Below : find bios for Canada, Mallory, Veronica (Misty) and DeeDee.
You will also find info about Pete Worst who played with The Waddles originally and often does fly-bys at Waddles’ appearances.
Canada Duck: Guitars, vocals, angst team
People don’t realize how many ducks have musical talent. Migration is an incredible chance to hone musical skills. I listened to my parents music mostly when I was young but then my Great Aunt Eida gave me my first fly-man and from then on I was checking out the sounds of Huey, Dewey and the Newsy, She’Daisy, 4 out of 5 Quacks, and of course, The Beakles. Migration takes the imagination to new heights. The swoosh of wing-beats lays a smooth percussive background and the next thing I know I’m making up songs as I travel.”
It is the best of all possible worlds that brings a talent like Canada Duck to the ears of a nation. Imagine if Aunt Eida had succumbed to athlete’s web a few years earlier, she couldn’t have nurtured the half-breed that the other ducklings wanted to ignore. It is unimaginatble, for as the arrival of a child, the music of The Waddles is now permanently part of our American musical family.
Canada Duck was born in a small nest on the muddy side of Braxton Pond, to a Duck father and a Canada goose mother. This unusual blend of waterfowl yielded a quack with the sonorous undertones of the more honeyed honk of Branta Canadensis. We knew from a early on that Canada would have a special call,” claimes his mother, Gertrude. “He began singing the moment his head was through his shell. In fact he kept putting his head in and out of the shell to compare the reverb in-ovio, and ex-ovio.”
His father, Desmond adds, “I can’t tell you how proud it made me when my son was the first one to be able to differentiate between a hunter’s duck call and that of a lost female. Of course, the world being what it is, the kids, including the girls, gave Canada a rough time over his mixed heritage, but perhaps that allowed him the independence to pursue his musical interests when the other ducklings were playing duckling games.”
Canada Duck left the bigotry and backwaters of Braxton Pond at the tender age of 2 to pursue his dream of a career in music only to end up under the wing of notorious agent, Fowl Drake. Fowl convinced Canada that his kind could only play in cheap watering holes. Of course Fowl collected a hefty portion of those fees and kept Canada convinced that he was climbing some kind of ladder of success. Despite being used by Fowl Drake, the experience gave Canada a chance to polish his sound and one night he was approached by an audience member who proposed that they do a Christmas CD together. That brave duck was none other than Mallory Duck who came equipped with a recording studio in his basement, a musician’s blind eye to racial or class differences and a dream that he was destined to be one half of a famous musical duo.
Upon hearing Mallory’s soothing sound and skill in the recording studio, Canada worked feverishly to finish their CD in time for Christmas of 2011. And are we glad they made it! (Oh and they are both eating to their mother’s heart’s content now that their version of “Blue Christmas” has gone platinum on the swamp charts!)
Mallory Duck: Guitars, vocals, visual effects team
“I’m really just an ordinary duck,” claims Mallory Duck, one half of The Waddles’ lead vocal section. Of course fans around the country beg to differ and do want to know more about this cool quacker.
“My mother and father both had extremely long names that they dreaded spelling every time they stood in line for web massages or new down do’s. So they called me “Mal” and refused to ever use my whole name, Mallory Wade Duck. I have always preferred the name Mallory and once I became a drake, I went back to using Mallory.”
“Of course I was taunted at school and called ‘mal de mer’ and ‘marshmallow,’ so I took refuge in a certain corner of the swamp where I could rearrange the sedges, grasses and frogs to achieve different sounds. Eventually Mom and Dad sprang for me to study under Wish-bone Burnett in his home studio and I discovered the world of recording. Under the tutelage of Bobbert Plant, I learned to play and sing as well.”
We are certainly glad that those rude ducklings sent the young Mal seeking refuge amongst the swamp gas. His early recordings reflect the influence of Wish-Bone but Mallory evolved his own sound that incorporates the entire cycle of life and death in the swamp into every recording. If you close your eyes you can just see the methane bubbling up to the surface of the cloudy, tadpole-filled water. Why, this music could instill respect for ecology in every unsuspecting listener. It could actually save countless species from imminent destruction.
Seldom are pop music artists in a position to have such a heavy influence on world events. Certainly the parents of Mallory had no idea that their investment in recording lessons would have such repercussions.
