Interview: Meet Dugong Jr, Aussie musician who radiates nothing but good vibes
Naarm-born Dugong Jr, has created music that radiates nothing but CCV, Cheeky Chill Vibes. With a penchant for pushing boundaries and defying genre stereotypes, he flaunts a distinctive take on songwriting and production that sets him apart in a crowded landscape of new music. Drawing from his Chinese-Australian heritage and influenced by the realms of house, hip hop, and Chinese cinema, Dugong Jr creates lush soundscapes that captivate audiences and defy expectations.
His 2023 track Coup De Grầce featuring Ijale, is creativity in its peak. If you listen closely you can hear the iconic Australian pedestrian crossing sound going off. It’s the combination of that quirkiness and subtly that add so much flavour to his music. There is no denying the future of music is progressing towards a space where the binary notions of genre specific music is slowly being phased out. Dugong isolates the best characteristics of music and blends them to create some truly unique beats.
We caught up with this Naarm slice to chat all things music, cowboys riding horses and some Naarm-based fashion brands.
Read all the feels below:
Where did your music journey start and when did you know this was something you wanted to pursue?
Back when I was in primary school I used to make music video mixtapes on my VCR. I’d get up early on weekends and put on Rage and Channel V and just sit there for hours recording, rewinding, scrubbing, taping over. It was such a meticulous process but it was the only way I knew how to get all the tracks I wanted onto a single tape and I would get completely immersed in these videos and watch them for hours. I was a weird kid haha.
Your music has a uniqueness to it, what influences do you draw from?
Thank you! My influences are pretty all over the place, I grew up listening to bands like Joy Division, The Smiths, Deftones and Smashing Pumpkins. I was also really into hip hop and loved artists and groups like Outkast, The Pharcyde, Nas, Tribe andThe Neptunes. It wasn’t until I started going out to clubs and stuff much later that I really got into electronic dance music.
Let’s chat about Babylon, what does this track mean to you? Is this the first track to be released that will feature on your upcoming album?
Thematically Babylon is essentially about facing your own emotions after a long time of neglect. Feeling like your life kind of coming apart at the seams and then having this panic that maybe you’ve left things too long to fix them. It’s a track I wrote last year with a really good friend of mine, Quiet Blue. We’ve been working on a lot of stuff for his upcoming EP which I’m super excited for people to hear! I think he’s about to have a really big year.
It’s not the first one that I’ve released that will be on the album, a bunch of the tracks I put out last year will be on there including Coup De Grace (ft. IJALE) and Something About U + some others. But there will also be a bunch of new stuff on there that like no one has heard, so I’m super excited for it!
The Bushido visualiser is incredible, where did the creative inspiration come from for that and how was that experience?
It’s always so much fun working with Yung Shogun, he’s got so much energy so I kinda just fed off him. Shotcaller Studios who directs and films all of my visualisers has been doing an incredible job. In terms of the creative direction, all of the visualisers from like the last 6 months are lining up to create an overarching narrative for this album run. Hopefully should make more sense once they all drop but for now just enjoy the chaos haha.
Music tends to intersect with other creative outlets, is there anything else you do creatively?
Yeah I actually went to design school and run a freelance design business called Studio Dugong. I do a bunch of art direction, photography typography and branding work which keeps me very busy.
What’s your take on how social media has become such an integral part of getting your music to new ears as an up and coming musician?
Ehh it is what it is. Would I be doing it if it wasn’t so integral? Probably not, but I just try and not take it too seriously.
When was the last time you told a white lie?
Definitely would of been today just can’t remember what it was
What’s your go-to mid-week meal to cook?
Probably Burritos or even like a Thai Yellow or Green Curry. I really like spicy foods so anything I can get a bit of heat into.
Why do you think cowboys are called cowboys when they ride horses?
I guess horseboys just doesn’t quite roll off the tongue the same? I went to a rodeo in Bendigo a couple of months ago it was pretty wild, and I can pretty confidently say that if I had of called any of those guys ‘Horseboys’ it wouldn’t of ended well for old Dugong.
What’s your favourite piece of clothing you own?
I have this vintage Titanic T-shirt that I bought at a flea market in Myanmar, but it’s so frayed and worn now that I think I might have to retire it. Otherwise I’ve been wearing a lot of the stuff that I’ve gotten from my homies over at ICHPIG and LOWF in the last year, they’re two really sick Naarm based brands, so I gotta shout them out!
What’s on the cards for 2024?
I’ll be dropping some collaborative merch with a brand in the next couple of months so keep an eye out for that. My debut album Good Time Hotel comes out late April/early May, so that is going to be fun. I’ll also be playing a bunch of shows around the launch of that too and touring the new live show so if I’m in your city come say hi.
As this little slice continues to ride the wave of momentum gathered by his recent singles and live performances, Dugong Jr shows no signs of slowing down. With Good Time Hotel on the horizon and a growing fanbase eagerly awaiting his next move, he is poised to make a big splash. Keep your ears peeled for Dugong Jr—he's a force to be reckoned with.
Check out Dugong Jr’s new song Babylon below or head to our Chill Music Mix playlist to hear more songs like this one.
Written by Samuel Seedsman.