| Duff Approach Leads to Success
By Tara McWeeney
Patrick Duff has had a colourful musical career to date. After an
indie-inspired ’90s he has graduated to a darker, yet inspired brand of
music. Tara McWeeney chats to him about working with Madiosi — an African
shepherdess musician — and his new album.
Although throughout his childhood Patrick Duff was strongly influenced
by his Irish father’s music sessions, he took a very different musical route
from the one he was initially inspired by.
Starting in the cult ’90s indie band Strangelove — who toured with Radiohead
and Suede among others — Duff’s path to personal and professional happiness
was not a smooth one.
After a break up fuelled by a drug addiction, it took a stint with Madiosi
— an African shepherdess musician who was discovered when she was 79 years
old — to get him back on track. And as a result, he’s now releasing his
first solo album on the re- established Harvest Label on EMI.
“After Strangelove I spent a couple of years trying to figure out what
I wanted to do,” he says.
“I had to ask myself, whether I was a songwriter or whether I’d just
fallen into it.”
“Once I realised I was a songwriter and I could never change it, I knew
I just had to do it. Me and songwriting are the same thing — it gave me
power from beyond and outside.”
Although the success of Strangelove was exciting for Duff as a young
artist, it ultimately came dangerously close to destroying him — along with
his love of music.
“I just got wrapped up in all our success, wanting more,” he says. “I
wanted to get myself in a place of security and if you’re like me it’s not
easy to feel safe. I forgot how I got into music, the pleasure just wasn’t
in it anymore. I forgot that music just flows out of me.”
After years in the wilderness spent recovering from a drug addiction,
Duff recorded music with Adrian Utley, from the revered Portishead, and
Damon Reece, from Spiritualised in a house on Dartmoor.
Despite working with these musical heroes, it wasn’t until he heard an
unknown world musician at the Womad Festival that he felt inspired again
by music. Discovered when she was a 79-year-old working as a shepherdess
in South Africa, Madiosi has made a name for herself on the World music
circuit with her unique talent. She plays an instrument called an Uhadi,
which is unique to her region of Africa.
“It was amazing this sound that came from her instrument. There was a
real punk, blues vibe that she created. She could only play two notes so
she sung and wailed along with the music,” enthuses Duff. “To me she sounded
like ’70s cult hero Captain Beefheart, and her performance was amazing.”
Astounded by her talent, Duff went on to tour with her and learnt the
power behind her music.
Overawed with respect he says: “She taught me so much — ultimately to
be proud of where you come from and how to approach making music differently.
“I learnt that music has something in it that is passed down generations.
“Madiosi was taught the instrument by her grandmother, who was taught
by her grandmother before, and it is passed on. She taught me that music
is a natural process and that there is something in it that is kept alive
when it is passed down — but we don’t understand what it is.”
In a way Duff came back full circle. Although fellow Strangelove member
Alex Lee had moved to Suede after they split up, they both ended up getting
in contact again and eventually producing Patrick’s first solo album Luxury
Problems.
The album is as dark — yet strangely uplifting — as Strangelove, with
Duff’s deep emotive vocals leading the way for the impassioned and, at times,
fun, observational lyrics.
Highlights of the album include a tongue in cheek song written about
a refrigerator in the aptly titled Refrigerator and Married With Kids, which
takes a sideways glance at married bliss.
Although similar in ways to Strangelove, Duff‘s approach and process
of songwriting has changed greatly.
“When in Strangelove I would just go to the mic and sing what came out,
whereas for this album, I found I crafted it a lot more — I had a lot more
time to think about what I was going to do. To be honest, you have to hand
yourself over to that process and they then write themselves,” he explains.
After the album had been made Duff admits he had a good feeling about
the finished project. His label EMI must have felt so too, as they decided
to release it on the re-established Harvest Label — something which sealed
Duff’s positivity about the album. Harvest previously hosted heroes of his
like Syd Barrett and Deep Purple.
Luxury Problems has so far received positive press and Patrick’s dedicated
fans from his Strangelove days will see that it sells. For Duff though,
he’s re-found music and the success part is now less important.
“When I was younger and my father would drink whiskey and play Irish
songs for people in the house, everyone would go crazy,” he says. “Our house
was mad when there was a session going on. He taught me that music can be
shamanistic.”
Luxury Problems is available on Harvest Records.
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