DC4's Jeff Duncan Talks About

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Ever wonder what happened to some of the musicians that were part of a big band in the 80’s? Some of them have found other interests, some turned to a solo career but in the case of Jeff Duncan, he just decided to get a band together, and like the saying goes, ‘If at first you don’t succeed, try again’. After a first project that didn’t garner much attention, Jeff is putting all of his efforts and talents into DC4. And to avoid any of the usual conflicts that musicians encounter between each other, Jeff is now playing with his two brothers, Shawn (drums) and Matt (bass). To complete the line up, they chose Church Highland to play guitars.

Together since 1997, DC4 started to spark interest especially in Europe with “Mood Swings” the band’s first EP.

After taking a break from DC4 for the recording and touring of Armored Saint’s ‘Revelation’, Jeff went straight back to work, writing and recording “Volume 1”, DC4’s first full length album which is set to come out in March on Rising Sun.

He agreed to tell us his adventures…

JEFF: Well, I started to play with my brother Shawn a long time ago in a band called Oden. We always played together as a matter of fact. After Armored Saint in 91, I put together my band Bird of Prey and that was with Shawn. That band folded, it kind of wasn’t going anywhere musically and I took about a year off after, just writing music.
Matt was busy doing some other stuff at the time but by the end of Bird of Prey he was playing bass with us. But he didn’t like it, he had a problem with the singer, he just filled in when we had to part ways with our bass player, he just did us a favor. And since musically it wasn’t where we wanted to go anymore, we broke up and I just wrote for about a year. Once I had all the music and I was ready to put a band together again, of course the logical choice was to play with Shawn and Matt. As for Highland, I had seen him play many times before and I knew that the day I was going to put another band together he would be the guitar player because he’s just great. We didn’t want to look for a singer because I had written all the songs at home, and I sang on them and the guys pretty much insisted that I’d be the singer.

KNAC.COM: How did you feel about that?
JEFF: I love it. I’ve always sung, I just never fronted a rock band, but it was something I was ready to do. I especially love it because they are my melodies, my lyrics and I just didn’t want to deal with getting a singer. The only singer I’ve never had a problem with is John Bush, with everybody else, I’ve had nothing but problems.

KNAC.COM: Do you feel it’s easier to be in a band with your brothers because they’re family?
JEFF: We’re so close in age, we grew up together, we always did stuff together, playing in a band is just another thing that we do together.

KNAC.COM: Do you have any other siblings?
JEFF: Yes, we have a sister, her name is Ginger and she’s into music too. She is the Webmaster for our site DC4online.com

“If anybody is listening to DC4 and expecting to hear Armored Saint number 2, they’re going to be disappointed... I mean it’s not as if we sound like Matchbox 20 or something -- it’s still hard, in-your-face rock music.”

KNAC.COM: Your first EP “Mood Swings” started the ball rolling in Europe…
JEFF: Yes, we had put this EP together, just so that we would have our songs on CD. So, we financed it ourselves and Rising Sun told us they were interested to distribute it. When I went to Germany with Armored Saint on the last tour, I met with them and gave them a bunch of CD’s. I guess the EP did pretty good and got some good press reviews. So, then they told us they’d be interested in shopping a full-length album for us, not financing but distributing. So, we went in and recorded “Volume 1” ourselves, and they are going to market and distribute it.

KNAC.COM: You actually had to take a break from DC4 to go back to the studio with Armored Saint and then on tour to support “Revelation” how did your band feel about that?
JEFF: My band, they understood, it did nothing but help what we were doing. I got to associate with fans not only in the U.S but in Europe as well and talk to them face to face and say ‘Hey, here’s what I’m up to.’ I actually sold a lot of DC4 CD’s while touring with Armored Saint.

KNAC.COM: So, how is the response to DC4 so far?
JEFF: Well, we’ve been getting a lot of positive feedback. I don’t expect everyone to like it, because it is different from Armored Saint, which is good. If anybody is listening to DC4 and expecting to hear Armored Saint number 2, they’re going to be disappointed. But the response has been really good. I mean it’s not as if we sound like Matchbox 20 or something -- it’s still hard, in your face rock music.

KNAC.COM: So is Armored Saint a closed chapter of your life?
JEFF: Armored Saint is something that I always want to be involved with, if there’s something to do. It’s a special thing for me to be included with. I’ve known the guys for so many years, I mean they are my buddies and being on the road and playing Armored Saint music is very special, we have so much fun together that I would never not want to be involved with. It’s like my other family.

KNAC.COM: Your album is entitled “Volume 1.” Is this an epic album that calls for a second chapter down the line?
JEFF: Not in that sense, but I hope there’ll be more coming. We actually called it “Volume 1” because it’s like the first chapter of what we’ve been doing. Plus the title fits the album cover.

KNAC.COM: I don’t have the album cover, what is it?
JEFF: It’s a Marshall cabinet, and instead of the Marshall logo, it’s the DC4 logo and it says “Volume 1”.

KNAC.COM: So, when did you find the time to write the songs for “Volume 1”? I mean you just got off the road with Armored Saint a few months ago…
JEFF: Well, that’s actually a really good question. I guess I’m just always writing songs. DC4 actually has been together for a while, so we had a lot of songs to choose from. We had some 40 songs or so to choose from. There are some songs we’ve been playing for some time and some that are newer and a couple of them are actually brand new. So it’s a variety of what we do.

KNAC.COM: Do you write all the lyrics and melodies?
JEFF: I’d say I write about 98% of what we do. On the album there’s a song called “Jack and Jill”, it’s Highland who brought that song of the table, I made a few adjustments here and there. Otherwise it’s pretty much my job to do the writing.

