LAMP Weekly Mix #115 feat. Ducky
LAMP Weekly Mix #115 feat. Ducky
Today we're bringing you a different flavor and style of music as we continue to explore and break out of our house mold this year to focus on more LA based producers who are pioneering and making waves in their respected genres. Ducky, to say the least, packs a powerful punch and combined with a work ethic that surpasses even some of the most seasoned producers and DJs is on one hell of a trajectory. Recently featured on Insomniac Events's Metronome this raw talent is cutting through the haze and making herself properly known. Check out her interview with PZB below.PZB: Between your weekly Rave Tools and Club Aerobics you are producing so much content. I'm beginning to wonder if and when you sleep. What is the driving force behind the massive amount of motivation and energy you have?Ducky: It’s probably a combo move between coffee and my complete lack of interest in anything else. All I care about is music. All I want to do is produce, DJ, and help build up other artists. I spend most of my time in the studio. Not having a day job helps, too.PZB: Congrats on your Metronome feature on Insomniac! I really enjoyed reading your interview. To follow up on something John Ochoa touched on; what programming languages are you versed in? Do you find that the interface of a DAW has correlations to the programs you use to write code? Does your methodology in writing code reflect your style of music or how you produce?Ducky: Thanks! My focus in coding has jumped around quite a bit. I actually tested the waters in elementary school with basic HTML and CSS so I could customize websites for my Neopets. As an adult, I was reintroduced to programming through Arduino after I took some introductory physical computing classes with the goal of building my own MIDI controllers. I got distracted by how much I loved writing the code and jumped in to experimental applications of Javascript and HTML5, using canvas, webGL and the web audio API to create interactive visualizers. I got hired as a front-end developer at a startup focused on machine learning, where I ended up learning Python so I could transition into QA and write automated testing frameworks for continuous integration testing. I also have a background in Ruby and SQL but I never found either particularly rewarding.It’s funny, people love to look for correlations between my coding work and my production work but I never felt they were related. I used to study mathematics and I received the same questions about how it translated into my music. I’m sure there’s some underlying reason I’m attracted to both, but I couldn’t tell you what it is. I like music, and I like coding and math. That’s it! I’m sure being comfortable with technology has advantages as a producer, but I don’t know if it goes much deeper.PZB: You have a style that is so reminiscent of the 90’s rave scene it’s really impressive. Are you familiar with the Tidy Trax label?Ducky: Thanks! I am vaguely familiar - that was actually before my time, so I’ve never had that knowledge of the scene you get by participating in it. I find a lot of that music through long beatport digs and compilations.PZB: As I'm sitting here listening to your mix and I feel like I am back in one of those old airplane hangers we used to throw raves in in the Bay Area. How did you become exposed to this Hard House style of music and what about it drew you to it?Ducky: I’m from the Bay Area too, so I’ve always been around it. I came up raving in the mid 2000s, so there was a lot of electro and prog house going on, but that sound was still widely present at underground events. The first rave I ever DJed back in high school had a gabber room.I’ve always been attracted to high-intensity music. Before it was hardstyle it was post-hardcore and metalcore. Anything that makes you absolutely lose your shit, that takes you outside of yourself, is appealing to me. I think a lot of it is about escape and acceptance - underground raves and hardcore shows, they were for the freaks. I didn’t come from a great home, I never fit in at school, and suddenly I was in these spaces where none of that mattered. It was liberating, my highest high, and that feeling never really went away.PZB: My first exposure to your music came through friend of mine about 6 month ago or so. Not long after I was at the very first Nap Girls event here in LA where I believe you played after J. Worra. Knowing what to expect it was interesting to watch this shift in the whole room. It catches people off guard and then it has a chance to sink in and people really enjoy it. Do you approach all of your DJ sets with the same idea in mind or do you ever slow things down a bit?Ducky: I think you caught me pretty early in my 160 bpm experimentation. When I began DJing in high school it was the time of electro bangers. I was around a lot of hard style and gabber as a raver, but was mostly getting booked at clubs where I couldn’t go far over 128. It was a really slow