One of my favourite band discoveries of 2024 – Duck Thieves are an indie panto party pop band from Coventry. They write songs about feminism, racism and b movies, with a good dose of humour and fun. Musically they remind me of bands like Talking Heads and the B52’s.
The band take their name after the first ever film made in Hong Kong, ‘Stealing a Roasted Duck’ which was destroyed and consequently no one alive has ever seen.
With their EP ‘Eyes Up Here’ still permanently on repeat for me, I wanted to dig a little deeper and find out more about the music that has inspired them and their musical journeys. The band are- Justin Wing Chung Hui – Guitar and Vocals, Michelle Bailey-Le Long – Vocals and dancing, Diana Stefanescu -Vocals and dancing, Joe Wilson – Bass and backing vocals and Tom Gibbs – Drums and backing vocals. In the interview initials have been used to indicate which band member was speaking.
1) What is your earliest music-related memory? What do you remember being played at home when you were a child?
M: My mum took me to dancing school when I was 4 years old because I was always dancing around the house to adverts and was terribly shy. Through this I was exposed to a range of music from classical to 90’s dance music. I loved watching musicals too. I would watch them everyday. My first singing on stage was about 5 years old for my song and dance number ‘I Want to be Happy’ by Ella Fitzgerald who is my all time fave. I did this while dancing and dressed as a clown.
JW: When I was about three or four, our school teacher played us ‘Macavity the Mystery Cat’ and I remember being very hyped. I came home sure I’d find The Hidden Paw hiding in a cupboard or something. I don’t know how I imagined Macavity, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t Idris Elba doing Nightcrawler impressions. The earliest contemporary song I remember is Level 42’s ‘Running in the Family’, which came out when I was about five. My sister is called Emily, so it was very strange being in the back of the Honda Accord hearing Mark King sing “in the back seat of the car, with Joseph and Emily”. I don’t know whether those were real people – probably just names that suited the rhyme which were coincidentally our names. The car radio and the kitchen radio are the music sources in the childhood home of my memory.
JWCH: When I was really young, my parents would put Cantopop tapes on. I don’t really remember them that much apart from the Alan Tam album that was the soundtrack to the Jackie Chan film ‘Armour of God’. Obviously Jackie Chan was a hero to every British Chinese growing up. I think the music was originally written in English and translated into Cantonese so it had a harder edge and a more 80’s action vibe than classic cantopop. But two versions of the album exist, one in Cantonese and one in English. There’s a wonderful scene in the movie which has Alan Tam perform ‘Midnight Rider’ in what looks like a huge stadium concert while some evil terrorist monks kidnap people from a fashion show.
TG: Music was very much a constant in my home. My parents never played but music was a massive part of their lives, so it was always on. If there was music on TV that was what we watched, whether it was Top of the Pops, Later with Jools… festival coverage or documentaries. The things that really stick from that time are ‘Bat Out of Hell’ by Meatloaf and ‘Queen 1’ (which would lead me to joining a Queen tribute band with Justin years later and as a result Duck Thieves and a huge impact on my songwriting outside of Duck Thieves), Jilted John, various punk singles I can’t remember who wrote, and the ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ musical.
DS: I am a child of MTV – I just remember always having the TV in my room on some music channel, and my mum asking me how I wasn’t bored of listening to that constantly. There is a big contrast of music in my life – choir music is a constant, I’ve always been in a choir, but growing up I indulged in pop to start with, then rock, and later on in house/electronic music. I should add that I grew up in Romania until I came to university in the UK at 19, so lots of my early references will make no sense to anyone other than your Romanian readers!
2) What was the first record that you ever bought? Where did you get it and do you have any recollection of the experience?
M: My first record was ‘Spice’ by the Spice Girls. I never really got into the 90’s boybands but when the Spice Girls came out it was life changing for me and my first exposure to feminism. Girl power! ‘Say You’ll Be There’ was one of my faves.
JW: In the sort of greedy non-answer that went on to define my future self, I bought one album and two singles on the same day: The Simpsons’ ‘Sing the Blues’, Vic Reeves’s cover of ‘Born Free’, and Salt ‘n’ Pepa’s ‘Do You Want Me’. All from some long-vanished record shop in St Annes. The Salt ‘n’ Pepa song still sounds pretty good, which is more than can be said for the others.
