Glasgow indie outfit Declan Welsh & The Decadent West have released their new album ‘2’.
Out now via Frictionless Music, the album comes amidst a plethora of tour dates across the UK and Europe for the band.
Speaking of the album, the band said: “This album is a more mature, musically interesting and lyrically introspective record than the first. It’s us developing our sound, exploring different influences and really pushing what the band is to new and w exciting places. I’ve described it before as mirroring the feeling of trying to suppress your emotions, there’s this cold distant hopeless side that is filled with reverb and artificial, synthetic sounds and then this humanity bursts through at various points. This can be from song to song but very often it’s all happening in the same tune. Ok now, first to know, I don’t know why, ‘100 to 1’ – these are all equal parts each side. Music should make you feel something, and the juxtaposition of the clinical distance and heart on sleeve emotion I think makes for some huge moments. We’re buzzing with it.”
To celebrate their album release, Declan Welsh & The Decadent West shared with us 5 tracks that influenced ‘2’.
Radiohead – Jigsaw Falling Into Place | Listen via Spotify
I love ‘In Rainbows’ so much and it was always a reference point for this album. This is my favourite song on it. I think lyrically, Radiohead’s more abstract, create a mood rather than tell a story, side of lyricism is something I experimented with a bit. Then musically, they are so good at doing complex things in a way that sounds straightforward, direct and interesting. The bass sound on this record as well. My god. Just truly one of the best albums ever made and this song is the best song on it.
Prince – I Wanna Be Your Lover | Listen via Spotify
There’s a decent amount of Prince influence all over this in subtle ways but I guess the most indebted to him would be ‘Doing Great’, which has this rhythm guitar line that’s somewhere between Prince and Nile Rodgers, who for me are probably the best two guitarists of all time. Honourable mentions to St Vincent, Joey Santiago and Johnny Marr. But I love the use by Prince and particularly Nile Rodgers of the right hand. Making the guitar percussive as well as melodic. It just makes you wanna dance and that’s what we’re going for in ‘Doing Great’.
Gorillaz – Feel Good Inc | Listen via Spotify
I could have picked about a thousand Gorillaz tunes but I think this one captures a few different sides to them. We definitely were taking some notes on their production, their guitar and synth sounds. Damon Albarn is a genius and I love his career, what an amazing and varied output to have as an artist. I think that digital verse analogue chorus thing they do here we’ve played about with in our own way. I love the juxtaposition here, this bombast giving way to a wistfulness. It’s a great song, and Gorillaz really show you how to incorporate a range of influences into something cohesive and new.
Fleetwood Mac – Dreams | Listen via Spotify
Musically I’m thinking mostly of ‘Hardly News’ and ‘The Comedian’ here, but I think lyrically I was absolutely channelling a bit of Stevie Nicks throughout. The way she paints pictures through vivid imagery, the way that pain is communicated alongside humour and confidence, it’s a wonderful mix. What a great band and what a fantastic set of songwriters. ‘Dreams’ has always been my favourite of theirs. It’s just this one loop, this one musical part really repeating the whole way. It massively influenced my writing that kind of style. To realise that the music could consciously reflect the subject matter. That structure could have a relationship with lyrics and melody. We’ve tried to do that throughout the record. Things like ‘Mercy’ and ‘Doing Great’, which are about rumination as well as other themes, reflect that rumination through musical repetition.
Grimes – We Appreciate Power | Listen via Spotify
I love this single and this record so much and the biggest influence it had would be in the pure nu metal guitar tunes we’ve used particularly in OK Now and I Don’t Know Why – but there’s a tonne of the atmospheric discordant notes throughout the album. Grimes is also fantastic at that combination of synthetic and real instruments, leaning heavier into the synthetic in this album and there’s times on the record where we are absolutely leaning full pelt into it sounding as robotic or artificial as we can so that when that big moment hits you have this moment of raw powerful emotion. There’s a sinister aspect to this we do a bit of as well, especially in the first half of the album. A great tune!
Stream Declan Welsh & The Decadent West new album ‘2’ via Spotify below:
Listen to the 5 tracks that influenced the release: