Perth. It’s a city that even Australians forget about. That doesn’t mean its punk scene isn’t thriving and this is evident with the city constantly churning out Australian punk bands. The Decline are a perfect example of a quality outfit produced by the forgotten capital. While their individual ages are just enough to get them a beer in the States, the band have been producing fast, melodic and socially aware punk rock for the past six years.
If you’re an old school DS reader you’ll know I’ve been a big advocate of The Decline for a while, or at least since I heard their debut album “I’m Not Gonna Lie To You.” The band work hard and today they dropped their follow-up album, “Are You Gonna Eat That?” on Pee Records. In the lead up to the release, I spoke to bass player and vocalist, Daniel Cribb who gave me the full Decline story. We spoke about recording the new album, working with Bill Stevenson while he was suffering from a brain tumor, their use of emotive imagery and how to write songs to influence society without being “preachy.” We’ve also found out that you really need to lock up your daughters when Pat’s around. Read the full interview here.
You can also stream “Showertime In The Slammer” from their new album with the interview or stream the album in full here.
[Audio:02-2-Shower-Time-In-The-Slammer.mp3|titles=Showertime In The Slammer|artists=The Decline]
The four-piece punk band from a small metropolis on Australia’s west coast had a demo in the bag but debuted to the world with their offering “I’m Not Gonna Lie To You.” The album is of a quality higher than you’d expect from a debut so it’s no surprise to find out that the gents saved their pennies and recorded the album with Bill Stevenson at the Blasting Room in Colorado. What would make a band of this stature, which was little to nothing outside their local scene, pack up and make the trek to the Blasting Room for a first release? Daniel explains how all the pieces at the time just fit. “It was a pretty big move but we were at point in our lives where we could. It seems like a lot of money and it is but it didn’t feel like it when we were saving it. The things we got to do when we were over there were the best like working with Bill Stevenson who taught us how to write better songs and how an album should be. It was at a point where we all had casual jobs so we were getting a fair bit of money and we wanted to travel anyway so it just worked.”
Working with Bill Stevenson on any album, let alone your first, is kind of a big deal. Being a bunch of teenagers from Perth it sounds like it would have been overwhelming. The band later found out that their time at the Blasting Room was only two weeks before Bill was admitted to hospital with a brain tumor, a condition that almost cost him his life. “When we were there he had a brain tumor that he talks about all the time now but he was in hospital two weeks after we left there. I think our image of Bill Stevenson is a little different to the actual Bill Stevenson because we had the brain tumor Bill Stevenson. But he’s still wicked. When we were there with him he seemed a bit sluggish but he was still doing stuff.”
The band attribute their maturity and evolution in song writing to what Bill taught them at the Blasting Room however when they decided to record their follow-up they stayed closer to home which is where they found producer, Adam Round. “Working with Adam, he’s just the best guy. He’s only 23 and he knows so much and he’s so good at what he does. Adam was just as good as producer as Bill Stevenson. It was cool just being able to work [in Perth] because you can go home every night and hang out with family and friends or get drunk or go party,” Daniel said.
The band scheduled in four weeks with Adam to record the album but like all masterpieces, these things take time. The band found themselves out of time and in the studio till the last minute in order to finish it and deliver it to the Blasting Room by the deadline for mastering. Daniel explained just how this race against time didn’t deteriorate the quality of the record, rather it improved it. “We had 4 weeks booked and we got most of the stuff done except vocals and guitar. We had three weeks where we were putting extra things and effort into it but it wasn’t till the last minute we realized ‘crap, if we don’t get it out tomorrow we’re screwed.’ Adam and I were at the studio till 6am the last day because there was a bunch of drum editing that he had to do but anything he didn’t do the Blasting Room did so I think the extra time was a lot better because we managed to make everything the way we wanted to.”
Like any democracy there are always differing opinions and like any piece of art, the brilliant ideas take time and craft. The band were stuck on coming up with a name for “Are You Gonna Eat That” until their drummer, Harry, came up with an idea for artwork that would even make the biggest atheists cringe. The artwork which depicts two vultures pointing to Jesus, on the cross, posing the question “Are You Gonna Eat That?” The Decline have always communicated their distaste with organized religion and expect backlash from the albums artwork, even want it, Daniel tells me. “I think the main critic will be my father, he’s quite religious. He probably wouldn’t have a go at me he’d probably just look at it and be disappointed. I want religion to be pissed of by it; it’s kind of funny. Religious people are mostly stupid so most of them get pissed off.”
It’s not just religion that comes under attack from the band. They are advocates of animal rights being all vegetarian or vegan themselves; they are also across human rights addressing topics including sweatshops as written in “Worlds Apart II.” But what makes them knowledgeable enough to cover these topics? It’s a mixture of few things for the four piece, “when it comes to animal rights we’re pretty across that because we’ve all been vegetarian for a few years now. I think it’s a combination of education and personal experience as well, that makes it easy to write about these kind of things.” Daniel said.
Unless you’re Propagandhi, it’s a fine line between delivering a statement with a call to action and coming off like a preachy, self-righteous asshole. Daniel openly admitted that it’s not something they got right on “I’m Not Gonna Lie to You” saying “with the first album we wanted to make a statement and influence people but it almost seemed like we were being naggy.”
They refined their objectives and delivery. As a result this changed the messages delivery on the new album. “On this album the songs about animal rights and stuff are more directed at “you can make a difference.” I think this album will make more of an impact and influence people than the previous album, which is something we learnt after recording with Bill because he had a big part in analyzing our lyrics and that helped a lot.”
The Decline self-released their debut out of necessity but this time around they signed to Pee Records to release their new album but describe being on Pee Records like not being on a label at all. “For ‘I’m Not Gonna Lie To You’ we tried pretty hard to get a label but it just seemed that no one wanted to sign anybody. When we were at the Blasting Room even Bill said bands like A Wilhelm Scream were struggling to get on a label so we tried really hard, sent press packs, but barely anyone got back to us. Pete’s a wicked guy, a friend, so we asked him if he wanted to release this album and he said yes. He’s done so much stuff for us, stuff we don’t have the time or contacts to do. Being on Pee it’s almost like being independent because Pete’s such a nice guy and does everything just as you would as an independent band.”
With the political, social and personal content in the album, Daniel confirms that “Are You Gonna Eat That” is a perfect representation of the band right now. “The last album is good but it’s hard to play it live. Our old drummer, James, he’s really fast. It’s hard to play those live because it’s just so fast…we try to pull it off. For this album, it’s an album that we wrote and recorded so that we could play it live. This album is a lot easier live and that’s why I enjoy it more and why it represents us more.”
Perth might be a place that the rest of Australia has forgotten about, it’s band like The Decline that ensure it won’t be a place that the punk scene forgets about anytime soon.
To leave you with some parting words from Daniel, “Pat’s a ladies man. He works in mysterious ways but he’s a ladies man.”
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