The Funky Ducklings are part of the International School of Samui in Thailand. Students learn how to perform and record music by performing and recording music, imagine that! The Funky Ducklings Album.1 is out now.

In this interview spotlight, I chat with educators and students from The Funky Ducklings.

Be sure to read through for the full story. And stream their album to show your support!

Full Q&A with links and music below.

Tell us about The Funky Ducklings? What is the band’s origin story?

The band was founded back in 2022, I had finished directing the school drama production in March of that year and didn’t really have anything ‘creative’ planned for the final months of the school year. Basically, on the spur of the moment during a Year 10 English Literature lesson, it was right in the middle of explaining something about Iago’s monstrous plan in ‘Othello’, I got distracted and blurted out to a few students if they wanted to start a band and perform at prom. We literally started rehearsals the week after, it was definitely a slow start – the original bass players was actually a pianist and at that time I didn’t think we needed a keyboard player, but she took on the challenge of learning the new instrument with determination, but was definitely annoyed when I recruited a student a couple of weeks later to play keyboard…

The band mainly covered pop songs during that first year, and I would always ask would the other students at school know and like the song choices? And the students in the band would say ‘yes’. This was a time when we would only perform at school, so we were tailoring our live performances for the audience so we went in that pop direction, but I would always try to add a bit of a rock element to the songs so they weren’t just stone cold replicas of the originals.

As with international schools often being transient, and with students leaving for college or university, there was a big reshuffle within the band a couple of years ago, and we had an entirely new lineup – the lineup we have now. They are certainly an eclectic mix of students, being in different social circles at school, having different interests outside of school, but, in rehearsals and during performances it is something I can’t describe, there are no egos, there is no stress, there are so many jokes – we all just click and are in sync, we are more of a family than a band.

Thankfully we moved towards indie rock covers from that point on… I usually throw in a few song suggestions now and again to keep the creativity flowing, but it is great to get suggestions from Jasmine and the other band members, songs I had no idea they had ever heard of. ‘Linger’ by The Cranberries, or ‘Buddy Holly’ by Weezer for example, how do they know this? Oh, they heard it on TikTok… Regardless, it is great having a mixture of obscure and mainstream indie rock covers now, they are so much fun to play, and rather than play for a targeted audience as we originally did, now we play for ourselves, and want people to judge the originality of our covers – if you were to just listen to our songs, you would have no idea it was myself and a group of teenagers playing.

This has definitely paid off as we continually get asked to perform at public events and celebrations around Koh Samui, which is always amazing because it feels like we have made it. Random strangers often stop me when I’m out and about and would say they saw us perform, and how they were amazed by the talent of the students (James Campbell).

Being the lead singer is alright, but I’m pretty shy and not super confident so it’s a bit challenging at times. I always try my best though. I can’t tell if performing live at school or in public is harder, at school everyone I know is there, but in public it’s a bunch of strangers which makes it better but there’s usually more people and cameras as well. Doing the mash ups at the performances at school is really fun because it’s a lot less serious and we can goof around a bit like one time we wore onesies (Jasmine –Lead Vocals & Rhythm Guitar)

The International School of Samui sounds like my kind of school! What was the most challenging aspect of recording this album?

The International School of Samui is such an outstanding school, considering we are only on a small island in the Gulf of Thailand, we achieve so much with music, academics, swimming and football. It is a real privilege to be a part of this school and how it has such a positive impact on the community.

Deciding to record tracks was a spur of the moment suggestion from myself, just so we could experience being in a studio, and school management were so supportive and agreed it would be a great learning curve for myself and the kids; but, I think the most challenging part of recording this album wasn’t anything technical or music related, it was actually exhaustion.

Our two studio sessions were on the final two weekends of the school year, and it had been a long year… Having just had three live shows, exams, as well as other whole school events, we were all really burnt out, and how many teenagers would want to be in a studio at 09:00am on a Sunday morning? Also, we had no idea how a studio structure would work, having vocals and Leon’s violin arrangements recorded on a separate session was something different for sure; but, we pulled through with the same energy and attitude we have in rehearsals (James Campbell).

Singing to the pre-recorded music was normal, it didn’t feel any different from singing with the band normally but sometimes I would get my timings wrong. Being exhausted (it was the weekend and the end of the school year) I was getting tired and lazy by the end of the year but the recording wasn’t bad at all and I actually wish I got some more time in the studio. I feel like if I had some more time in there my part in the songs would’ve come out a lot better. Learning about vocal harmonies was cool but we didn’t get to do it, next time I really want to it’ll take things to the next level (Jasmine – Lead Vocals & Rhythm Guitar).