TG: The very first was ‘Steam’ by East 17, then singles like ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’, ‘Blinded by The Sun’ by The Seahorses (which may make other band members groan), the compilation album ‘Shine Best of 97’ which introduced me to Eels and Skunk Anansie, then getting ‘The Score’ by Fugees, ‘OK Computer’ by Radiohead and ‘Made in Heaven’ by Queen one Christmas.
JWCH: I got a Saturday job at a supermarket stacking shelves and I remember getting my first paycheck and buying ‘Paranoid and Sunburnt’ by Skunk Anansie from Our Price. I remember wanting ‘Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness’ by the Smashing Pumpkins, but I really couldn’t afford a double album with my Saturday supermarket wage. The Skunk Anansie album had the song ‘Little Baby Swastikkka’. I used to looooove that!
DS: The first album I went to a shop and bought all by myself was a tape (!) by a Romanian pop band called Andre. My bestie Elena and I were obsessed with them – we had dance routines and everything, and we loved that I was brunette and Elena was blonde, just like the two girls in the band. Listening to the music now I realise how highly inappropriate it was for two 10 year olds! I remember I was very excited to buy it and showed it off to everyone, although no one had heard of them, so I was very smug when they became really popular, and I could say I listened to them before they were cool.
3) When did you really start to develop a passion for listening to music? How did that come about and what were you into at the time?
M: I remember as a small child I would break into my Mum’s disco vinyls all the time. I think I was 6 when I asked for my own record player. I would spend hours dancing around my room. Olivia Newton John had a hold on me. LioneI Richie’s ‘All Night Long’ was on repeat as well as 1950’s rock n roll. If it was catchy or had drama I would be dancing to it on repeat, giving dancing shows to the family dog and my Ma and little bro.
JW: Even before I owned any records of my own I had a little cassette player with a microphone and I’d record myself singing songs called things like ‘Funky Dance’. I was just responding to the sort of music I’d see on the ITV Chart Show or Top of the Pops, stuff like Apache Indian or Shaggy. I liked the KLF because there were always a million people onstage and arranged in cryptic formations and singing nonsense over propulsive beats. I still like the KLF. I started buying albums years later, stuff like Blur and Pulp. Musical acts with a cool stage show or music video being my early loves explains a lot about me, I suspect.
TG. Developing a passion for music was a bit of a snowball effect rather than one life changing moment, but there are big landmarks on the way, from being chucked around as a toddler listening to records, listening to my parents’ copy of ‘Different Class’, Glastonbury 99 and 2000 with my Dad and starting to discover heavier stuff through Nirvana, then the other Seattle bands and diving into the incestuous family tree around the same time and discovering stuff like Green River and Malfunkshun showing me that getting sucked into a music rabbit hole was well worth it.
JWCH: My dad got a job in a French lab when I was still at school, so we moved to France for several years. I couldn’t speak the language at all when we arrived, and a lot of the songs played on the radio were in English. So listening to the radio was like a reminder of home, even though a lot of the songs were actually American. For some reason I remember, Phil Collins and Genesis were played a lot… I mean an inhumane amount. I still associate ‘Jesus He Knows Me’ with walking to school. In terms of French music, I remember ‘Bouge de là’ by Mc Solaar was one of the songs that stuck with me.
DS: The passion for really listening to music probably came when my friends got into burning CDs as a way of recommending music, so I’d download them on my PC and make playlists, spending lots of time arranging them in the right order to align with all my teen feelings. I moved on from the mostly pop that was playing on MTV, and discovered Pink, Evanescence, No Doubt. That’s what got me into it, but really it’s probably the introduction of streaming services that opened me up to finding my actual taste in music.
4) What was the first gig that you went to? Where was it and what was it like?
M: First gig was The Flaming Lips when they were doing ‘Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots’.
I was blown away with the production of the stage show and props. It was magical. Tom was at the same gig too and turns out so was my future husband.
JW: When this comes out, my parents will probably remind me of some band I saw when I was 2 at a garden party or something, but until then, I’m saying it was V96 in Warrington, with Pulp headlining. Super Furry Animals were my favourite band at the time (another ITV Chart Show discovery), and they were on the second stage. I think I only went to one other V festival. I’d been to the best one already, I suppose.
TG: Probably either The Smashing Pumpkins’ ‘Machina’ tour at the NEC or John Otway at some social club. Both great, but performance wise Otway would leave the bigger mark on me (and the plaster wall he put his foot through).
