Like all unlikely pairings, the Dutchess and the Duke create improbably brilliant results from simple ingredients. Photo courtesy of Hardly Art.
The chemicals that collide to create songs are glorious individually but slightly odd when tossed together. Linear lyrics that aren’t afraid of going meta. Expansive, wall-of-sound production. Simple, if addictive, vocal harmonies. Guitar solos mimicking ’50s rock simplicity. Indifferent lead vocal delivery. Intoxicating, candied melodies.
It doesn’t make sense on paper, but on quarter-inch tape, itap one of the freshest combos in rock ’n’ roll. Singer-songwriter Jesse Lortz is as prolific as any of his Seattle neighbors. And with the help of his friend and bandmate Kimberly Morrison, he is more consistent than most other indie rock bands these days.
The Dutchess and the Duke’s summertime debut, “She’s the Dutchess, He’s the Duke,” was the No. 1-rated record of 2008, according to this music critic. And their follow-up, the month-old “Sunset/Sunrise,” is every bit as mysterious and captivating. Lortz and Morrison make perfect sense together, something Denver audiences will see when they play the on Wednesday.
We spoke with Lortz about his love of graphic design, his fear of being known and his impatience with folks who mistake musicians for superheroes.
Question: Sounds like you and Kimberly had a good time making a very different record with “Sunset/Sunrise.”
Answer: It is pretty different than the first one, but I think itap an actual progression. I hope we didn’t overdo it. I hope itap not too different.
Q: You added some strings on songs like “Living This Life.”
A: We have strings on that and about two or three other songs on the record. It was because we could, and the songs that have the strings are a little dramatic. And that added a lot on the songs to have that extra thread.
Q: Are you touring with the strings?
A: No, but we play shows with the strings when we have the opportunity, but itap nothing we can financially do as a touring thing. If there’s somebody in a city who wants to play with us and help us out, we could do that. But for the most part, we tour as a three piece — but now we’ll be touring as a five piece with Oscar and Greg.
Q: Greg from the Gris Gris? Greg Ashley who produced the new record?
A: Yeah, he’s the main songwriter with Gris Gris. We like that band, and we were friends with those guys, and I like the warm soul sound he gets. Some of that stuff sounds like it was recorded in a huge room, and a lot of it he records in the bedroom. It helped that he had reasonable rates.
Q: You recorded the record in Oakland with Greg?
A: Yeah, and we recorded it in April or May. I was on spring break — I’m still in school.
Q: You’re in school now?
A: I actually got an extension because four weeks before school, my wife had a kid. He’s three and a half months, and now I can stay home and keep an eye on him. I’m going to Central, a community college, and doing graphic design.
Q: Do you handle all your CD art and posters and such?
A: I do all the packaging. And with this new CD, it was nice to do something crazy, because a lot of it has to do with people getting to the point where they’re not going to buy a CD if itap simple packaging. We wanted to do something special with the packaging so somebody might pick it up rather than download it.
Q: Agreed. Do you use much of your band stuff in your classes or portfolio?
A: I feel kinda cheesy showing up in class and saying, “This is my CD.” It sucks because I don’t use any of it in my portfolio, but itap a lot of what I do because of time constraints.
Q: Do the kids in your classes know about your music?
A: Yeah, especially after last summer, when we did a tour with Fleet Foxes that got a lot of press. When I came back to school, it was like, “How was it touring with the Fleet Foxes?” Itap not like I’m a celebrity of anything, but itap also nice to lead separate lives or have little compartments.
Q: It seems like you and Kimberly have known each other for a while, and maybe even worked together musically before?
A: We grew up together. In high school we knew each other and played in some bands, and when I started this project, she was a natural choice. I do all the songwriting and the music writing and play most of the instruments, and then she comes in and sings back-up on the songs.
Q: Yet she sings lead on “When You Leave My Arms.”
A: I wrote it and figured she would sing it better that I would. And I hogged all the lead vocals on the first record and figured that she would wanna sing lead on some of the new stuff.
Q: I’ve seen you guys a couple times, and you all aren’t afraid to have a back-and-forth with the audience.
A: Some people think that just because you’re in a band and you play music, that you’re something so different. They expect you to be unreal, but we also get frustrated and irritated and have bad days. We have fun, too, but just because we get up on stage, it doesn’t mean we stop living or whatever.
Q: You all played a unique show at the pre-party for the 2008 Monolith Festival here in Denver. You played amid the people, sitting down on the ground.
A: That was a rough way to end a really psychically damaging tour, but it was also kind of cool because we did it however we felt comfortable. I know that people were bummed at that performance, but just because we’re playing music doesn’t change the fact that we’re still people who are tying to live.
Q: What was so tough about that tour?
A: We ended up going on tour with this band that nobody was coming to see, and we got flipped to the headliners. The guy we were touring with, his whole band left him, and his wife left him — and we were traveling with this band. And there were a bunch of hurricanes that summer, and we were going in and out of that crazy weather. And one of our friends had a seizure in his brain when we were in Atlanta, and we ended up watching him die during that tour. We’d call every night — and we were all going through shit with our partners, because we’d toured so much that summer. But it also made us come together as friends, me and Kimberly. It made us gel, even though it was hard. We decided since our percussionist couldn’t come with us, we would play acoustic.
Q: And that worked out?
A: Not always. The first show of the tour, the sound guy was like, “Where are your pick-ups?” And we’d never even practiced playing acoustic, and it was feeding back really bad and the sound guy was being a jerk. Finally we were like, “Screw it,” and we played on the floor with no microphones to about 100 or 150 people — not a big crowd, but they were all quiet, and we did a whole U.S. tour like that. Some nights it backfired. But some nights it was really magical.
Q: Are you bummed about leaving for tour this time around — and leaving your son for the first time?
A: I’m not looking forward to leaving him, but he’ll be here when I get back. And I can send him postcards. My plan is to send him postcards every day. We’ll see how I do with that.
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Ricardo Baca is the founder and co-editor of and an award-winning critic and journalist at The Denver Post. He is also the executive director of the , Colorado’s premier indie music festival. Follow his whimsies at , his live music habit at and his iTunes addictions at .
