a “beautiful” winter, Duels found inspiration in their new surroundings. “It's right next the sea and just off the shore under the waves is a town called Auburn which disappeared into the water a couple of hundred years ago leaving just the chapel behind. The season and location had a massive impact on the album - it feels like I can see my breath every time I listen to it… People have told me it's a lot darker, I think it's definitely angrier but there's a lot more soul in it.” Listening to new tracks ‘Regeneration’ and ‘Sleeping Giants’, it’s clear that Jon speaks the truth. They’re still as catchy as hell, with waves of backing vocals and terrifying bass, but now they sound even more unhinged, even more likely to go postal. In their quiet moments too, they evoke a beauty that their peers simply can’t muster; they’re a pop band with substance, with heart and with (a possibly tortured) soul.
“The western world's become very practical,” muses John. “I was fascinated by the idea that years ago we were governed by these kind of beliefs, that were directly linked to the natural world - if you were guilty of something for example then your punishment was delivered by souls that travelled in the wind. The ideas were so dramatic and magical so, though the album is dark and dense - it's also got that magic in it there I think.” It’s this magic and mystery that make Duels so uniquely compelling.
They’re also very much a fan’s band. Their self-maintained website, duelsmusic.com released the new record on Valentine’s Day, as a kind of romantic meal for their lovers. Although the physical release just occured on thisisfakeDIY, Jon’s keen to stress the importance of the internet to the unit. “We had no intention to release the album physically at all until we were offered the chance to at the eleventh hour… We didn't want to start carting it around to see who was interested, then get involved in protracted negotiations to release it. The beauty of the way music works now is that you can now get your material out there to a great deal of people without the fuss.” Also worth checking out is their free online singles club ‘Little Monsters’, a masterclass in making the fans feel special.
Questions almost over, I try a bit of unprofessional stirring, trying to coax Jon into handbags at dawn with some other bands for a special Autobuffet DUELS vs. THE BEATLES SHOCKER!!!1, but can only manage to glean some enthusiasm for Vampire Weekend (reviewed below) and the Brooklyn scene, as well as a passing comment that the focus of the British music press remains “too narrow”, a criticism we could never level at a man who spends his time listening to Bjork, Robert Wyatt, Talking Heads and that other titan of the muso world, Britney. And what is he the most proud of?
“I'm proud that we're still going and making better and better music - we're learning all the time and I’ve never been more excited about what comes next. I'm proud of everyone in the band for believing in it through some difficult and testing times. It's turned into more than a band now, I think - it's a beast with its own free will.”
With that in mind, we can only hide under the duvet, clutching our hearts and sweating with worry about what this most brilliant of British bands might conjure up next.
Regeneration (2008)
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