Before Decade's recent gig in support of Mayday Parade, James caught up with Connor and Harry from the band for an impromptu interview.

Can you tell us a bit about Decade and how you came together as a band?
Connor: Well I’m Connor and I sing and play guitar in Decade.

Harry: I’m Harry and I play Bass in Decade

Connor: Both the same band, lol. We started out in late 2009/early 2010, just a bunch of friends playing music and traveling as much as possible, then we signed to Spinefarm Records last year and recorded our debut album, Good Luck, which came out on January 13th, just a few weeks ago, which is why where on this tour now, promoting it and giving it a big push to kick things off.

How have you found the tour so far?
Harry: It’s been different, where used to quite a broad age bracket on tours when we play but Mayday attract quite a young teenage audience which we haven’t really been exposed to before, so it’s been a good expanding of our fan base. We’ve had some good feedback on twitter so it’s been quite beneficial.

As you said, you released your latest album ‘Good Luck’ this month, how well would you say the album has gone down with fans?
Connor: It’s really hard to gage how well it’s does beyond social media feedback, as we’re just sat at home, just 5 dudes sat in our bedroom hitting refresh and seeing what comes in, but the response we’ve had come in from fans who’ve heard it has been great, as we’ve had the album done for so long, it’s great to finally be able to release and have people hear the songs that we’ve been talking about.

How about with the press?
Connor: Yeah, we’ve had some coverage and had a few reviews, but I prefer to hear what the fans have to say directly to us.

Harry: In general, the reviews we have had, have understood the direction we were going with, with the album so that’s cool for us, it’s quite easy to pigeon hole our music.

Well what would you describe it as?
Harry: ooooh

Connor: I’d describe it as somewhere between, but not limited to; pop, punk, rock, and grunge and anywhere in-between. We’re five really quite different guys, but where best friends and we all listened to such different stuff growing up, and we all through it together and this is what has come up. I know allot of bands say that, but I feel like we have a twisted sort of blend of genres which can be uncomfortable but I find it refreshing and I quite enjoy it.

How did you find the whole recording process for ‘Good Luck’?
Harry: It’s quite a natural process actually, we thought we’d go in and they’d take our songs apart and mess with them.

Connor: It is always a worry when you go into a studio, as you say, things could be taken apart and operated on, but it was really comfortable. We went in with Romesh Dodangoda at Long wave in Cardiff and he was on the same level as us from day one and we made very few changes to our songs, and it all came together very nicely.

As I’m doing this impromptu, I don’t have a set list of questions for Decade and so go off pretty much the questions I gave to Mayday Parade, so when I get to the question about how does it feel to be back in the UK I read it out and then go, well you can’t answer that as you’re already from the UK to which Harry replies;
Harry: Sometimes when where on tour, people come to the merch desk and ask is this the first time you’re in the UK?

Connor: How many times you been to the UK?

Harry: Well I only live 2 hours down the road mate!
Laughs

Where about in the UK are you from then?

Harry: Bath near Bristol and the surrounding area.

What’s it like supporting Man Overboard and Mayday Parade?
Harry: It’s good we’ve had the pleasure over the past few years to support some of the stalwarts of American pop punk and alternative music, and we have had the pleasure of playing with both bands before, so it’s been cool to meet up with those guys and play some shows.

Connor: I love Man Overboard, it’s been great watching Man Overboard every night, it’s awesome to watch I love it!

What have you got planned after this tour?
Connor: Can we say?

Harry: I’m not sure can we say it?

Connor: We’ve got something in the works but we’re not sure if we can put it out yet as the official announcement has to happen first. We’ll just say we’ve got plans for tours of the UK and heaps of festivals over the summer.

Harry: And hopefully head over to Europe too.

What do you get up to whilst you’re on tour? Do you have any hobbies to pass the time?
Connor: We complain allot

Laughs

Harry: We place dice

Connor: Yeah we gamble quite allot, we’ve got a set of dice and a little dice arena and sit and put money down and lose money on.

Harry: No matter how close we are, we can never decide who gets what bed in the hotel or were to sit in the van, we’re still literally little children as we have to place dice to see who gets what.

Connor: We are pathetic

Laughs

Where would you like to see yourselves in a years’ time?
Harry: I’d like to not have a job as well as be in a band.

Connor: It’d be nice to have less of real life and more of the band side of things.

One last random question that we ask every band, if you could be an animal out of a zebra or Giraffe, which one would you be and why?
Harry: I’m gonna go with Giraffe as I saw that documentary by David Attenborough, Africa, and the way they fight with their necks is awesome.

Connor: Nah I can’t deal with that, if someone came up to me and whacked me around the neck with his neck, I’d be like Nah, so I’m gonna say zebra

Harry: Zebras definitely look cooler

Connor: Yeah

Harry: It’s just like a horse with stripes

Laughs

Thanks for your time is there a message for your fans reading this?

Connor: Thanks very much for reading, if you’ve got our album great and thanks for picking it up, if not, then what you doing? Go and pick it up!

Laughs

Interview by James Daly