JWCH: When I was at school I remember getting taken to local music nights. School friends used to use it as cover to sneak alcohol in. I tasted lager for the first time and decided it was horrible, so I got more interested in the bands playing instead. The one I remember was a three piece band called Jetpak. They had some nice vocal harmonies and were doing more than just trying to resurrect Britpop. They broke up about 3 months later and formed a band called Hundred Reasons. Trying to be a cool teenager, I was adamant that Jetpak were better. They weren’t.
DS: The first proper ‘international’ gig I went to was Bestival in Bucharest in 2007, where I saw Pink. I was beyond excited, I had short hair that I hair-sprayed into a mohawk that was half red, half orange and I just remember being so excited being out late all by myself. It was all a bit surreal, never thought I’d see Pink all the way from the US!
5) What are your memories of starting out making music? What was the first song that you learned to play?
M: Playing covers of Pulp, Moldy Peaches and Radiohead with my bestie. Kimya Dawson’s ‘The Beer’ was the first song I learned to play. I got to see her play and meet her. She was so lovely. I told her we started a band because of her.
JW: I always messed around on my grandma’s piano when I was very young so my parents signed me up for piano lessons. The first song I learned was just a piece to get the player used to reading music and putting your hand in the right position. It had one note. “I am C, middle C, left hand, right hand, middle C.” I can still play it perfectly.
TG: An announcement went out to all the classes at school to say they still had slots for drum lessons. I knew my parents would say no due to the cost and noise but would offer guitar as a compromise, which they did. Suckers.
JWCH: There is an East Asian stereotype where your parents make you learn an instrument at school. I am slightly sad to say that actually happened to me. I got asked what instrument I wanted to learn. I chose the piano, only to be told that it was too expensive. So I ended up learning the guitar, at first a bit reluctantly. I think I had to learn ‘If you’re Happy and You Know It’. I actually love the guitar now. Piano is for losers 🙂
DS: I grew up under a piano, quite literally. My mum had studied piano when she was younger, and we had a grand piano in my grandparents’ house that was our playground. We’d hide under it all the time, the Christmas tree would sit on it. I however never learnt to play it, I just loved to sing – I was in the school choir, and when I went to college I joined the choir there which was a lot more serious, doing 4 part harmonies and going to competitions. Alongside that, I started taking proper singing lessons with a renowned teacher when I was around 15-16, and really hoped that would lead into a career but it just didn’t work out, so after that it just became a ‘hobby’. The first song that I learnt to sing was probably ‘So What’ by Pink.
6) What was your first band/musical project? What music was influencing you at that time? What are your memories of playing your first gig and are there any recordings out there?
M: I started a band with my bestie called Le Hev Hev and we were anti-folk inspired by The Moldy Peaches and Jeffrey Lewis. We never left the bedroom though. We were too scared to gig. Duck Thieves supported Jeffrey Lewis twice. It was a dream come true. I did get to record 2 Le Hev Hev songs I wrote with a band I was a drummer in, called Deathsex Bloodbath. Joe formed the band and asked Justin and I to play. The songs are called ‘My Fingers are Wet’ and ‘Men’ and they are on Spotify.
JW: I always had little groups who existed on paper but who never practiced. I suppose the first that existed in any real form was at sixth form and was called Visceral Harmony. There were three of us and no drummer; we were listening to stuff like Nine Inch Nails and trying to get away with just turning on the beats on my keyboard to act as drums. We did one gig in Preston, and recorded six songs (including a Life of Agony cover) that all sound absolutely awful. None of us could really write or play. Of course we imagined we’d be famous, but ultimately it was an excuse to hang out more with my friends and have a shared interest.
JWCH: I first played in a prog band that was so up its own backside, it was called Cantus Caelestis. This means “Heavenly Song” in Latin. I remember trying to fill each gig time slot with just one single song. I wasn’t actually any good at playing guitar so I used to drown it out with lots of echo and effects to cover it up. Obviously it came apart in recording, so I think I’ve tried to destroy every early recording of the band. A bit like George Lucas did with the ‘Star Wars Holiday Special’.
TG: I was in a band with some school chaps that could play even less than me on my four guitar lessons with some tutors that came to our school. They then held Days of Pop with all the bands they taught around the city. At our first performance I didn’t feel at all nervous then during the guitar solo my leg just started violently shaking. No recordings were ever done. Eventually I decided a couple of old friends (who wrote songs about how cheese and pie don’t really go together and magic 8 balls) needed a drummer and we hacked our way through sets in real venues and a couple of albums that were on YouTube until Pete’s account got hacked.
