Looking for a new Summer jam? If a fresh, vibrant take on The Beatles’ classic style piques your interest, Kyle Duke may have the tunes for all your summertime listening needs. The student artist just dropped his new single, She’s Your Queen, on April 4, and he is set to release his album, Aquatic Pop, this May.
Q: How long have you been involved with music?
A pretty long time. I think I started playing guitar when I was seven, but before that my parents were really in to music. So, growing up, my dad always played his records. So, pretty much my whole life.
Q: How would you describe your new single?
It’s pretty pop-y. It’s pretty short. I tried to make it hook-y and fun. There’s a lot of influence from The Beatles and The Birds. And subconsciously there’s a little psychedelic pop nugget.
Q: What inspiration led to the album and the song in general?
Well, this record that I put out last year was my first time really releasing music. Because I was experimenting with producing everything on my own, I feel like song writing kind of fell second to the whole production and sonic texture thing, so this time around I really focused more on finding more of a voice in terms of things like song writing and lyrics. So, I was listening to a lot of early stuff from The Beatles instead of the later stuff which was more of an influence on the last one. I started listening to a little bit more folk and country. Other really lyric driven artists kind of led to this project.
Q: How did you decide on the specific title of the song and the album?
The title of the song just came from the lyrics. It was one of the less personal songs that I wrote. It was just a more general concept of searching for love, striking out, but then finding someone, and just becoming infatuated and lucky to have them. So, She’s Your Queen—you end up worshipping someone if you really fall in love with them. I thought it was catchy and the hook of the song. As for the whole album, Aquatic Pop, that’s a blend of the two things I was trying to capture with it. One of which were the surf-y, underwater sounds that carried over from the last record. But, I definitely tried to do more of a pop record this time around with shorter, more hook driven songs. So, that’s where the “pop” came from. I just thought it sounded kind of cool, too.
Q: Why do you think the song and the album would appeal to students?
I’ve had a lot of luck so far with college radio and college newspapers. I think part of it is because of my age and because I’m a student. I think it’s a little easier to connect with. The shows that I’m playing here in the DIY scene around Brooklyn have a very young, early ’20s, teenager driven scene. I’m happy about that because I feel like music trends and artists always come up from having younger fans first. I’ve been trying to cater to the audience of my peers because I think young people are the trend setters in music. Luckily, so far, it seems like the last couple things I put out resonated with a younger audience. So, I’m hoping that since I’m the same artist, even though this new stuff is different, it’ll still have the same effect.
Q: Where would someone go to acquire your music?
It’s on pretty much every online platform. I’ve been really pushing Spotify lately.
Kyle hopes people vibe with the music he’s made and share it with their friends. He currently attends New York University and is part of the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music in the Tisch School of the Arts.
