The Decline - Cats, Bodyjar and Wembley Stadium

Back in August (our logistics suck) we saw Australia’s The Decline bring their sunny skateboard punk rock to Kingston’s The Fighting Cocks. The Grab Bag is always out of control in that venue so it was only right it attacked The Decline whilst they were over the water!

Describe yourself in one sentence.

Pat: One time…

Harry: You’re just describing yourself, you don’t have to tell a whole story.

Pat: I know but I want to tell a story that describes me. There are so many sentences. One time I borrowed this cat off of somebody and I had to give it back so I got another cat to replace it but then I got given the other one, so then I ended up with two cats, also, I really like cats.

Harry: That was two sentences.

Pat: No! They were all commas man. They were all commas. Two cats COMMA I like cats.

What is your favourite song to play live?

Harry: Do you remember the name of the songs?

Ray: I do now. I’m new to the band but I do know the song names. I think… I Don’t Believe.

Harry: You don’t believe what?

Ray:…the song is called I Don’t Believe. It’s probably one of my favourite songs on the new album, and there’s a section that I get to sing.

Harry: We don’t let him sing much.

Pat: Just one section on I Don’t Believe.

Ben: So in that song Ray is actually stepping in for Cam (Cameron Baines) from Bodyjar, who actually sings it on the album. So he doesn’t sing often but when he does it’s in the most important spots.

Ray: And Cam’s one of my favourite singers as well.

Pat: Ray has a Bodyjar tattoo, they’re one of his favourite bands!

Where is the worst place you have woken up?

Ben: I guess in the van after sleeping for half an hour. Or maybe a park…but I can’t remember how I got there. Maybe I was bird watching…drunk.

What is your favourite venue to gig in?

Pat: Do we have to of played there before? Because if not then Wembley Stadium.

Ray: I don’t think I’m ready for 60,000 people.

Ben: We could play to 5 people there…

Pat: Yeah, be realistic now.

Ben: We’ve been pretty lucky on this tour. There was a place called Bar Ceferino in Barcelona that was pretty cool. It was a small capacity venue, maybe you could fit 40 or 50 people in there max. We played there after playing Resurrection Fest to a few thousand people, which was something we had never done before, and then we played to a small group and that was amazing.

Ben: We should open a bar in Barcelona called Bar-celona.

You’re feeling ill and can only have one home comfort, what do you choose?

Pat: This is hard because I really like pizza, and I really like cats, and my girlfriend so….pizza.

What is your favourite memory of being in this band?

Ben: Erm…waking up in the van? I don’t know, maybe the second show of this tour playing Resurrection Fest which was fucking insane, I had no idea what to expect.

Is there anything you know this week that you didn’t know last week?

Pat: UK traffic is pretty bad. That’s one thing.

Ray: Something from Karl Pilkington maybe?

Pat: Oh yeah! Karl Pilkington has some good stuff. He said that every time you remember something you’re actually remembering the last time you remembered it and not the first time it happened. I mean he didn’t say that but…

Have you ever had an epic fail on stage?

Pat: One time I fell over on stage. We were playing this weird bar like 5 years ago, but there wasn’t that many people there so it was okay.

Ray: At Resurrection Fest, in front of thousands of people, I was playing and I must have jumped and stepped on my leg. For like half a song we may have played without any bass.

Pat: I keep on forgetting to play this song called Wrecking Ball that we have. I keep forgetting that it’s on the set list so I just go straight into the next song where I start singing by myself and the rest of the band just doesn’t play. I’ve done that maybe 2 or 3 times on this tour.

Ben: It’s only been on the last third of the tour, so it doesn’t quite make sense because it was never an issue before.

Pat: It’s because we started adding this old song to the set and I always think that’s instead of Wrecking Ball but it’s not, it’s as well as Wrecking Ball!