Dukes Of Burgundy Interview
by Amanda McCulley on February 18th, 2010
“One of the greatest feelings is when you’re writing a song with someone else. It’s better than sex. When you’re in a band, it’s better than having sex with three dudes.” Danny Lajoie obliviously nurses a pint of pale ale as his Dukes Of Burgundy bandmate Jimmy Cacchione and I stare at him in incredulous amusement. He continues, “At least, I assume so. That’s really what I was in it for …” I laugh as Jimmy jumps in, “It’s the feeling [you get] when you’re at a jam, or a band practice or a rehearsal and you bring in this thirty second little idea and it blossoms into a 3 minute song in the span of fourty-five minutes to an hour. And everyone bounces ideas off of each other and your little idea turns into an awesome song. And suddenly the room is filled with this wall of sound and it’s surreal, I think that’s what he means as better than sex with three dudes.”
It’s Monday night at Montreal’s renowned brew-pub, Dieu Du Ciel!, and I am sitting with two of the four members of the up and coming band. To the right of me is Danny, perched on his barstool, grasping a glass in his right hand, “I used to have this thing,” he explains to me as he adjusts the tape on his glasses stems, “where I would wear my glasses loose and while I was playing the guitar, I would nod my head forward so my glasses would fall off and people would be like, ‘woah!’ One night, I was playing a gig, and my glasses fell off. I stepped on them. That was when I realized I needed a new gimmick.” At several points throughout the evening, Danny would say something that would cause Jimmy and I to stop and stare in amusement; Jimmy eventually jumping in with an anecdote to tie the conversation back to the band. Jimmy was the calm, collected answer to Danny’s infectious quirkiness, and scruff — think of Jimmy’s American Apparel hoodie contrasting with Danny’s plaid button down. Often finishing each other’s ideas or arguing certain points, it is easy to picture them as frontmen for separate projects which, for a long time, they were.
Having met about a decade ago at one of those questionable Battle Of The Bands that have become a rite of passage for young musicians, the West Islanders would run into each other occasionally. Danny discloses, “I was always in love with Jimmy’s voice…in a completely heterosexual way.” After Jimmy’s last major project dissipated, Danny — who had been working on a solo project — started pressing him to write songs. Leaning over the small table in the dimly lit yet friendly brew pub, Jimmy confesses, “For a while there, I just stopped playing music…but after a bit, playing McKibbon’s a few nights a week wasn’t cutting it.” He started writing songs and sending them to Danny and eventually, Dukes Of Burgundy took form. Jimmy and Drummer Geoff Hughes had been playing together for a number of years. They auditioned bassists to round out the rhythm section, eventually finding the very cool-looking Nic Jorgensen.
The first time the Dukes Of Burgundy took a stage, I was struck by Jimmy Cacchione’s relaxed jeans and Adidas. As they kicked off their set, it was clear that they were the most experienced performers on the bill they shared with Calgary-borne Cinema L’amour and the newly founded Divingbell. Jimmy and Danny’s guitars and vocals interspaced perfectly with Jergensen’s cool basslines and Hughes’ flawlessly executed rhythms. Here was one of those rare perfectly balanced bands. As the blistery January night drew colder, Jimmy inquired the time. “Past…eleven,” Danny informed him “Oh, we’ve got lots more time. Let’s keep playing!” as Jimmy struck another chord on his Fender.
Two weeks later, during the interview, Jimmy would admit, “That show at le Cagibi was pretty small, but it doesn’t matter how many people are in the audience. It could be a few, it could be hundreds, we just like playing. Our best show was actually in front of eight people. We played our hardest. We sold four CDs — that’s a fifty per cent conversion rate.” Last summer, the Dukes recorded their first album as a band. Of the album, Jimmy explains, “Seven hundred dollars, five days… We figured we had better capture the sound before we moved on.”
Between Jimmy and Danny’s vocals, the pace of the album’s five tracks, and their pop-rock hooks, the Dukes Of Burgundy sound sort of like The Kooks, but with a Canadian rock vibe that sets them apart from the crop of indie-pop bands that have been gaining popularity. The album tends to mix uptempo rhythms and pleasantly moody lyrics. The third track, ‘Radio’, is oddly catchy — the sort of song you may skip over once but find yourself playing on repeat a few days later. ‘Vultures’, which actually takes about ten minutes for the band to play live, Jimmy explained, is actually two songs, and one of the strongest tracks on the album. ‘Talking Backwards’ winds up being the standout, finding a good balance between catchiness and unconventional songwriting. These songs highlight the musical abilities of the four musicians, and exhibit Lajoie and Cacchione as a songwriting duo. That being said, the album was recorded last summer, and the best songs of their Cagibi set were two currently untitled tracks. The band I saw perform are decidedly more comfortable than the band you hear on the album; it is as if the members have eased into their roles, have established their sound, and begun to experiment.
In a little over a year, the Dukes Of Burgundy have recorded an album, developed a growing fan base, and even opened for Band of Skulls — a group People Magazine voted as having one of the best albums of 2009. Do yourself a favour and keep an eye on this band. Listen to their album or, if you really want to treat yourself, catch them on March 12th at O Patro Vys (above Billy Kun, the best Absinth bar in the city). Why? Because if the Dukes continue on at the rate they are going, they are on the brink of one modestly brilliant, fun-drenched reign.
Amanda McCulley
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