Skip to main content

180 Out


Band: 180 Out

Members: Joe Dukes, guitar and vocals; Grace Dukes, bass and vocals; Spencer Dukes, drums and vocals

Who we talked to: Joe Dukes

How did you guys get together? Well, you know, the other members of the band are my kids. Easy to recruit. (Laughs) Actually, I played music my whole life pretty much. The kids had an interest in music, my son, especially, who plays the drums. He started playing about two-and-a-half years ago. Grace, the bass player . . . really didn't want anything to do with it. (Last July Spencer and I) were like, "Can you please, you know, just pluck these strings so we can hear what it sounds like." It was really a blessing because she really felt that it was something cool.

What is your practice schedule like? We are part of a praise and worship band at our church, . . . the Stillmeadow Church of the Nazarene (in Manchester Township). Every Tuesday night, we have youth group and we are the youth praise band. We have other kids that play with us for that, but we're pretty much the core group. And then . . . in between gigs, we try to set up our stuff in the basement at least once a week. We've been writing a lot of new songs.

Do you play other places locally? There's a whole other realm of cool (places) for kids to come listen to music. A lot of youth groups are sponsoring coffeehouses and different things like that. They'll invite different bands . . . to come and play. They're mostly Christian bands, but they don't have to be. Unfortunately, there are not a whole lot of those places in York. Most of the places we're playing right now are in Harrisburg, and there's a couple in Lancaster.

Can you describe your sound and style? Somebody said we're like old-style today. We have some funk going on. We have some pop going on. We have some rock going on. It's really just about the message . . . and having fun.

Any other influences? My kids love Stellar Kart, Relient K and mostly Christian stuff, I think. David Crowder is a great Christian band. My son's a little more punky than we are. He loves Blink-182. He doesn't really like the words too much, but he likes the style of music.

Where did the name come from? Does it have to do with scripture? It says in the Bible that you have to be in this world, but you don't have to be of it. One of the things we've always felt in out hearts is that we see the world going in a certain way and, unfortunately, it seems to be going way from Christ. We actually have a song and one of the lines is . . . "Let's stop right here, right now, turn around and go the other way." It's basically just doing a 180. We preach that from the stage.

Like any other local bands? Me and my son went . . . to a thing called Chuck Fest at our church, and there as a band called Torn From Red there. There was another band called The Mint from Lancaster and another band . . . called the Art of Abandonment. We've never played with any of those guys, but to see them up there playing got the kids excited.

What is coming up for you in the future? The Lord is opening doors every day. We're having a one-week tour we put together just to see how it would work out. MySpace is such a great booking tool. We've been invited to some festivals. We're having a great time and we're meeting so many people and we're able to share a great message of salvation, hope and joy.

- ERIN McCRACKEN, FLIPSIDE STAFF