For those who may be new to your music, how best would you describe your sound?
The Duke Spirit
Raw, vulnerable, tremulous, tender and scuzzy!
What challenges have you faced in the music industry so far?
Constantly dwindling retail sales resulting in tiny budgets to do anything.
How difficult would you say this career path is in terms of making a name for yourself?
Er... It's hard but better than working in telesales. If you analysed it in the terms with which you ask this question, you would not pursue it. It's a ball ache. But it's about the journey, innit... Not the destination!
How important is it for you to have creative control over the work you produce?
That is the entire scenario. At times our wishes have been transgressed or ignored by people paying for things, but we have subsequently stepped out of their orbits.
Where do you draw influence and inspiration from for your work?
The Velvet Underground, PJ Harvey, Wes Anderson, Henry Miller, Phillip Pulman, Orson Wells, Grayson Perry, Caspar David Freidrich, Yayoi Kusama, David Noonan, (painter) Phil Allen, Maria Callas
If you could collaborate with anybody going forward, who would you choose and why?
Sleaford Mods and maybe Giles from Wiltshire on Gogglebox, I bet he's a f**king laugh.
Tell us a random, funny fact about you that not many people know.
I can't without degrading ourselves. We'll keep our pitifully funny stories to ourselves!
Do you have definitive aims or goals for your career?
To create songs and albums that sustain making songs and albums.
Where do you hope to be this time next year?
Somewhere with no obligation to look at my f**king phone!
What should we expect from you in the coming weeks and months?
A new single, summer festivals, radio hosting and learning to tile a bathroom.