On June 13, Dukes of Windsor lead singer Jack Weaving posted ‘A Message from Jack on the Road’ about how guitarist Oscar Dawson had posed for Playgirl. However, for all the boys out there halfway to the nearest magazine stand, it appears Jack was only joking.

‘This is all the fault of Jack – who is our singer,’ Oscar laughed when OUTinPerth asked about the photo shoot. ‘I blame him for all of this because he’s been talking again. He shouldn’t be allowed to speak that guy… Unless someone has crept in and I’ve done it in my dramas, there is no photo shoot.’

- Advertisement -

So, while it appears you can’t always believe what you read, with The Dukes of you can at least believe what you hear. Despite increasingly being labelled under the near ubiquitous electronica label, Dukes of Windsor remain at their heart a rock band, albeit one that deftly infuses rock talents with electronic grooves and textures. On the Dukes’ second album Minus, the electronic influence is noticeably increased, but the point of difference between the Dukes and the hordes of reincarnated 80s synthesized acts is that the electro is just the polish to an already talented rock ensemble.

‘We’ve always been humans playing instruments,’ says Oscar. ‘I guess we use the electronic thing to make the groove more in your face, but if you come to a gig, probably 95% of what you hear is played live.’

For Oscar and the rest of The Dukes of Windsor, the second album Minus was the chance to progress and hone their sound after a debut that displayed their raw talent.

‘We wanted our songs to flow a lot more than they have in the past and on our first album, in particular. That was one thing we decided we wanted to change, getting a bit more elegance in the songs and getting them to roll a bit. That was certainly one thing we worked on, the actual groove of the song and making sure it’s something that people can move to,’ Oscar said of the band’s ambition in writing Minus, a process he says was a mix of individual inspiration and communal collaboration.

While individuals typically brought a track to the table initially, Oscar said the best songs were ones ‘we all made a contribution and the song was selfless.’ Oftentimes, achieving this was a ‘juggling act’ for the song’s originator, who had to let go enough to allow creative input while still loving and believing in the song.

According to Oscar, the track Runaway was the runaway favourite of the band because it struck that perfect balance of collaboration and input, while It’s A War, No Disguise and Refuse were also relatively collaborative and thus some of the track standouts for Oscar.

With the album in stores September 6, tour dates are soon to follow. Oscar says of the live shows, ‘Our production is not outrageous in any sense of the word, there are no fire breathing dragons or flames or explosions or anything like that… We’ve been playing with Sneaky Sound System, and they have this insane production, lights and all these whiz-bang crazy strobe things. You’d have an epileptic fit. It’s ‘impressive, but it’s really, really full on. So, don’t expect that. We get together and just play the songs really – expect to have a lot of fun.’