Toronto duo Ducks Ltd make jangly guitar pop that feels especially indebted to the '80s UK indie scene, with the band citing Television Personalities, Felt, and The Servants as inspiration, alongside New Zealand Flying Nun groups like The Clean, The Chills, and The Bats. The band are gearing up to release their debut album, Modern Fiction, which will be out October 1 via Carpark Records.
The album opens with "How Lonely Are You?" that roars out of the gate like The Wedding Present with a rush of furiously strummed guitars before breaking open into dreamier pastures. The song also features backing vocals from their labelmates The Beths. “This song is about personal connection in an environment that is hostile to it, and about friendships with people who are physically distant,” the band's Tom McGreevy says. “Me and Evan have both moved around a lot, and have friends in far off places we don’t see as often as we’d like. In fact, we partly made this record while Evan was living in Australia and I was in Toronto. Some of those friendships are extremely important to me, and the song is kind of about grasping for those lifelines when it’s particularly difficult to believe that things are going to work out, or if there’s even any point in trying.”