build for me, moving up to UK bass and garage in college and working my way up to juke and footwork in my sets. It wasn’t til last year that I felt comfortable starting my sets above 135 - I just didn’t have an audience for it. LA gave me the open-minded space I needed to start pushing the hard and fast music I always wanted to play. I’ve racked up a lot more live experience at higher bpms since the last time you saw me play, and I feel I’m more adept at grabbing a crowd and easing them in to my set. You learn to strike a balance, pushing people to lose their shit but sensing when they’re wearing down, switching into something halftime, giving them a moment to breathe. Reading the crowd has always been an art form - playing a style that is new to the majority of your audience requires a particular touch.PZB: I know that on some of your tracks you are providing your own voice. When performing do you only DJ or do you have any current or future plans to build any sort of live component to your act? Whats your preferred set up? (CDJ’s, ableton, Vinyl, Traktor, etc.)Ducky: Eh, I’m actually moving away from all of that. I spent a few years performing as DUCKY with more of a band setup, dancers and a drummer and all that. It didn’t feel right. I’m moving away from using my vocals as well. My focus, and where I feel most artistically fulfilled, is production and on DJing. I use CDJs, just a USB and headphones.PZB: I'm a Bay Area native as well and it still holds a very special place in my heart. How often do you get to go back up there, and have you played any shows in the city?Ducky: I actually don’t spend a lot of time in the city. It’s always going to be my hometown, but it's changed significantly since I last lived there in 2009. The grit is essentially gone, most of my friends have moved, the underground rave scene as I knew it has vanished, there’s just not much left there from my past. I have come up to play some shows recently - my favorite was a cyberpunk rave in a warehouse Oakland. The faster I played, the harder they danced. It was perfect.PZB: About 6 months ago you got a pretty big boost from Skrillex and the NEST HQ crew. Did it affect your focus when you got such a public endorsement like that?Ducky: If anything it increased my focus. I try to just keep my head down, make music I believe in, do my best at everything I commit to, and work towards a “next step” whenever it’s clear to me.PZB: One of my favorite DJ stories involves DJ Fergie from Northern Ireland who was getting kicked out of Godskitchen and other clubs in the UK and Ireland when he was 13. What was it like trying to get yourself into clubs at 13?Ducky: Honestly it should NOT have been as easy for me to get into clubs as it was. I had a really good fake ID, the kind that worked under blacklight and through a scanner, but I really looked like a child. I was good at selling it, I guess - I developed this air of exhaustion when bouncers would question me, like, “yes, I know, I look young, I hear it all the time, for fucks sake, just let me in”. I guess that helped. But San Francisco at the time was pretty wild, and in terms of warehouse raves or LA/SF massives I was rarely questioned at all.PZB: 2016 is shaping up pretty well for you so far. Your collective and radio show Club Aerobics is gaining steam and you have some cool shows coming up here in LA and at SXSW for NEST HQ. I also believe we can expect some new music from you at the end of this month. Any other big plans on the horizon for you this year that you can tell us about?Ducky: 2016 has been amazing. Aside from the things you’ve mentioned, I do have another EP slated for release later this year but I can’t give details yet. I’m accepting lots of bookings at the moment. I get to spend a good portion of the next couple of months DJing around the country, which is so so exciting for me. Besides that it’s just my usual - trying hard to create beautiful things and waiting to see what comes next.
Originals + Features
Tracklist
1. Kukuzenko - Creative Minds (DUCKY 170 Edit)2. Jh-Anu - I 3. Srav3R - Jumper4. Alex Bassjunkie, Riche - Vanilla5. Kane, Just Jack - Flashbacks6. Shintaro & HABANERO POSEE - Bargon7. SpectraSoul - Ben8. Re-Con, Klubfiller - Freak9. Molly - Beneath The Lights (Darren Styles Remix)10. DUCKY - RAVE TOOL 2711. Anon - Cool Your Engines (X-FIRE3 & Sensation Remix)12. Darren Styles, Re-Con, Matthew Steeper - Rest Of Your Life13. Mark Breeze - Gotta Get14. DJ P-Lu - Power Base15. Technikore - Hide & Seek16. Sidney Sampson - Riverside (Gammer Bootleg)17. Noisia, The Upbeats - Dead Limit18. KATOMORI - I.N.F.I.N.I.T.Y19. Last Of The Mohicans, J-Swish - 9Mm Drop20. Audio - Heads Up VIP21. Aero D - Rudeboy22. Prolix - Sycophant23. S3rl - Public Service Announcement (Maker Remix)24. Sara, S3rl - Little Kandi Raver 201225. Lozzie - What Is Drugs26. Gammer, Galaxy Fox - Burn You Tonight27. Elevation - Check My Cup28. Porter Robinson - Sad Machine (Darren Styles & Gammer Remix)29. DUCKY - Work (Mitomoro Remix)Enjoy,LAMP