The Decline - Sound In The Signals Interview

Skate-punk band, The Decline from Perth Australia released their debut album in 2010, which they recorded with Bill Stevenson. Their sophomore album (2011) is still selling out pressings, they've received a WAMi Nomination for 'Punk Act of the Year' and 'Punk Song of The Year', and they've shared the stage with Descendents, Bouncing Souls, Lagwagon, and many other influential bands. They were kind enough to tell us how they challenged their writing style and created a unique, personal album with Resister, how much their first recording experience with Bill Steveson influenced them, and they offered a glimpse into what they are working on now.

You've released three albums and two EPs so far and toured across the world including Australia, Mexico, the United States, the UK, Europe and Japan over the past ten years. Can you tell us more about your music and your background for those who may not be familiar?

PAT: Hi! We’re a punk band from Australia called The Decline. We’ve been releasing music and touring since 2009. We’ve been around Australia heaps and we love touring internationally. We really like our latest album “Resister” and we hope you do too. It’s my favourite because I think we were able to challenge our style of writing and make something really personal and unique.

You recorded your first album in Colorado in 2009 at The Blasting Room with Bill Stevenson (Descendents/Black Flag/ALL). Tell us more about this experience. What was it like and what did you take away from it?

PAT: We sure did. We were a bunch of 18 year old kids from Perth and we had no idea how to really be a band, none of our friends had toured yet and we didn’t really know any bands who had an album, and we lived in the most isolated city in the world. We all were really into the idea of taking the band further so when Dan (our old bassist/singer) had this crazy idea to go record at Blasting Room we all went with it. We all worked at shitty jobs for over a year and saved up to do it. Descendents have been my favourite band since I was like 15 so obviously for me it was ridiculous to be able to go and record there. I quizzed Bill a little bit about all my favourite songs (but had to try not to fan-out too hard). He was pretty unwell at the time but it was still so eye-opening and inspiring to be able to make a record with him. It really made our band, it totally changed the way I thought about song writing, and influenced me to always strive for crazy interesting melodies, personal emotional lyrics and basically how I approach music altogether. We came home, sent the record out to bands interstate and starting touring straight away, and wrote our next record pretty much between tours and while we were on the road.

The UK/EU pre-orders for the re-release of your second album, Are You Gonna Eat That? sold out instantly through Disconnect Disconnect Records. That says something about the album and the fans since it was originally released years before. How does that support feel? 

RAY: Its amazing seeing this album come to life at the beginning and now see what it means to people so far away from home. We love all our fans and its the best feeling catching up with people we’ve met from previous tours. Thats one of the most rewarding parts of touring.

You released your third album, Resister in 2015. It still has your fun, melodic skate punk sound but you added more emotional, introspective aspects to it, as well. Take us back to the writing and recording process. What came easier on this record? Are there any particular moments that stick out to you from this time?

PAT: Resister is a very personal album for me. Start Again/New Again, Giving Up Is A Gateway Drug, I Don’t Believe, You Call This A Holiday, and Little Voices are all kinda about exploring the changes we all experience in life, and the idea of following what’s most important to you. It sounds cliche as shit actually typing that, but it’s what I was going through when I wrote a lot of the songs. We had a big break between our second and third album and I probably wrote 100 songs, so I had a lot of time to think about the direction I wanted to take sound wise and to kinda combine the bits I liked out of songs that didn’t really feel right. I feel like Harry (our drummer) and I demoed some of these over and over again so when we got to record them and finally hear them it was a very cool moment for us. Some other rad moments from the recording process were when Cam Baines from Bodyjar sang a verse in I Don’t Believe (definitely a cool moment for Ray, cause they’re his favourite band), hanging out at the studio with my buddy Sam Allen, petting cats in the studio car park, and drinking beers on the beach after tracking with our guitarist Ben! Oh also, when we were demoing at Harry’s Studio, we watched Filmage for inspiration and ate a bunch of Mexican food.




I've read that you would describe the band as a "three-sixty kick flip". As a self-described skate punk band, how has skateboarding influenced your music? How do the two connect for you? Have you ever performed at a skate competition?

BEN: For me personally, skateboarding has mostly played a part in my musical tastes as when I was younger, I spent a lot of time playing the Tony Hawks Pro Skater games and trying my best to emulate what I was doing in the games in real life. Although I never have been able to perform as well in real life as in the games, the games introduced me to a lot of music that would stay with me for the rest of my life. Before I joined the band, the other guys had played a skate competition in WA and a few skateparks, including one in the Netherlands. Actually, the first show I played as an official member of the Decline was at a skatepark in our home town!

You toured the UK this summer with Fair Do's and you're about to head out on some U.S. dates with MakeWar. This isn't including all of the headlining shows and festivals you've played. You stay quite busy. What do you like to do when you're on the road for fun? How do you recharge in between runs?

RAY: I try to catch up on TV shows and new music while on the road. We always come up with awesome inside jokes which would be really stupid to an outsider but we grow closer because of these. In-between tours I like hanging out with my dogs and girlfriend, eating all the food I can’t find on tour, and plenty of couch time.

What's next for The Decline? Have you been working on new music? Any teases for what fans can expect next?

BEN: Currently, we're just about to head to the studio to record a new song (called "Can't Have Both"?), which will be hitting your earholes soon! Apart from that, we've been busy writing and demoing between tours, so we hope to be adding new material to our set as soon as possible!

Thanks for the interview. Do you have anything else you would like to add?

RAY: Boys!

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-L.Burden