Challenges aside, what was the most rewarding part? Any fun stories or experiences that happened during the process worth sharing?

The whole experience was so rewarding, the plan was only to record a couple of songs, and we ended up with an album on our first day in the studio! We have never used a metronome in rehearsals, and Liam at the studio said we should try it on the first take when recording ‘Pumping on Your Stereo’; a little surprised by our timings, Liam said we didn’t need it because we already sound like a well-oiled machine, such a great compliment to get after one take. It got to the point during the day when he would say what song would you like to try next? Having already gone beyond the couple of songs target, we would just play any number of songs from our repertoire and record it in one or two takes. It’s a testament to the dedication the kids have shown over the past couple of years that they could do this.

It was definitely funny having to play with headphones on in the sound booth, when we were talking to each other, we didn’t realize how loud we were shouting, and often forgot we had them on when walking around, pulling cables everywhere – even when we were in the engineering room, I would be trying to explain something to Leon or Jasmine, or Sonic and Patty, through the glass, not realizing they couldn’t hear me… it was definitely a learning curve.

Either way, I can’t describe how proud I am of the finished album and what the kids have been able to achieve over the past couple of years having their work available for the world to hear; as I have said, we are more of a family than a band (James Campbell).

Outside of music, what is your favorite class? Why?

My favorite class is Geography because I find it really interesting and love learning about people and the world around me. Right now we are learning about human geography, which I enjoy way more than physical geography though (Patrizia – Keyboard).

I’d say my favorite class would probably be either Math or English, they are different and I like them for their differences. Math has a formula and a right answer but in English you can be a bit more creative with your answers (Jasmine – Lead Vocals & Rhythm Guitar).

This might seem cliché, but what do you want to be when you grow up? Despite what you might think, some adults don’t know the answer to this. Most of us are still too busy growing up. LOL!

I have two things in mind right now, both in the medical field. I know both of these professions need a lot of hard work and practice, but I’m willing to go for it! Firstly, I want to be a dentist because both of my parents are dentists and I admire them so much, so I want to follow in their footsteps. Also they are able to give me extra guidance on becoming one because they’ve had firsthand experience.

However, I also want to be a doctor because I can have a deeper impact on people’s lives. I could save them from death which is much more challenging and memorable than just having nice teeth. I want to take care of my family and the people I love – helping them stay alive as long as possible so they can stay with me for as long as possible (Sonic – Drums).

I am actually not yet sure about what I want to be when I grow up… Possibly something to do with music, all I know is that I want to enjoy my job and it not be a boring office job like many grown-ups have. I want to love my job and have fun doing it (Patrizia – Keyboard).

I know it might be hard…but do you have a favorite song (or band)? Or what are your Top 3 if you can’t choose one…?

Obviously anything by Kings of Leon (Leon – Violin).

What’s next for The Funky Ducklings? Any upcoming shows or events?

We are currently working on a new set of songs, as we will have our first set of shows in the next month or so – the Loy Krathong event at school, and public events around Koh Samui for various Christmas celebrations. We definitely want to get back into the studio again at some point during the school year, but want to work on writing our own material – it is early days now though, and we have only just got back into the swing of things in rehearsals after the long summer break, but as the history of the band shows, we will keep on getting better and better (James Campbell).

I look forward to playing new songs and hopefully being able to record them in the studio again, I really want to do the vocal harmonies because i feel like i could do so much more and so much better than last time.

Singing and playing guitar together for the first time is definitely challenging and I applaud every artist who is able to do that. It’s challenging to sing and play at the same time especially as I’m only just beginning to play guitar, but I’m determined to make it work. Singing and playing guitar at the same time is so much cooler than just singing. I also get told all the time that I need more stage presence so I feel like if I’m holding a guitar I’ll be more comfortable to do stuff (Jasmine – Lead Vocals & Rhythm Guitar).

I appreciate Your time and LOVE what you are doing. Any last thoughts to share before we conclude this interview?

All of the band would just like to offer our sincerest gratitude Joshua, for taking your time to support our work, and providing all of us with such a great opportunity have our music heard. I am just amazed that people all around the world are streaming our music, I didn’t expect anything like this to ever happen.

We are forever grateful for the enormous support from The International School of Samui, as well as all of those who have supported us from the beginning; coming to all our shows, supporting us at public events. But most of all, if it weren’t for this eclectic mix of talented and amazing students, none of this would be remotely possible – in every rehearsal, every live show, their hard work and talent amazes me and I couldn’t be more proud of them (James Campbell).