DS: I tried to be a solo singer for a while back in Romania, so my vocal coach got me on some televised singing shows (cringe!). I think I sang Pink or No Doubt for one, and music by a Romanian singer called Dana for another. Luckily that was all before the internet was a real thing so no evidence exists :). So technically, Duck Thieves is my first proper music project! I am influenced by my awesome bandmates who write all the music and I just pretend that I know what I’m doing!
7) What are your memories of starting Duck Thieves? What was your first release and what do you think now when you listen back to it?
M: Justin asked me to be in the band to wear costumes and dance around with props. I was in at costumes. I remember being super nervous recording, I cried a few times. I didn’t listen to any of our records until the ‘Eyes Up Here’ EP. It only took me 10 years to be confident-ish to listen back. I prefer stages to recording studios.
JW: I was only there in the audience. At the time I wrote “I’m not saying this is a really Justin band, but two of them are wearing Justin masks and the singer is Justin.”
JWCH: I had played in bands before, but I had never fronted one, so this was quite a watershed moment for me. Oddly, I wasn’t that nervous as I imagined that Duck Thieves would just play 3 to 4 gigs in a local pub and that would be it. The sound systems at these places are terrible, so I learnt to basically sing/shout as loud as I could whilst playing. Unfortunately, I carried that over to the first few recordings and they are very shouty and harsh sounding. They have a great energy about them though. I also like how rubbish I think the lyrics are, it makes me feel like I’ve improved at least a little!
TG: I was in the audience at their first gig and only knew to expect some silly dancing so when the bird masks and gold capes appeared and Justin ran at the crowd to solo it was fucking great. Near the beginning I did a couple of gigs covering for Michelle and turned up to do one vocal line in the style of Roger Taylor before a failed audition and eventually covering for a few gigs the drummer couldn’t make, so the first proper recording I’m on is ‘Eyes Up Here’ which was a real challenge for me but I came out of it a much better player.
DS: A long standing Duck Thieves fan, I became a reserve for Michelle and Cait when one of them couldn’t make a gig, then eventually joined the band in 2023, so still a newbie! My first release was ‘Eyes Up Here’, I wasn’t expecting to be on the EP since they had recorded most of it by the time I joined, but it was awesome to take part in the recording of the song ‘Eyes Up Here’ – it’s just a powerful feminist song, and I loved being on that track with Michelle and Cait.
8) Which band/artist do you think has had the biggest influence on your music over the years? What is it about them that inspires you?
M: For me I think the B-52s. They don’t just sing or play, they really perform. They are kooky and don’t give a fuck. I love that. We’re kooky and don’t give a fuck too.
JWCH: I am a massive Queen fan, well Queen nut is probably more accurate. I have a replica of Brian May’s guitar. I even came first place in a Queen guitar playing competition about 14 years ago. I sent in a video of myself playing Good Company and won a hand built guitar amp signed by Brian May! When I started learning the guitar as a kid, I was determined to play Queen songs. I remember getting a songbook with tabs and chords, opening it and getting upset at not being able to play anything. All the songs were so hard! I had to wait several years before I could come back to them to try and play them. So to list what inspires me, the complex songwriting, the showmanship to the point of ridicule, the middle finger they stuck up at their critics and the way Freddie just hid who he was in plain sight…. oh and the Brian May guitaring obviously.
JW: Whatever I do musically, it gets compared to Bowie, the Velvet Underground and/or Joy Division. I discovered the Velvets earliest (indirectly because of the BBC ‘Perfect Day’ cover). They’re a weird band, where discordant racket like ‘Venus in Furs’ can exist on the same side of vinyl as a delicate, melodic song like ‘Sunday Morning’. Lou’s voice is quite a good one to imitate if you can’t sing well (good for me), but his lyrics – dark and unusual, but with a clarity and focus – are what I aspire to.
TG: It’s hard to put a finger on a single artist but the childhood, adolescence and adulthood listening to Queen and Meatloaf set a foundation which helped me understand and keep up with Justin’s songs in Duck Thieves, as well as just naturally going where my mind goes next when writing myself, rather than accidentally just falling into the verse-chorus-verse-chorus structure. Beyond that anyone who made me realise the possibilities of how much you can just do you, whether that be Fantomas, Flaming Lips, the first Let’s Eat Grandma album or countless examples of Eurovision performers.
