Rising Stars: Meet Ominous Duck of Sherman Oaks

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ominous Duck

Hi Ominous Duck, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Like so many teen bands in LA, we all met at a School of Rock. Quinn (drummer) had been there the longest with 5 years and Lucie (singer) had just started in 2022 when the band first formed. Avalon (guitar) and Lucca (bass) had been there a few years and we had all played together. At first we just rehearsed covers and played a couple of house parties. We started building our social media to show venues how well we could play and in May of 2023 we got our first gig, which opened up the opportunity to play more gigs. Since then we’ve been able to play so many iconic venues in LA like The Whisky and The Viper Room, The Rainbow Bar & Grill and anywhere else where they let minors perform. Our last gig in December will be 50th show we’ve done as a band since we formed. We still mostly do covers, but we’ve created a handful of originals that we like to play at gigs as well.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Probably the biggest challenge we face is how varied our tastes in music is. With so many varied genres, it can be difficult coming up with a set that everyone loves every song. Lucie loves older metal bands like Megadeth and Iron Maiden, Quinn prefers pop punk like Blink-182 and Yellowcard. Lucca has a varied taste, but really loves hardcore punk bands like Title Fight. Avalon likes all sorts of things so it’s hard to say she likes one genre, but she definitely is a fan of shoegaze influenced bands like The Smashing Pumpkins. But these mixed interests allows us to create unique sets that you don’t normally expect from a teen band.

It’s also hard to build a crowd that comes to all your shows. We get school friends and parent friends to come to shows, but not as many people who don’t know us but follow us on Instagram. But that will come with time and playing more and more gigs.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
When it comes to our original music, it definitely is influenced by a little bit of grunge a little bit of punk mixed with some metal in there. We had an amazing opportunity to record our first two originals at The Village Studios through a friend of Avalon’s mom. It was our first time in a studio and was a memorable experience. Both those songs are now on all streaming platforms.

We have since been playing quite a few gigs, so we haven’t had as much time to work on original music, but we have a couple of new songs that better reflect our current sound which leans into the heavier side a bit more, with more layers.

Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Though we all have taken our own personal risks as part of our music journey, we think it’s a risk to try and pursue playing music in LA where we mostly play with other adult bands. It’s not always an amazing show and sometimes you’ll play to 2 people and the bartender, which can be defeating. But we do like how when we first get on a stage in front of a bunch of adults and they look at us like we’re just kids and then we start playing. Our ability to perform and just rock out always surprises people and we love that. So it makes it worth puting ourselves out there.

We’ve had an opportunity to do a few battle of the bands, which is very nerve-racking. And in most cases, we’re going up against bands that are much older than us, which can be intimidating. Plus it’s hard when your music talent is being judged, which can be so subjective. But we have one win and couple of second places that we’re proud of. And we hope to win another one in December.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://ominousduck.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ominousduckofficial
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@OminousDuck
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@ominousduckofficial