With the likes of Franz Ferdinand and Dogs Die In Hot Cars being currently afforded acres of good press by the media tastemakers, Scotland's very much in vogue musically at present. As ever, though, there's much more going on than just these bands, and there's a real strength in depth north of the border right now, which is where the densely infectious rock passion of DECKARD comes in.
This young, but surprisingly experienced quartet have previously met The Man head on during a spell signed to Warner Bros offshoot Reprise Records (home of luminaries such as Neil Young) in the States, but are now back in their Glasgow home base and about to release a cracking album called "Dreams Of Dynamite & Divinity," through their own website/ label, www.deckard.info . Intrigued by what makes them tick, W&H tracked down singer/ guitarist Chris Gordon for a chinwag.
Chris, the music press seems to be focussing heavily on Scotland at present, what with Franz Ferdinand, Dogs Die and The Needles amongst others receiving major press. Is this having a positive effect on Deckard?
"Mmm, I'm not really sure," replies the straight-talking, but affable singer.
"Obviously I'm aware of Franz Ferdinand and the rest, but we don't really keep up with what the music press are saying, really. We tend to stand apart from all that."
"I think that there's been an upturn in people going to gigs anyway, over the last few years," he continues.
"I mean, you hear everyone moaning about the industry being in the shit and no-one buying records because of downloading blah, blah...but people are voting with their feet and going out to see bands anyway, so I don't attribute that to just the music press."
Very fair point, certainly. But certainly when press-based "scenes" start up, the tendency is for A&R people from record companies to start sniffing around. Is this the case in Glasgow at present?
"Well, yeah, there's always people sniffing, I suppose," admits Chris.
"But unless you're obviously part of all the press-based stuff, it tends to pass you by. It's not something that enters our orbit or we take much notice of really."
Chris seems both nonchalent, but slightly wary of such industry intrusions, but then Deckard have made their mark of sorts in the commercial world, in the respect that their music has been used in an episode of - of all things - "Friends." How the shag did that come together?
"Well, that's down to our time with Reprise in the US," Chris reveals.
"You see, we recorded our first LP in LA and because of Reprise's connections, when the "Friends 2" soundtrack compilation got put together, they used one of our songs, pretty much chosen at random because we were a Reprise band. It got used in a party scene."
Are you a fan of "Friends" itself?
"Yeah, I am kind of..." laughs Chris.
"I have to admit I did start watching it quite early on, though I suppose it sounds a bit wanky to say "Oh, I got into it before everyone.""
He laughs again and continues....
"I mean, the influence "Friends" has had is ridiculous really, in the sense that people have taken on board the way the characters talk. It sounds stupid the way you hear Scottish and English people trying to take them off."
Was it through your music being used in "Friends" that you also got picked up for use in the US version of "Trigger Happy TV"?
"No, we didn't have much to do with that either, really," he replies. "That was a girl we know in LA who puts film soundtracks together and again she's someone who's in touch with the Reprise people, so it was as simple as that."
Moving into the present tense, the new album's very dramatic and hard-hitting and the tension in some of the songs reminds me of some of the Dischord label bands like, say, Shudder To Think. Is this an area of tangible influence or something more co-incidental?
"Ah, pretty much co-incidence," laughs Chris.
"Actually, I've only recently been aware of a lot of the Dischord stuff because of a friend's band who are into a lot of that Washington DC stuff."
"I say a friend's band, but I'm in that band at present, playing bass," Chris continues, chuckling.
"I was only supposed to be helping them out and it's gone on a year now (laughs.) But, yeah, I started hearing some of the Dischord bands, Fugazi and so on, from that involvement, but I should stress that we'd already finished "Dreams Of Dynamite..." when that came about, so the influence with our album is more subconscious."
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I really like the song "Be Nobody Else" from the album. It sounds really eerie and there seems to be a lot of hurt and disappointment in there. How autobiographical are Deckard's songs?
"Hmm, well with this album I think about 80% of the songs are at least partly autobiograpical," says Chris definitely.
"With "Be Nobody Else" there IS a lot of hurt and disappointment in there, but it's not intended to be purely negative, it's more about reporting on something that happened at a particular time in my life. It's a heat of the moment feeling, I guess, to think someone's the only one for you and then...it doesn't turn out to be the case."
Chris says this with a certain caution and there is real sadness in his voice for a moment, something we can all understand. Let's change the subject to one of the album's other stand outs - "Holy Rolling." This time, the song sounds quite hedonistic with that anthemic "I will adore you, more than ever before" chorus. Am I wide of the mark here?
"Well, that one's one of the non-autobiographical ones," Chris considers.
"I mean, I should point out that with my lyrics I do try hard not to force them down poeples' throats because that ruins it for them. A song's meaning is a very personal thing and sometimes the true meaning of a song can take two years or something to come to you."
"Having said that, "Holy Rolling"s an example of a phase I went through when I was fed up of writing about myself," he continues after a pause.
"That one's basically about a guy who splits up with his girlfriend and buggers off, only to find she's had an accident and gone into a coma in his absence. So that's like one of those fatalistic little true life stories."
Both "Holy Rolling" or "Say Something Stupid" sound like they could easily be singles. Deckard are passionate, but also accessible. Is that important to you when you're writing a song?
"Yeah, I'd say so," Chris muses.
"It doesn't make sense to me to do other things rather than melody, because for me it's got to be tune and melody that catches my attention. Otherwise I feel I can't get to people."
"I can admire bands who do other things," he continues. "The Mars Volta, for example, who come from another place entirely away from choruses, bridges, etc, but that just isn't me and what Deckard are about."
Presumably what Deckard are about is supporting the release of "Dreams Of Dynamite..." Is the tour diary filling up when the album's released come the end of March?
"Actually, no, not a huge amount," says Chris, surprising me.
"We will tour gradually over the next year or so, but it'll be more picking and choosing gigs here and there because we've already got the next album written and we want to get on with that."
"Y'see," he continues, "we fannied around a lot in the past and we don't want to waste time now. We were originally in a band called Baby Chaos and both that and the spell we had with Reprise were tough times. After Reprise I needed to do somehting else for a while and then come back to Deckard."
So you're coming out with all guns blazing this time?
"Well, no, we're not counting on this album," Chris replies.
"I mean, we want to achieve as much as we can. Recording this album was a long process, taking over two years. The next one we want done in six months. At this stage it's very much about the music first and foremost. We've got a theme for the next album, though..."
Which is?
"Aha! You'll have to wait and see," laughs Chris....."Same time in six months, then?"
Yeah, why not indeed.
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