Decadenze is a hungry young band from Wales whose brand of good time, sleazy,
and heavy, in-your-face metal makes for a remarkably fresh, yet happily familiar
sound. After seeing the band for the first time when they supported UK Pomp
Rockers Magnum on their recent UK tour and immediately buying their debut album
Beyond Obsession the same night, Sea of Tranquility staff writer Steven Reid
caught up with bassist Steve Edge to ask a few quick questions.
Steven
Reid - Sea Of Tranquility: Judging by how "tight" Decadenze is on stage I
presume that you guys have put in some serious live time. How long has the band
been together and has the line up changed much in that time?
Steve
Edge - Decadenze: The band has been together about four years now, though it
sometimes feels hard to include the first year or two as we are so different now
than we were then. But they are very important and we grew a lot in those years
and, as you said, put in a lot of hours rehearsing and playing live. It's no
secret that playing live is the best way to grow and develop your sound and your
presence. We actually started as a four piece and after a few months got another
guitarist (Adam), we felt that we would benefit in all areas from having a
second guitarist.
SoT: The Glasgow show I was at saw you slowly
turn what was quiet audience interest into something altogether more
enthusiastic. Did the rest of the shows go as well?
Decadenze:
Yeah most shows are like that when you are the support act. Most people go to
gigs purely to see the headliners, they aren't there to watch your band or any
other band, they are excited about seeing one of their favourite bands who they
have spent money to see and if anything the support can feel just like a waste
of their time! That's why it's so great when you can turn that around and have
people tell you how much they enjoyed the night because you played and how you
'added' to the night. We didn't have a problem doing that on any of the shows,
they were all awesome.
SoT: At times your songs come across as
hard riffing metal, almost veering into speeded up stoner territory, then
suddenly it's blues laden hard rock, then we are off into an altogether more
upbeat feel good style. Was this something the band worked on and how would you
describe the band's sound?
Decadenze: That's a difficult one.
It's hard to describe because as I said earlier our sound has come from years of
live playing and growing, so it's sometimes hard to pin point precisely
when/how/why you started to sound a certain way or do a certain thing. All we
know is we want to write good music that people can connect to and enjoy,
whether old or young or rocker or metal head....it's all fine with us! We just
try to do what feels right for the song and that's why some of our songs are
more aggressive and powerful and others are more subdued and ballady.
SoT: How did you manage to get someone as respected as artist Mark
Wilkinson to produce what is a stunning CD cover for you?
Decadenze: The record label we did the album with had worked with him
previously so we were put into contact with him, explained the concept of what
we were going for and he seemed to really take to it, as he would being such a
great artist. We love the cover he designed for us, it's better than anything we
ever hoped for.
SoT: The album seems to have been very well
received, not least here on Sea of Tranquility, you must be very pleased with
how everything has gone.
Decadenze: Yeah it's been great
overall, like most albums it's had it's negative reviews but we know it's not to
everyone's taste, so we are just appreciative of those who like it. That
includes you guys of course!
Decadenze
SoT: How long did it take to
record and what were the main challenges you faced?
Decadenze:
It took the best part of two months and the most challenging part was trying to
record and do shows at the same time. We love playing live and didn't even think
about cancelling our shows to do the album, so we just did both and it was quite
difficult! Sometimes we would arrive at the studio early, record, drive 3 hours
to a show, do the show and then drive back to the studio and carry on recording.
But we wouldn't do it any other way, we are more than prepared to do things like
that....we will work 24/7 if it brings us success.
SoT: Even
though the album only came out in June, recording for a new EP Gambler's Payback
has already begun. Why so quick?
Decadenze: Well we spend a
lot of time writing and we still see ourselves in a state of musical growth, I
hope we always will be. There is never any excuse for a band to stop growing and
progressing. So we wrote a bunch of new songs and we all truly believe they are
better than anything we've ever done and we want to share them with everyone.
SoT: A lot of band's trying to become established these days are
releasing EP's , why have you decided to go down that route as well?
Decadenze: I think it's because EP's are a small sample of where a band
is at in that current time, it's a way of getting your songs down onto CD in a
relatively short amount of time and being able to show fans, record companies
etc. where you are at and what direction you are taking. Whereas an album is
very time consuming and is bigger and longer and a more concrete release. An EP
is just a taster for people to see if they like you, and in turn you can gauge
how well the material is being received and adjust accordingly.
SoT:
When do you hope to have it released?
Decadenze:
Feburary 2010, all things going as planned.
SoT: The set from
the Magnum tour already contained some of those new songs, in fact hardly
anything from Beyond Obsession was played. Why was that?
Decadenze:
Same thing as before really, we feel we have grown and improved as writers since
the album and we want to see if people feel the same. So we are playing our new
material live and seeing what people think and how they react to it. We are just
the sort of band that works quickly so we have a lot of new stuff we want to
play.
SoT: Do the new songs continue in the same style as the
debut?
Decadenze: They continue in some ways, I'd like to
think that anything that was good from Beyond Obsession we have kept and
anything that was wrong with it we have improved. Then of course we have got
things entirely new in some of our newer songs, it's all about finding what's
good and keeping it and the opposite for anything that's bad!
SoT:
There are already some tour dates lined up for next year, it's great to see
the band have a real strong work ethic. You guys are really giving this
everything you've got aren't you?
Decadenze: Yeah definitely!
We are lucky to have five hungry guys who have their sights firmly fixed on
achieving success....we won't stop working until we get where we want to be, or
someone forces us haha.
SoT: So there's an EP, then more tour
dates, what's planned beyond that?
Decadenze: We will write,
practice, tour, record, tour, practice, write.....etc etc, you get the
picture...it's just gonna be lots of work and hopefully equal amounts of fun and
success.
SoT: Thanks for taking the time to answer some
questions Steve, I'm really looking forward to the Gambler's Payback EP!
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