This month I chatted with Reuben, who makes up one half of the delicious duo Peking Duk. The guys graced our airwaves in 2012 with a remix of Passion Pit’s Take A Walk, following this saw the release of tracks Way You Are, Feels Like and High (feat Nicole Millar) which has just gone double platinum. Their latest, Take Me Over (feat Ben from Safia) has gotten some great airtime and support from Triple J. Earlier this month the pair took home Best Dance Single at the Carlton Dry Independent Music Awards and have since been nominated for an Aria Award. With an album in the works for 2015, Peking Duk tunes are best served at high volume for maximum satisfaction.
PEARL: First of all, congratulations on the ARIA nomination.
REUBEN: Thanks, it’s pretty crazy hey. It was a huge surprise when we got told. We woke up in Ubud (Bali) after our show in Bali and I was overlooking a rice paddock (laughs) I was like hooly dooly!
PEARL: In February this year you guys released High (feat Nicole Miller) which got some massive air time on Triple J. Do you think this was the track that propelled you to where you are at now?
REUBEN: Yeah, I suppose that and The Way You Are, were massive milestone tracks for us. We were in the states when we first put out High and after a few weeks we got back to Australia and had a show in Perth and the difference between our gigs was phenomenal. Immediately every gig straight after that was more packed, there were more fans it was crazy.
PEARL: When you and Adam sit down and start writing music what inspires you?
REUBEN: Well I get super inspired by listening to entire albums, like at the moment Alt Jay and Little Dragon I’m In love with. I’ve also started listening to The Jimmy Hendrix experience again. Adam, I believe is getting super inspired by a bit of drake and the backing beats in his tracks, we are both inspired by Jai Pool. There is a lot of exciting music that’s inspiring us; we are very musically inspired by other music (laughs).
PEARL: Your latest track with Safia, Take Me Over has just been released it’s such a catchy feel good tune, how did you come to work together?
It started off as another song and it was a remix through an LA band. We tried making a sick remix and before we knew it we said the vocals we are remixing are pretty average and the label wasn’t that pumped about it. So we were like screw this, we ditched the vocals off the top and started thinking about new vocalists. I guess we were really big fans of the first two Safia songs so we reached out to Ben on Facebook, it was good news when we got a reply. He said you know let’s do this. We started jamming some melodies and then Ben sent over the chorus for Take Me Over, we were like yeah, this is it.
PEARL: Who else would you like to collaborate with in the future?
REUBEN: There is this chick Asha from France, even Aussies we would love to work with Meg Mac, Americans like Banks, Little Dragon, hooley dooley that would be good! The list is pretty endless but that’s all just girls I realised (laughs) guys would be cool as well.
PEARL: You guys are playing at Beyond the Valley music festival over New Years down at Phillip Island, have you ever been down there to Phillip Island before?
REUBEN: I’ve never been there before but I’ve heard there are penguins. This kid in Bali came to deliver breakfast to my room and he asked what country I was from. I said Australia and he asked if I had been to Phillip Island and I was like no, he said oh my dream is to go to Phillip Island and see the Casey Stoner (laughs).
PEARL: Will you be staying down there?
REUBEN: It’s a pretty busy period for us so it will be very in and out, but we will try to soak it up every step along the way as much as we can. Apart from that I definitely do want to go back and spend a few weeks at the island because I’ve heard its pretty amazing.
PEARL: What’s on for the rest of the year?
REUBEN: Stereosonic is coming up… That’s going to be a fun tour. We’ve always dreamt of doing a full tour and now we are. After that, just keep making tunes, playing shows and try to start work on an album.
Find out more about Peking Duk via their Soundcloud page (www.soundcloud.com/pekingduk) or Facebook (www.facebook.com/pekingduk).
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