KNAC.COM: Is that your choice to do the writing?
JEFF: Well, I just naturally write so much, that the other guys just don’t worry about the material, Highland writes as well, so it’s pretty much the two of us who bring the music to the band, I’m just the only one who bring complete songs.
Everybody takes part in the arrangements and the feel of the song, everyone has a say of how they want to do the songs.

KNAC.COM: Your songs are different one from another, what inspires you?
JEFF: I’m glad you think so, because that’s what I wanted when I put DC4 together. I wanted a band without having to worry about being “heavy metal” or “alternative” or “prog” or anything. I didn’t want to be concerned with that, I just want to be able to write songs the way they feel and which ever are the best songs out of the lot, we keep them and call them DC4. And that’s it just DC4, that’s what we are and that’s the only label that fits.

KNAC.COM: Hard rock is not so much a trendy style of music these days; don’t you feel pressure to writing differently?
JEFF: I don’t concern myself with that stuff. If I should try to write something a certain way it would just not come out right. I like to sit down with my guitar and the songs just come out. I’ve seen bands do that, try to write a certain style because that’s what’s going on at the time but by the time they finish writing, recording, rehearsing and getting their album out, that trend has already passed. I figured, I would rather continue to make music that I like, because there are always people who are going to like it. We may not become the next platinum band, but we’ll be doing what we like and as long as we get to make the best music we can and put out records, I’ll be happy.

KNAC.COM: You had Joey Vera produced the album?
JEFF: Joey is very talented and he’s my friend, two good reasons to have him produce “Volume 1”. As you know he produced Armored Saint Revelation and Nod To The Old School, and an Armored Saint “best of” that came out. We actually recorded some new tracks on that album and he produced that. He was just a logical choice because I couldn’t imagine having a stranger starting to tell me how my songs should go, and you know it happens. But I really didn’t want to bring a stranger into the element of my band; Joey as a member of Armored Saint and Joey as a producer are kind of two different persons. His intentions were to catch the best representation of DC4; it didn’t want it to sound like Armored Saint. And it happens to be very convenient that my good friend Joey Vera is an excellent producer/engineer. We had a lot of fun making the album. But because he’s such a good friend, I was open to the suggestions he made in trying different things, some we kept and some we left out and it worked out perfectly. We did the best DC4 record that we could put together. So I do feel that “Volume1” is a true representation of DC4.

KNAC.COM: What does DC4 stands for?
JEFF: It’s actually really simple. The D stands for Duncan, the C is for Church, our guitar player’s last name, and the 4 is just for the four of us.
Originally we were called Human Nature for a year or so, but we decided that it sounded too much like a boy band!
We didn’t want to spend a bunch of time on a name and actually I think it was Shawn that thought of naming the band after us and somehow we came up with the name in probably 15 minutes. I can’t even remember who came up with it. But it’s cool because it’s catchy and everybody seems to remember it.

KNAC.COM: Tell me who inspires you musically?
JEFF: I’m into a lot of different things. Of course some of my earliest influences include Black Sabbath and I am a huge Beatles fan. I think any musician who learning how to write should learn a bunch of Beatles songs because that’s the caplet on how to write songs. I’m also into the early Van Halen, although I don’t think it transcribes too much in my music. I also started to get new influences when I started singing. There are a bunch of singers that I respect and that inspire me. I’ve always been into Dio as a singer and he’s such a nice guy. I think he’s amazing. I’m a fan of the The Colour and The Shape album by the Foo Fighters, I found it very inspiring at one time.

KNAC.COM: What inspires you lyrically and what do you like to write about?
JEFF: I write about people I meet. I write about myself. I tend to write realistically about the human condition, the way people think and the crazy things they do. I’ve always had an interest in humans and how they are and how they behave. So, my lyrics usually come from a very personal opinion or viewpoint based on things like spirit.

KNAC.COM: Do you know if you’ll tour Europe to support the release of “Volume 1”?
JEFF: I’d love to go. I’m not sure yet, but I hope we get to play a couple of the festivals there.

KNAC.COM: If you had the choice, who would you like to go on the road with?
JEFF: I think it would probably be Stone Temple Pilots that I think would be general choice.

KNAC.COM: When you were with Armored Saint, the music scene in L.A was a little different than what is it now with DC4. How do you feel about it?
JEFF: The L.A scene has changed so much it is really nothing like what it used to be. As far as I’m concerned there really isn’t a scene anymore like it was in the 80’s. It’s a lot harder to play in L.A these days. Back then L.A was the hot spot -- that’s where everybody got signed: Poison, Warrant, Motley Crue. The record companies were mostly here looking for the next platinum seller. It just got completely saturated. I think L.A is still in a healing process from all that.

KNAC.COM: How do you think the scene has changed so much?
JEFF: It’s harder now because the major labels are not into developing acts as much as they used to be. And I think it’s also harder because we don’t play today’s trend. But I’d rather do that than be unhappy.
Also, now it’s not so much about helping the band grow, it’s all about making a quick buck. If you don’t sell enough they’ll put you on the shelf and you’ll just be the next tax write off.
On the other hand, on an independent level I think you’ve got a better chance. If DC4 gets to tour the clubs and gets moderate success with our independent label then I’ll be happy.
I’ve been doing this for such a long time; I have a very realistic outlook on what it is that I’m involved with. I’m not going to convince anyone that I’m supposed to be some kind of huge Rock star.
The way I look at it is that with the records that I’ve made already and the things that I’ve done, I got a lot of opportunities that a lot of people who play music never got the chance to have.
I got to see the world with Armored Saint… I feel that I’m lucky already.
But I still have all the faith in the world in DC4 and I’m thankful for our fans and also to your magazine for doing this interview.