In Conversation With #275 - Ducks Ltd.
Toronto duo Ducks Ltd. released the high awaited new album ‘Harm’s Way’ last month via Carpark Records.
Making inviting and frenetic guitar pop for when life feels overwhelming. While the band’s songs are ostensibly breezy, a palpable anxiety boils underneath that communicates something deeper about everyday existence. On Harm’s Way, the duo of Tom McGreevy and guitarist Evan Lewis hones in on interpersonal and societal collapses, urban decay, and the near-impossibility of keeping a level head when everything around you seems to be falling apart. Even with its often dark subject matter, the album is Ducks Ltd.’s most vividly rendered and collaborative collection yet. It’s an undeniable evolution for the band, not just in how these songs soar, but in their entire writing and recording processes. Composed on tour while supporting acts like Nation of Language, Illuminati Hotties, and Archers of Loaf, Harm’s Way displays the band’s finely tuned songcraft and well-earned, road-tested confidence.
They took a moment to talk to us about how the album came together.
Hey there Ducks LTD - how are you? So your album is out now - how does it feel to have it out there in the world?
It's definitely exciting to see people listening and responding to it. It's always a longer process than I think it's gonna be from when we make a thing to when it comes out. The record was functionally written a year ago, so it's cool to have these songs existing in the wider world, as songs are supposed to.
It is called ‘Harm’s Way' - what is the meaning behind that?
A lot of the record is about the different ways that I see people I care about struggling to cope with the hostility of the world. To some extent I think that to be in harm's way is sort of the default state of being for most people most of the time. It also feels like a slightly old fashioned phrase and there's a poetic element to it that appeals to me. The way it almost personifies an abstract concept. It's a rich idiom!
Where was it recorded? Any behind the scenes stories from the creative process you are happy to share with us?
It was recorded in three places. Our little basement studio in Toronto was where we did most of the nuts and bolts work, and then we tracked some stuff at Gary's Electric in New York with Johnny Schenke, which ended up being a bit of an experimental process that helped us clarify our approach, and finally in Chicago with Dave Vettraino. The Chicago part was both very productive and a really good time. We made some new friends, got to hang out with some old friends, ate a lot of exciting sandwiches from the greater Chicagoland area, and explored the rich tapestry of regionally-specific mass market domestic lagers available in the Upper Midwest.
What are the key themes and influences on the album?
Ohhhhhh all the normal stuff! The Go Betweens, The Verlaines, The Weather Prophets, My Bloody Valentine before they were a shoegaze band, The Shop Assistants, Felt, The Sea Urchins, The Clean, Echo & The Bunnymen (sort of), The Bats, McCarthy. Things like that.
If the album could be the soundtrack to any film - which one would it be and why?
Hmmmm that's a good question. Maybe one of those '70s movies about a relatively small thing that happens to regular people. I always liked that cycling movie Breaking Away. Or maybe an adaptation of Saturday Night & Sunday Morning? Not the 1960 one, though that is a good movie. It's sort of surprising to me that that book has only been adapted once.
Do you have a favorite lyric on the album - if so, which one and why?
Maybe the line from the second pre-chorus of the title track. "not short and sharp but subtle and sustained/not glamorous but easy to maintain." I feel like I kinda captured what I meant there, and I like the way the words fit together.
Now the album is out there - what next?
Playing some shows! We're really excited to go out and meet the people again. We also have some stuff that didn't fit on the album that we still think is pretty good, so those tracks will come out in some context. Then we'll make another record I imagine. Repeat that process until they won't let us do it anymore.
