Meet Leo Duke | Performing Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Leo Duke and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Leo, why did you pursue a creative career?
I wanted to pursue music and performing for many reasons. The first of which I’ll say is that I love it more than anything else. For me, getting up on a stage and playing to a full audience is the most incredible feeling in the world. It’s also an incredible self confidence booster when you’re playing a song you wrote and having that audience go absolutely nuts over it.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I am an original rock musician coming out of Boston. After playing in the Metal Scene out there for a while, I realized that while I still loved the genre, it didn’t feel like the place I wanted to be anymore. Since then, I’ve branched out recently, moving into a more modern Hard Rock sound.

Something I pride myself on is having a wider variety of sound than most other artists out there today. I don’t want to write the same song eight times over and pass that off as my new record. I’d rather have the ability to pull of something like Queen and have all of my influences shine on their own tracks. I think the best bands in the business are the ones that break up the monotony of having too much repetition.

It hasn’t been easy getting to the point I’m at today. There were many things I had to learn to get over in order to put myself out there more often. I used to have incredible stage fright until I started doing Theatre in High School. Learning how to stand on stage and feel comfortable in what I was doing took a while, but it also taught me how to tap into performance techniques I hadn’t known about before.

Other obstacles in my way have been other people around me. I’ve spent a lot of my life hearing from other people that I’m not good enough or that my music isn’t mainstream enough for people to like it. To that, I’ve always said the same thing. “I’ll show you”. I think that’s a massive part of my drive to succeed as well. To be able to show the people who didn’t believe how wrong they were.

Nevertheless I am thankful for people that don’t believe in me or try to give me a hard time. They’re good to write songs about!

A few things I’d like followers of my brand to know are pretty simple. 1) All it takes is a dream and some drive. 2) Rock is NOT dead, regardless of what others say. 3) I don’t care what your preferred music taste is. If you like my music, you are more than welcome to join the Duke family! With so many fan bases out there trying to rip each other apart, I want to have a fan base that’s actively trying to bring people together!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
First thing I do is look at all the upcoming concerts in the area, and then if there’s one we both want to see, we’ll go see it! The best concerts I’ve seen out here have been primarily at Ak-Chin Pavillion!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My good friend Eddie at Carlino Guitars has been integral in helping me advance in my career. I’ve met a lot of incredible people through him, and I don’t think I would be doing as well musically if he wasn’t in my life. Not only is he an incredible guy, but he makes some of the coolest guitars and guitar straps on the planet! Aside from myself, his main endorsees include Paul Stanley and Tommy Thayer from KISS, Orianthi, Slash, Nikki Sixx of Mötley Crüe, and Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick! Check out Carlinoguitars.com when you can!

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Image Credits
Bennett Ducharme