Local sensations Duchess Of York may have been under your radar for a while, but they’ve been loud and clear on ours. We were happy to have them as one of the main acts in our first Carytown New Years Eve celebration, exposing a band (then still in high school) to ten thousand people. Since that show, they’ve done nothing but improve; we’re proud to have played a small part in their ascension. They’ve got a show coming up this Thursday at The National.
Local sensations Duchess Of York may have been under your radar for a while, but they’ve been loud and clear on ours. We were happy to have them as one of the main acts in our first Carytown New Years Eve celebration, exposing a band (then still in high school) to ten thousand people. Since that show, they’ve done nothing but improve; we’re proud to have played a small part in their ascension. They’ve got a show coming up this Thursday at The National.
For those that don’t know, could you explain the name of your band?
The cool thing about the name is, there is no singular “duchess of york” , and we aren’t androgynous. We are “Duchess Of York”. It’s like saying… We are president. It’s grammatically and politically incorrect, which i like. We wanted to incorporate our last name in the title, and we thought it would be cool to name it after our great great grandmother, who was native american and married to a white settler in the early 1800’s, which was kinda controversial back then . Little did we know that Sarah Fergeson is ‘The Duchess’, and a year after we named the band we saw her selling fat burner pills on infomercials.
How would you describe your music to someone?
High energy Rock/Blue Eyed Soul
What inspires you, and who are your major influences? If you had to pick a favorite song of all time – what would that be?
We like T-Rex, The Kinks, Talking Heads, Radiohead, Fela Kuti, Bowie. Probably “I Stand Alone” by Bob Marley or “Change Is Gonna Come” by Sam Cooke.
Do you find your music to having a particular theme. or your songwriting to have a specific topic?
It’s never deliberately the same. We try to write about a different topic each song, but it”s hard sometimes, so a lot of the songs can be interrelated, but still evoke a well-known idea, mood, or event under a different circumstance.
So one my favorite song by you is “Pearl” – tell me a bit about that song in particular.
It’s about the phrase “blood and treasure” or “lives and treasure”. A guy finds out his endeavors don’t quite equate to the people he met along the way, and gives everything up.
So I must know, what the most embarrassing song you like, or as they say is your “guilty pleasure”?
Dancin on the ceiling by Lionel Richie. My lord, that vibrato gets me every time, and it doesn’t hurt seeing his man-stache while he sings those super deep lyrics.
What have you found to be the biggest challenge for The Duchess of York?
Finding individuals who are devoted to building a platform or foundation for our music and really bringing it to a larger audience, but if this show is well executed, i believe it may happen. I’m very excited to see what happens.
Tell us a bit about your upcoming show, and what people can expect to see from that night.
Thursday Feb 25th at The National w/ Grinding Stone & Palominos. Expect lots of new songs, high energy, and amazing light show that will blow your pants off. It’s been so long since we’ve played a big show in Richmond so the anticipation is profound for us. It’s going to be a very special show. Also we’ll be on Virginia this morning wednesday feb 24th.
