Canada's Decade have been around for a few years now and I have been in touch with Gavin pretty much since the bands inception. Although Gavin talked at length about his love of latter (or do we now say mid?) era Discharge from the very beginning of our relationship the first releases from Decade were, to my ears, still working very much within the traditional style of Discharge influenced hardcore - fast, aggressive and simplistic riffs over that particular drum beat - but with a slight noise/psyche influence marking them out as something different. However, with their debut album they have truly found their sound, gone are the trappings of their earlier records and in their place we find a fully realised vision for a mixture of the 90's Discharge records played through a Japanese hardcore blender. A true example of the GRAVE NEW BEAT sound and attitude.
I am extremely proud to be releasing this record next month - stay posted for information on pre-orders including a CD/t-shirt bundle - I am positive this record is going to fly out the door.
Here is a short interview with bassist/vocalist Gavin to give you a bit more of a flavour of the band, it was conducted earlier this year so apologies if some of the answers are a little dated - there will be a full interview in the next issue of Our Future zine (more info on that one in the new year!)
There seems to be a desire within the bands songwriting to
push beyond the norms of the d-beat genre, would you say this is an accurate
statement? What is the bands approach to songwriting?
- G: I'd say that is an entirely accurate statement.
Before the band had begun, I had a lot of partial ideas for titles written on
guitar. Though I play bass and do vocals, I am still directly involved with the
writing of the guitar. The lyrics;especially from newer titles, draw a lot from
personal experience and more literal sentiment.
Will we see a further development of this songwriting over
the bands future releases? Is there a next release planned for Decade?
- G: There will be a progressive curve with each new release
we feel and are encouraging. People who liked the DECADE demo will
still like the new sound I believe. We have an LP planned for 2018 that we hope
to record by March.
The bands name is quite unusual, is there any special
meaning behind it?
- G: The name has no particular origin, it was just
something we all felt was strong enough and that didn't carry too much
"Dis-ish" vibes but still reminded us of "Discharge" and
Japanese punk bands we like.
What is the local scene like in Toronto, any bands you
would like to give a shout out to?
- G: Things happen in Toronto, there are shows and bands.
Nobody that is really my personal cup of tea or that I feel would be relatable
to us. I feel that most of our support comes from outside of Toronto;
especially Montreal and internationally.
Finally - most underrated Discharge record, and why?
- G: Shootin' up the world, because it has the most put
together production, best riffage and none of the songs have ever been played
live.
World Stops Turning by Decade is up for streaming and pre-order on our bandcamp page now!
