Biography
Based in London, Duke Garwood operates as a versatile multi-instrumentalist and recording artist whose command of numerous instruments has appeared across projects by musicians spanning wide stylistic territories. Although his solo work draws from blues foundations to produce shadowy, atmospheric textures steeped in nocturnal mood on releases such as 2009’s The Sand That Falls and 2014’s Heavy Love, his contributions with other performers have extended into soul horn arrangements and introspective electronics, while he has maintained ongoing partnerships with vocalist Mark Lanegan.
Born during 1969 in rural Kent, Garwood received his initial guitar at age two yet focused primarily on piano until turning 17. His earliest professional credit arrived when he performed guitar—credited as Duke James—on the Orb’s “Perpetual Dawn” from their 1991 debut Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld. Throughout the remaining years of that decade he refined his abilities on guitar and vocals, performed live using assorted instruments with various collaborators, and contributed to studio sessions. Early in the 2000s he supplied vocals or instrumentation on recordings by Dusted (under the name Luke Garwood), Carolyn Hume, and Paul May, among additional artists.
Loog Records issued his debut single “Sweet Back” backed with “Blow Blossom” in 2003; two years later his first full-length Holy Week appeared, cementing his standing as a blues practitioner of distinctive breadth. Although Garwood devoted considerable time to recording and touring with the Archie Bronson Outfit, he managed to complete his second album inside a Kent barn, resulting in the 2007 Butterfly release Emerald Palace. The following year he supplied an entire horn section on the Notorious Hi-Fi Killers’ Which Side Are You On?.
Fire Records signed Garwood in 2008, leading to the June 2009 arrival of his third album The Sand That Falls, preceded a month earlier by the five-track EP He Was a Warlock. In 2011 he joined Alexander Tucker for the Dorwytch album, contributing horns and winds, and that same year partnered with artist Shezad Dawood on the New Dream Machine Project. Drawing from Brion Gysin’s original design and the recording Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka, Dawood recruited Garwood and the Moroccan legends for live performances featuring a ten-foot-tall dream machine.
Garwood next ventured further into experimental territory with 2011’s Dreamboatsafari while retaining blues underpinnings; aside from drums and select bass parts he performed and produced the entire set. In 2012 he played an essential role within the loose dark jazz-ambient collective Land, whose members included Tucker and David Sylvian; Important issued their album Night Within. That year also initiated Garwood’s sustained collaboration with Lanegan on the latter’s Blues Funeral, an experience that introduced him to the American desert—an influence that would later shape his own compositions.
The pair entered the studio again in 2013 to record the jointly credited Black Pudding for Ipecac, an album that received widespread praise; Garwood and Lanegan subsequently toured the record worldwide. During 2014 Garwood appeared as a guest on the Mark Lanegan Band’s Smokestack Magic full-length and Smokestack Lightning EP, and he rejoined the Archie Bronson Outfit for their Domino release Wild Crush.
Also in 2014 Garwood began writing and tracking his subsequent album, enlisting numerous guests that included Queens of the Stone Age’s Alain Johannes, who performed on the sessions and co-mixed the results with Lanegan. Heavy Love was recorded in both Los Angeles and London before its February 2015 release on Heavenly. His next effort, the atmospheric Garden of Ashes, surfaced in early 2017. Garwood and Lanegan issued a further joint project in 2018 titled With Animals, pairing Lanegan’s vocals with sparse yet evocative electronic textures crafted by Garwood.
Born during 1969 in rural Kent, Garwood received his initial guitar at age two yet focused primarily on piano until turning 17. His earliest professional credit arrived when he performed guitar—credited as Duke James—on the Orb’s “Perpetual Dawn” from their 1991 debut Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld. Throughout the remaining years of that decade he refined his abilities on guitar and vocals, performed live using assorted instruments with various collaborators, and contributed to studio sessions. Early in the 2000s he supplied vocals or instrumentation on recordings by Dusted (under the name Luke Garwood), Carolyn Hume, and Paul May, among additional artists.
Loog Records issued his debut single “Sweet Back” backed with “Blow Blossom” in 2003; two years later his first full-length Holy Week appeared, cementing his standing as a blues practitioner of distinctive breadth. Although Garwood devoted considerable time to recording and touring with the Archie Bronson Outfit, he managed to complete his second album inside a Kent barn, resulting in the 2007 Butterfly release Emerald Palace. The following year he supplied an entire horn section on the Notorious Hi-Fi Killers’ Which Side Are You On?.
Fire Records signed Garwood in 2008, leading to the June 2009 arrival of his third album The Sand That Falls, preceded a month earlier by the five-track EP He Was a Warlock. In 2011 he joined Alexander Tucker for the Dorwytch album, contributing horns and winds, and that same year partnered with artist Shezad Dawood on the New Dream Machine Project. Drawing from Brion Gysin’s original design and the recording Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka, Dawood recruited Garwood and the Moroccan legends for live performances featuring a ten-foot-tall dream machine.
Garwood next ventured further into experimental territory with 2011’s Dreamboatsafari while retaining blues underpinnings; aside from drums and select bass parts he performed and produced the entire set. In 2012 he played an essential role within the loose dark jazz-ambient collective Land, whose members included Tucker and David Sylvian; Important issued their album Night Within. That year also initiated Garwood’s sustained collaboration with Lanegan on the latter’s Blues Funeral, an experience that introduced him to the American desert—an influence that would later shape his own compositions.
The pair entered the studio again in 2013 to record the jointly credited Black Pudding for Ipecac, an album that received widespread praise; Garwood and Lanegan subsequently toured the record worldwide. During 2014 Garwood appeared as a guest on the Mark Lanegan Band’s Smokestack Magic full-length and Smokestack Lightning EP, and he rejoined the Archie Bronson Outfit for their Domino release Wild Crush.
Also in 2014 Garwood began writing and tracking his subsequent album, enlisting numerous guests that included Queens of the Stone Age’s Alain Johannes, who performed on the sessions and co-mixed the results with Lanegan. Heavy Love was recorded in both Los Angeles and London before its February 2015 release on Heavenly. His next effort, the atmospheric Garden of Ashes, surfaced in early 2017. Garwood and Lanegan issued a further joint project in 2018 titled With Animals, pairing Lanegan’s vocals with sparse yet evocative electronic textures crafted by Garwood.
Albums
Singles