“Oh I always knew he’d do more than swim, paddle and quack,” says Mallory’s proud mother Lucretia Horsetail Bassboat Bobber Duck. At this point Mallory waddles off quickly muttering, “Swim, paddle and quack, swim, paddle and quack, come on and swim, paddle and quack…” His mother’s snow-white cheek feathers become a bit tinged with pink as she explains, “You’ll have to excuse my Mal’s manners. So much time alone has put etiquette at the bottom of the pond, if you know what I mean. But I can tell you that when he gets that look around his beak he’s off to the studio. Why, I bet he’s on the red phone to Canada even now so they can collaborate on another song.” Mallory’s father, Sedgewick Algaenon Dopping Pinfeather Duck, adds, “come back anytime for more on my Mal and for some escargot!”
And so ends a day with Mallory W. Duck. This reporter knows when he’s been changed for the better.
Veronica Duck, AKA “Misty”: keyboards, vocals,
search and rescue team
Plucked from her swamp as a young duckling, Veronica grew up on a man-made pond in a middle-class neighborhood where the ducks were bussed in from local marshes. While many paddlings cracked under the stress of being separated from their home habitat, Veronica’s family made the best of it. And it was here that she got the bug to perform-learning how to shake her feathers just right to make audiences laugh, coo, and throw food her way.
Veronica had dreams of making it big as a singer/actress and of living a rich, swan lifestyle. So, after high school, Veronica migrated to Hollywood to seek her fame and fortune. But after many months and hundreds of auditions, she only managed to get some bit parts in a few B-grade duck hunting horror films. So, eventually, Veronica returned to the man-made pond of her ducklinghood with her tail feathers between her legs.
Feeling alone and dejected, she did the only thing she could do. She became a jazz and blues singer at the local dives and quickly earned the stage name “Misty” for making even the manliest of mallards cry at the sound of her sweet alto voice.
With her local notoriety increasing, she was eventually introduced to a young and upcoming producer, Mallory. The two ducks had an instant connection and began swimming together almost immediately. “He believed in me when I didn’t,” says Veronica. “The first time our beaks touched, I knew he was the one and that we’d be paddling and waddling together forever.”
Nowadays, Veronica is happiest playing alongside Mallory, Canada, and DeeDee in The Waddles. After years of feeling alone, she’s finally found the flock she can fly with.
DeeDee Duck: drums, vocals, organizational team
Dee Dee Duck, singer, waterfowl equality activist and self-proclaimed ‘health whack’ met Canada in one of those smoky dives he played before hooking up with Mallory. She told him he was too good for the joint but he didn’t believe that a pure-bred duck could really be interested in him. She kept dropping hints and invited him over for a slug and brown rice stir-fry, but finally decided that Canada just wasn’t ready for a lasting positive relationship. She left him with the message that she was waiting in the wings while he tested the waters of self esteem. She then returned to the park pond of her youth where she organized the local ducks and geese into a union demanding that, in future, patrons to the park only throw whole wheat bread crumbs.
After beginning work with Mallory, Canada sent DeeDee a postcard invitation to their debut performance. She immediately saw the musical and romantic potential and moved her nest to the reeds near Canada’s. Once they got married, DeeDee converted her abode into a wheat grass bar / meditation nest decorated with Russian duck icons and prayer wheels painted by exiled Tibetan waterfowl. She loves playing bass and singing with the band and in her free time she fashions ‘bio-earrings’ from recycled snail shells and duck toenail clippings.
Pete Worst: former drummer, general nuisance
Okay, that’s not very nice, but if you are a fan of the The Waddles, or become a fan of The Waddles, you have to know about Pete. Pete played drums for Canada and Mallory back in the day. He had played on the hit, “Soggy Bread Crumbs” with The Poultry Players, so he felt, and often told the band that he was the senior member and was the best player. After playing for about 6 months, Pete told the fellas in no uncertain terms that he thought they stank worse than swamp gas in a dry spell and he left the two of them alone on a lily pad right before a gig. Canada and Mallory took it all in stride, finished the gig and went on to bigger and better things. So big, in fact, that Pete called and told them that they should apologize and bring him back on board. As there was nothing to apologize for, and Mallory and Canada were perfectly happy with their current band, they politely told Pete there would be no need for his services. Pete has been putting in appearances at concerts, recording sessions and Shad roedowns ever since. Keep your eyes out for Pete! He’s not dangerous, but he makes a pretty good entrance!