Recording Duke

Oli ‘Duke’ in the control room at Big Smoke Studios

Oli Duke has been playing in bands on and off for the last 10 years. The last couple of years he has been writing his own songs and creating demos. He has recently graduated from music college, where he had been learning some of the more technical aspects of recorded music.

As part of a work experience field trip to Big Smoke Studios he met with fellow student Arjun Doel. Realising that they both shared similar tastes in music they discussed ideas about working together on some of Oli’s projects.

The best way to describe Duke would be funk/disco, with strong influences from soul, r&b and rock.  Some of his biggest influences are Chic, Stevie Wonder, David Bowie and Jamiroquai, the latter of which his sound is probably most similar to.

To make it fit in with modern times producer/engineer Arjun is going for a slightly aggressive, in your face sound. To achieve this, the sound will be clean and hi fidelity, but with a little bit of dirt - evocative of Duke’s core influences.

"Oli had a pretty clear vision on how the song should be. Our time at Big Smoke Studios was to finesse each part of the song, improving upon its foundation with real instruments, slightly rewriting parts and also improving on the sonic quality". - Arjun Doel, Producer/Engineer at Big Smoke Studios, 2018

"The best thing for me about Big Smoke is having the freedom to experiment with the tools available to design sounds that are perfect for my music.  Especially working alongside a great engineer like Arjun, who always knows how to get the best out of the gear as well as throwing creative ideas into the room, it ensures the sessions always run smoothly and we end up getting brilliant results". - Oli Duke, 2018

Duke will be releasing 3 singles which will run up to an EP later in 2018. The first single, ‘Illusion’ was released at the beginning of March 2018.

You can follow Duke on his Instagram and Facebook.

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Oli discussing rhythmic patterns with drummer Joe Williams