We enjoyed chatting with Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based Hardcore/Metal outfit, DECOY. We asked them about the new EP "re:selection" and the music video for "Personality Program". We touched on important topics regarding touring costs, merch cuts, and much more.
1. First of all, let's start with the basic question. You are from the US, Louisiana. How is the metal/hardcore scene in that area? Are there plenty of bands, and clubs/venues to perform?
It’s small but strong, we’re from Baton Rouge which is about an hour from New Orleans.. not necessarily a huge market but plenty of clubs there and a handful in our home spot. Plenty of dope bands as well, plenty of sludge, death metal, crust, d-beat with a good handful of hardcore/metal-core adjacent bands. Real proud of the work everyone’s been putting in.
2. You started in 2017. How did you guys get together? How many members have changed since then? What were your main influences when you started and what would you say are now?
I (Lucien) recruited Jonah and Matt originally to my old band that needed a second guitar and new singer. From there we realized it would probably just be a better idea to start a whole new thing. We noticed at the time there was a lack of mashable metal “core”. We wanted to bring the shit we all grew up listening to the table. Back then really I feel we were inspired honestly by a lot of Hatebreed, Terror, The Acacia Strain..I feel like we haven’t drifted terribly far from that but now it’s a bit faster, heavier, lyrically i think it’s the best we’ve written so far.
3. You recorded your new EP "re:selection" in January. How are you satisfied with the feedback so far? What was the writing process for that? Did everything go smoothly? What are your faves to play live now?
Those were actually 3 songs that were re-mixed/re-mastered with Jonah’s vocals on them. We took them from the EP we had out before which is no longer available. We chose them because they stood out from the rest. We wanted to have something out quickly with Jonah’s vocals on it. Very happy with the response, working hard on new material currently.
4. Regarding touring, major bands dropped off some tours this last year because of the expensive costs. How hard is it for a small band to do touring these days? Can you compare the costs when you started and today? How much would you say it changed?
I agree it’s a little bit more of a challenge to do long independent tours if you’re a smaller band now more than ever. When you don’t have a huge following or an agent who has a great reputation with promoters it’s a huge gamble on even getting a show somewhere else. I feel like gas, merch, guarantees, fees, etc are more expensive than ever because of inflation.. Just gotta sacrifice your time, money and social life if you really want to get your music out there and build things up the organic way. Make sure you’re talking to solid people and not some guy who’s saying a bunch of words that sound really good.
5. Another essential thing is merch cuts. What was the highest you encountered till now and what is your view on this situation?
Fortunately we haven’t had to deal with that problem. I think it’s too much. But with the way things are with the economy and whatnot…I kind of understand why it’s a thing at certain venues but we’ll do our absolute best to avoid that or just sell merch outside
6. In May you shared the stage with Paleface Swiss and VCTMS. In April with Crowbar. How were those two shows? What of the other bigger bands so far have you had a chance to play with?
Those shows were both killer, seriously. Playing with Crowbar was an honor, we’ve been fans since we were in high school, legends. Turnout was bomb for a Monday as well. The Paleface gig was also dope because we played to a lot of newer faces in New Orleans. Place was packed, got a great reaction from the crowd as well. We’ve done some shows with Knocked Loose, Madball, Rotting Out, Racetraitor, SeeYouSpaceCowboy, Ingested, Bodysnatcher, Vein and many more!
7. You filmed a music video for the opening track of the EP, "Personality Program". How much fun was the filming? How did you choose the director?
Jonah brought the idea up to us since we had been seeing these videos popping up so we decided to hit them up. We shot it with Carlisle Jones who produces LCY Uncut. Very quick, easy session. Think we got it down in two tries. Within a 30 minute period, it was done. I think it was more of a display of our performance of the song rather than a visual representation/music video.
8. Are you guys working on new music? What are the tour plans? You just played at Set It Off Fest. How was it?
Definitely have some new material coming, a 2 track stand alone promo tape basically..coming very soon! Touring…we’re most likely going to do regionally weekend runs around different parts of the country until things pick up. Set It Off was insane. Great to see so many people coming out for an entire local metal and hardcore showcase. Lots of new and very old friends came out, definitely an unforgettable experience.
9. If you had a chance to pick up an artist to collaborate on a new track, which one would you choose?
Me personally, I’d pick someone kind of outside of the box. Firstly, I think it would be sick to do a collaboration with Jamey from Hatebreed or Jacob Bannon from Converge. But to get outside the box for my personal take, 3TEETH or some sort of electronic artist haha. Just think it’d be cool to see where it went.
10. What was the weirdest or crazy thing that happened to you on the road or at the show?
The most random/weird thing that comes to mind is one time this person was supposedly tripping on acid at our gig drew a picture of us, immediately walked up to us as we’re finishing up our set and hands it to Jonah. It was honestly kinda cool to me haha. It wasn’t necessarily “weird” but random. Florida!
11. On what social media are you most active and why?
Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter in that order.
12. What's next shortly for Decoy? Future plans?
Eventually get cracking on our first actual full length album. More music videos. Tours. Chaos.
Comments
Post a Comment