The Duke Spirit: The new American Spirit

It’s impossible to not be moved by the music of The Duke Spirit. Whether it’s in the danceable ’60s pop rhythms, the zoned-out sonic fuzz or the ballsy vocals of soul heroine Liela Moss, the U.K. band trace a pattern of influence from Motown to Sonic Youth with their second record, “Neptune.” Guitarist Luke Ford breaks down their sound.

It seems a lot of bands trade feedback for tunefulness, or vice versa. You seem to be going for both at once.
We all grew up with a love of pop music, things like Motown, old ’60s pop, it’s a common thread for all of us. Then we were kind of at an age with the appeal of alternative bands from the early ’90s. Going to see bands like My Bloody Valentine was mind-blowing. They could switch
effortlessly from really, really strong pop melodies but with an underlying texture.

Most of the American bands I talk to can’t be bothered to string a sentence together about their own music. No such problem with U.K. bands.
I think U.K. bands take what they do awfully seriously. Sometimes a bit too seriously, unfortunately. ... But it’s pretty exciting for me to be talking to a guy from a Boston newspaper. ... We find it hard to be blasé because we want people to find out about our band and hopefully read an interview and say, “Oh, those guys seem to know what they’re talking about. I want to check out their record.”

Have you learned anything from the bands you supported touring the States?
We actually toured a couple years ago with Ted Leo, and we had a friend of ours we met through doing that, a Boston guy, Travis from Piebald. He went out with us, driving us around, showing us how things work over here. It was great. Between him and Ted we learned a lot. Especially Ted, who comes from the sort of hardcore D.C. scene, some-thing we were always into. Just seeing their attitude toward touring. ... There’s no false pretension. ... We hope to bring some of that attitude back home with us.

Boston Metro