Anthony Hamilton
Keanan Duffty has worn many hats: he has designed clothes for the likes of Sex Pistols and David Bowie; he has written a book about rock and roll fashion; and since 2013, he has piloted the musical project Slinky Vagabond. Slinky Vagabond itself is a somewhat nebulous band, with a cast of featured musicians revolving around Duffty at its unchanging center. The roster of talent changes from album to album, and has included such veterans as Glen Matlock (of Sex Pistols), Clem Burke (of Blondie), and Dave Formula (of Magazine/Visage). On the most recent Slinky Vagabond record, King Boy Vandals (an anagram of the band’s name), Duffty shared the axial role with guitarist and producer Fabio Fabbri, who co-wrote many of the songs on the album.
Duffty playfully refers to the project as, “a bunch of blokes of a certain age making music for the love of it,” but the songs themselves defy this seemingly casual attitude. Tracks like “Fear No Evil” and “Old Boy” drive forward with seriously angst-fuelled, chugging guitar rhythms, while “The Beauty in You,” which features Dave Formula and Tony Bowers (of Durutti Column/Simply Red), touchingly memorializes the decay of forgotten cities. Though Duffty might not have as much formal music experience as many of his collaborators, his aesthetic sensibilities alone make him a natural bandleader.
Slinky Vagabond hasn’t yet announced any upcoming shows for 2022 (Duffty’s been plenty busy with his fashion work), but they are definitely worth keeping an ear out for, as their range of influences and collaborators continues to expand and evolve.
We recently had a chance to put Duffty and Fabbri under The Probe…
1) If a roach crashed your rehearsal space, would you run or would you kill it?
Keanan Duffty – Nope. I am a Zen Buddhist and maybe I will come back as a roach in my next life. Wouldn’t want to get any bad karma and in any case, I don’t kill living things. Not even mosquitos. Fabio says he would ask the roach “do you like the Beetles?”
2) Does anyone in the band like to play practical jokes? If so, what’s one of the all-time best ones?
Keanan Duffty – Fabio told me that we were nominated ‘album of the year’ in Rolling Stone. That was a good one.
3) What’s the last gift you received?
Keanan Duffty – My wife gave me the David Bowie edition of Monopoly as a Christmas gift, and of course I won the first game (with a little cosmic help from the Star Man himself). No more ‘thimble’, ‘top hat’, or ‘old boot’ game pieces the you may remember from your childhood. This special edition replaces them with 6 major Bowie signifiers: a star, a ‘Pierrot hat’, a ‘space helmet’, and of course the ‘lightning bolt’, which was my choice. And the 20 dollar bills all come pre-rolled! Advance straight to go and collect 200 “Heroes”…!
Fabio Fabbri – A bottle of gin, that I cut to make a slide guitar with the bottleneck.
4) If you could pick one thing about yourself that you’d like your fans to know, what would it be?
Keanan Duffty – I would like fans to know that my Mayan calendar star sign is ‘White Cosmic Dog’. Why? Well I just found that out myself on a visit to Kyiv in Ukraine from my friends Sasha and Julia, who gave me an insight into the Mayan calendar. 7 days in a week? 12 Months in a year?? We’re doing it all wrong! Maybe that is why the world is such a mess. The Mayan calendar makes more sense.
Fabio Fabbri – I would like fans to know that my best recipe is “Spaghetti alla Carbonara”.
5) What music are you listening to lately?
Keanan Duffty – Starcrawler, Lemon Twigs, Foxygen, Black Angels. And I really like The Starbenders. First of all it’s a great name and second, they are pure rock & roll. They look fantastic and are somewhere between The Stooges and Fleetwood Mac. An intoxicating combination.
Fabio Fabbri – Ennio Moricone and J.S.Bach, two up-and-coming rock and rollers.
Watch: Slinky Vagabond – “I’m Falling Down” (feat Tony Bowers and Dave Formula) [Official Video]
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