Ducky, the persona of San Fran native Morgan Neiman, has made it her mission to show the world that girls can make heavy club bangers, too. She’s 19 and has been recording for six years. Ducky knows her way around the artful studio-production side of electronic music and is able to command a stage with go-go dancers or get behind the DJ booth.
“It is this unbelievably sexist culture. I’ve DJ’ed, … and had people go up to a guy next to me or my boyfriend at the time and say, ‘Oh man were you the DJ?’” she said. “People aren’t able to comprehend girls could make heavy shit, sample porn, sample nerdy shit, and I can.”
Ducky started her career recording and performing music when she was 13 and used a school project as an excuse to buy a copy of the professional-grade recording software Logic Pro and a microphone. After creating a few more EPs and taking a test, she skipped high school and moved to New York after getting accepted to NYU at age 17.
After a quick listen to her latest two songs available on her Bandcamp page, “Killing Time” and “Your Ever After,” you’ll quickly be converted to a follower of the Church of Ducky. As singles, “Killing Time” and “Your Ever After” are professional and catchy enough to be on the radio.
It’s a step forward for females in electronic music because it shows girls that you don’t have to have a cheap gimmick or rely solely on sex appeal to have a successful career in the music industry.
“Killing Time and “Your Ever After” get stuck in your head the same way Peaches’ “Fuck the Pain Away” does, but they aren’t as immature or plastic. It actually sounds like someone is singing to you. Neiman isn’t willing to settle to be another one-hit wonder.
The beats on Boys Club, Ducky’s forthcoming album, that are available so far appear to be heavy club bangers. Cutting off most of the beats before a minute has even passed is the perfect teaser. Eventually, the entirety of Boys Club will be a composite of all the beats formed into one cohesive, mixtape-style composition. The inspiration and drive behind the project is trying to take dance music back from the boys club that is has become.
“DJ Magazine named their Top 100 DJs, and they were all men; there wasn’t a single girl on the list,” she said. “When [the DJ scene] first came out, it was supposed to be a scene for people who didn’t really get a scene in male-dominated rock: gays, women, everyone could have an equal voice. Now it’s turned back into this straight-male, testosterone-dominated scene.”
Boys Club will be fully released on Jan. 21, but until then, you can get weekly updates from the mixtape on Ducky’s website. You can also watch her eerie live shows and music videos that make you feel like you’re on an epic Ketamine trip.
“That’s the whole thing with Boys Club. I do watch porn, I do masturbate, and I know I’m not the only girl who does those things,” she said. “But boys are the only ones who talk about it, so I wanted to put it out there because that’s me.”
