When I cam across Duane Hibbard’s single, my first thought was for Nick 13’s solo work. “Lookin’ For” is a sort of prayer to loss, with Hibbard’s lonely tenor rising to the heavens — backed, of course, by a good old train shuffle and soulful pedal steel. Turns out, my psychobilly comparison was dead on: Hibbard fronted Uncle Tiki and has continued on that vein for the past 30 years.
Unllike most artists, Duane kept it real and wrote his bio in the first person: “I’ve been playing in bands and writing songs since 1992. My first big push and most successful was with my Psycho Rockabilly band Uncle Tiki. After a good 4 years of gigging and recording we called it quits. I then moved on to Country Spice and the Racks, Tiki DeVille, Ultra Lux, Toxic Socket, Luck of the Draw and RHI. I record a Christmas themed rock song, 10 years and counting so far, for Green Monkey Records and all the money goes to MusiCares. The last few years I’ve been recording alt-country rock songs and releasing them one at a time through Distro Kid. I focus mainly on Spotify. My last 3 songs I worked with Producer/Engineer Gavin Paddock and hope to do more with him in the near future.”
Hibbard had written a full set of acoustic songs he could use to play around town, but with his stimulus check burning a hole in his pocket, he chose to take 3 from the bunch and make them a full-band affair. “Lookin’ For” was one of Paddock’s picks from the bunch.
“This was the time we were having all our crazy wild fires here in CA while I was writing this so things burning and being forever lost was on my mind. My 30 years (and counting) as a songwriter /musician have been for the most part disappointing and an ongoing failure,” Hibbard continues. “So I took that disappointment of carrying and trying so hard for something I want to be successful and looked at it as a relationship with another person that’s over and it might be best to just walk away from it. But I’m not at that point yet with my music career.”
Duane Hibbard — Soundcloud, Spotify