• 2009-

  Armand Van Helden

  A-Trak (Alain Macklovitch)
• Duck Sauce is the DJ duo of Armand Van Helden and A-Trak. Van Helden, who is American but spends lots of time in Europe, is big in the world of house music. A-Trak, who is Canadian, specializes in hip-hop.
• The press release announcing the duo and their debut single, "aNYway," read:
  
  "Duck Sauce is Armand Van Helden and A-Trak making house music and eating Chinese food. Who's hungry?"
• The name comes from a condiment supplied with Chinese food, especially in New York City where they formed. Takeout orders inevitably comes with packets of duck sauce, which nobody ever eats. "Every Chinese takeaway restaurant in New York gives you these packages of duck sauce," A-Trak told The Skinny. "To a New Yorker, duck sauce means something right away."
• A-Trak was the tour DJ for both Kanye West and Kid Cudi before Duck Sauce.
• Van Helden and A-Trak were friends for a while before they started working together. They met through A-Track's brother Dave, who is in the duo Chromeo.
• They're best known for their 2010 track "Barbra Streisand," which was wildly popular in European dance clubs. That song is built on a sample of "Gotta Go Home," a 1979 track by Boney M.
• Duck Sauce is very much a side project - the duo don't team up for remixes or other commissioned work, and they continue working on their own projects with separate tour schedules. They've only done a few dozen shows as Duck Sauce.

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