Over the last 12 months, Peking Duk have been riding a hell of a wave.

In addition to upcoming gigs at Stereosonic and Vanfest, the Canberra duo have been carving up a wide US fan base between festivals like Coachella and Life Is Beautiful. Their latest single, ‘Say My Name’, sees a rockier shift from their usual fare, and as Reuben Styles explains, the single is a taste of things to come. With one touring whirlwind behind them, and the next storm of gigs fast approaching, Styles takes a breath and ponders what direction their sound might take next.

“It’s great finally being at home,” he sighs. “We landed in Sydney from Vegas, played a gig that night with The Veronicas, then woke up the next day and realised, ‘It’s relax time. Anything goes.’ We haven’t booked in any studio sessions or anything. I’ve just sat back and tried to regain myself. Get some rest. I think that makes the studio so much more fun, when you’re not forcing yourself.

“Today when I woke up, I had ideas bouncing around, and just went in and started laying stuff down there and then. So you have a bit of healthy living, but mixed with heading down to your local pub each night for a few nightcaps. If you’re not drinking at all, well, people are going to be a bit scared. You know what they say – never trust a man who doesn’t drink.”

I’m not sure people actually say that, I laugh.

“Ha, I like it! I’ve started to live by it now. Though now that I think about it, one of our managers doesn’t drink, which makes me wonder…”

Much of life seems to be about finding a neat balance of business and pleasure, and as Styles describes kicking back to play GTA V, you can’t help but feel the man has earned the respite. He and Adam Hyde began their electronic project back in 2010, though it was only last year that they cracked the Top 40 with ‘High’, featuring Nicole Millar. From there came international record deals and touring, a constant cavalcade of festivals and clubs, and an evolution in sound as their audience grew and they saw exactly what it was that made their music tick.

“We’ve been doing a lot of festivals lately in America,” Styles says. “At Coachella I was really excited to see FKA Twigs and acts like Jack White, but I feel like I’d rather see them at a solo show somewhere. The acts I think really stole Coachella were Flosstradamus and DJ Snake, the acts which just played over-the-top, gigantic bangers, because in crowds of those numbers, it just works better. Maybe ‘better’ is a bad word, but the feeling of big music in a big crowd is incredible, while intimate music in an intimate setting hits a different spot.

“I wouldn’t go to see many DJs in a club. But if I’m at a festival with 40,000 people jumping to Flosstradamus, that’s sick. To put it in perspective, Slumberjack put out a song for us, and that song is totally trap that you could play at a festival, but at the same time it’s real fun in an intimate setting to groove out to.

“There are little tricks you find on the way,” Styles adds. “Things that we’ve accidentally done in one set and saw worked really well, so we’ve done them again in the next set. There are a bunch of things that become a part of the regular show as the show continues, stuff on the fly. But a lot of the time, if you do see us play twice in the space of a few weeks, you’ll still see a very similar set. We might add a new tune into the set and ditch an old one every two weeks. Our change is a very gradual process. After maybe four months you should be hearing an entirely new set.”

When ‘Say My Name’ was released, much of the conversation around it centred on how different the song was, how noticeable the change in Peking Duk’s direction. It’s a fair discussion, since regardless of how strong the track actually is, it makes you ponder how comfortable the guys are in their musical skin. Does the need to stretch out imply a fear of being boxed into a certain sound, or is it all an inevitable part of an artist’s evolution?

“That’s a tough one,” says Styles. “As long as you are always excited, it will always be fun. And as long as it’s always fun, you’ll always be motivated to get into the studio. As soon as you get to that point where you’re not really loving what you’re doing, switch it up. ‘High’, ‘Take Me Over’ sound quite different to ‘Say My Name’ and all the other songs we’ve been working on lately. ‘Say My Name’ felt right because it was a step not necessarily in a rock direction, but a step away from what we’d found ourselves starting to get stuck in.

“That was great in a way, where people were saying, ‘That sounds like Peking Duk,’ but at the same time, we might have boxed ourselves into a certain sound. There are lots and lots of directions still to go, and I think doing stuff like that will not only unbox ourselves for our fans, but will make us both happier in the long term.”

Peking Duk appear atStereosonic 2015, Sydney Showground, Saturday November 28; then Vanfest 2015 at Forbes Showgrounds, Friday December 4 – Saturday December 5.

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