DS: I love bands with attitude and take inspiration from them when it comes to performance – bands like Be Your Own Pet, Bikini Kill, Le Tigre, Lambrini Girls. Great for when you need to let out some steam! I definitely take inspiration from them when performing in Duck Thieves, especially songs like ‘Eyes Up Here’ or ‘For the Love Not the Money’ that are just so powerful.
9) Who are some of your favourite current artists? What do you like about them?
M: At the moment I’ve been listening to the bands from the youth project I work at – Live on Stage. We’ve had two bands from there play with us at our EP launch and 10 year anniversary: Project Overload and Luminae. They have amazing indie pop songs. What about Eric?, Loophole, The New Obsession and Permanent Daylight are also other bands from the project that are gonna take over the world. It’s awesome to see younger women and non-binary musicians flourish at such a young age. I wish I had a Rock school at their age. The next generation of indie music is in safe hands. Go check them out!
JW: Me Rex have the mysterious gift of being lyrically dense and artistic but also incredibly perceptive and moving. Bears in Trees are a quartet of goofy young scoundrels who like the 1975, which might be dreadful if not for their queer earnestness. There’s a new Car Seat Headrest album this year apparently, whose long, multi-sectioned Beach Boys/Neil Young songs pull my heartstrings. Locally, The Caroline Bomb, Paradise of the Titans, Septic and the Tanks, KAB, Brass Hip Flask, your name here…
TG: Teya’s ‘Grandma on the Dancefloor’ EP dominated my time in recent months. I’m really looking forward to The Gits’ ‘Frenching The Bully’ reissue. Just getting into Wonk Unit after we saw them at Equinox last year. Joe and I got to support Trupa Trupa with our other band Concrete Fun House last year and they’re incredible. Skunk Anansie always remain a favourite and, if I want something heavier, Vodun.
JWCH: In terms of the local band scene I really like Grail Guard. Proper hardcore punk! The frontman screams about his heritage and racism in a very satisfying way. I’ve been listening to 脏手指 Oh! Dirty Fingers, a DIY punk band from Shanghai quite a bit recently. They used to have a Brazilian drummer, who has since left. But they seem to have kept a lot of the rhythmical influences. I’m also a massive Eurovision fan, so when May comes round, my playlist is suddenly going to turn into cheesy Europop.
DS: I mostly listen to chill electronic music – James Blake definitely dominates my playlists. Other favourites are Moses Sumney, Billie Eilish, Sudan Archives, Nao, Maribou State. I listen to music for the vocals, melody and lyrics, and James Blake, Moses Sumney and Billie Eilish are my absolute favourites when it comes to vocals and lyrics. Singing in acapella choirs has made me really appreciate the purity and charm of vocals, especially in harmony, so this is what I look out for in music. James Blake has also disrupted the music industry recently since he went independent a year ago, and has been very vocal about how labels and streaming platforms exploit musicians. You only have to listen to his song ‘Say What You Will’ to see how he felt before leaving the label. So extra brownie points for him!
10) If you could cover any song, what would it be and why?
M: I’ve been trying to get Justin to sign off on the ‘DuckTales’ theme tune for the past 10 years but he ain’t having it. So probably ‘Rock Lobster’ by B52s as it’s super fun and a banger.
JW: The ‘1812 Overture’. Or ‘That’s The Way I Like It’. Original arrangements. Being part of something that large would be cool I think.
JWCH: I always feel that if you perform a cover in front of an audience, they really have to know the song otherwise it’s a bit pointless. Thankfully, being a massive Queen fan, this would be quite easy. But a cover to just play just for my own self indulgence, that would have to be ‘Lorelei’ by Alan Tam. I could imagine Jackie Chan swinging from the trees whilst playing the cheesy 80s harmonised guitar solo.
TG: The big and ridiculous are always the most fun. I’ve always wanted to do the ‘O Fortuna’ section of ‘Carmina Burana’ with a big fuzzy punk guitar sound and hacked through playing it on a tiny synth, but these have gone no further than a phone recording made in my bathroom where no-one can hear it. That or ‘Goldfinger’ by Shirley Bassey.
DS: Jeff Buckley – ‘Lilac Wine’ – it’s not very Duck Thieves, but just a beautiful song, amazing lyrics and melody.
You can next catch Duck Thieves live at The Tin at the Coal Vaults in Coventry, tickets are available here
Find Duck Thieves online- Official Website/Facebook/Instagram/Tik Tok
Feature by Hayley Foster da Silva
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