Duck Sauce Interview

Duck Sauce, the duo behind ‘Barbra Streisand’ and ‘aNYway’, released their debut studio album, aptly titled, ‘Quack’ back in April 2014, so we thought we’d catch up with one-half of this comedic Disco team, Armand Van Helden, to talk music, crotchfaces and ducks.

Hi Armand, how are you?
I’m good, how you doing?

We’re really good, thanks! Where in the world are you right now?
Right now, I’m in Miami, just taking it slow today – as usual! I live here in the winter, so I’m down here about seven months of the year and then the other five in New York.

Are you having good weather today?
Oh yeah! Gosh, you can count on your fingers how many bad days there are in six months! Not to brag! [Laughs]

You and A-Trak finally released your Duck Sauce studio album, ‘Quack’ on 18th April 2014, why did it take so long to get the album out?
All kinds of reasons – number one would be samples. It’s a fully dominant sample album. It would be nice if it was what we call “pre Biz Markie”, the lawsuit that set up the sampling laws for the world, so from that day forward, you had to clear samples. It would have been nice to have dropped the Duck Sauce album pre Biz Markie!

‘Barbra Streisand’ and ‘aNYway’ were two of the catchiest songs of 2010; were you surprised at their level of success?
Of course; you’re always surprised, but that’s not a surprise, that’s insanity! You don’t finish that song and go “oh yeah, it’s gonna be a success,” you’re just having a laugh, y’know. Me and A-Trak were just having a laugh and then, next thing you know, it’s probably one of the biggest records in my career, if not the biggest. It’s crazy what life can dish you.

There’s certainly a lot of fun and Disco that you’ve brought back into music; what’s your inspiration behind that?
Here’s the thing, when we initially started Duck Sauce, we did serious Disco House; we didn’t necessarily do it to be comedy, but for DJs to play in the clubs. Then comes ‘Barbra Streisand’. Obviously, we were a little more playful on that, but we couldn’t predict the success of it, so post ‘Barbra Streisand’, we weren’t gonna go back to the old Duck Sauce and make serious music that makes DJs happy; we had to go to a whole other stage and find a new groove. That new groove was just making it fun – having fun and presenting fun on a mass scale. After ‘Barbra Streisand’ we just went with what we created – we created a monster! In terms of inspiration, we look to Fatboy Slim, Beastie Boys, Kiss! Anything that’s very gimmicky, almost the original Daft Punk, having crazy shows and lunchboxes – that’s the Duck Sauce ideal. And anybody that’s based in comedy, taking the piss to a degree, is someone that we use for inspiration. You could say Mel Brooks, Danny Hill… That’s our vibe, we’re trying to establish a comedic vibe while using a House template, and it’s really not a safe area! It’s most fun for us because it’s unique, but most people don’t have the gall.

Talking of comedy, ‘Big Bad Wolf’ has the sort of video that you don’t really know whether to laugh or cry at. Where did the idea of crotchfaces come from?
When it comes to the creative stuff, I play a passenger, because I’m the oldest and I’m a little more retired, while A-Trax is right there with his ear to the street, so him and the director put their heads together. I remember flying over to shoot the video in LA, and for some reason I couldn’t get my head around looking at the treatment, so I was sent a picture of a guy with baby oil all over him and he had this guy’s head taped on his crotch. I saw that and I was like, “That’s gotta be funny.” But I read the treatment on the plane and I was like, “Oh Lord, what am I getting myself into now?” I didn’t know how it was gonna go, but it turned out great. It was one of the more physically demanding videos because that was not fake – there was a lot of on-your-hands-and-knees for quite a lot of hours!

Duck Sauce is perfect for summer parties and holidays; are you hitting up any of the upcoming festivals or seasons on the Balearic Islands?
We’re actually not really touring the album. We did Coachella this year, and we have another festival in San Francisco called Outside Lands, and maybe one or two others. I have one personally, but I rarely DJ these days. Most people probably don’t know that because they think I’m out there like everybody else, but I’m a little beat on the DJ thing. I’ve been doing it since I was 13 and on the road since 1993. I don’t really need to do it much more! [Laughs]

What do your days consist of now?
A lot of nothing! My biggest dilemma down here in Miami is: beach or bike? Should I go jump in the ocean or on the bike? Again, I’m not bragging! You asked!

Yes, we brought it on ourselves! So, ‘Duck Sauce’ and ‘Quack’… do you have an obsession with ducks?
Yeah, of course – ducks have the largest penises in the animal kingdom… Nah, the Duck Sauce thing was just because we thought it was funny. When we were working on the graphics we used a duck and then we came to find that ducks are endless comedy. Fortunately, there’s a large vat of duck jokes, and for the show we can throw out duckbills to everyone and we had a big rubber duck on the stage.

You and A-Trak both live in New York. So tell us, if we were to spend a day in New York, what should we do?
Wow… there’s a lot to do! I’m trying to think of something funny… There’s a 24-hour pool hall, so if me and my friends happened to be up at 4am, we’d go and play pool! The weird thing with me personally is that I’m “normcore” – I do really dumb, normal stuff. I think I burned out New York in the ‘90s, so now I’m doing the reverse, like sitting in the park reading a book. I’m doing Grandpa stuff; I don’t care if I’m dressed or if I took a shower. But, if you get a good day, you sit at a coffee shop at Union Square, order banana cream pie, and just people-watch. It’s one the most fun aspects of New York and when it’s a beautiful day there’s nothing like it anywhere else in the world.

By Charlotte Mellor