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Decoder Ring.
 When I call Decoder Ring's Matt Fitzgerald at his home in Sydney I find him about to head out to see his friend Nick Craft, formerly of Sidewinder, in his new guise The Zillions. "We go back, to some extent," explains Fitzgerald. "Decoder Ring was formed very, very late in the night at a party held by the Sidewinder guys. So it's a close relationship. A close and inebriated relationship," he laughs.
The last twelve months have seen Decoder Ring's star soar. The soundtrack fashioned by the genre-hopping group was a big part of the success of Cate Shortland's film 'Somersault' last year. The band has received their just rewards in the form of invitations to play at a variety of festivals, including the Big Day Out tour at the beginning of the year and Splendour In The Grass this past July. The current Australian tour will conclude with an appearance at the Homebake festival. "We've been very lucky," Fitzgerald admits.
Decoder Ring have previously only been in Adelaide in support of Gerling and the aforementioned Big Day Out. "So this will be our first time as the headliner," say Fitzgerald. "You're going to get the full Decoder Ring experience. We're pretty excited by that."
And it should be a rewarding experience indeed, with a sprawling live show incorporating visuals by Simon K, who Fitzgerald explains is very much an integral member of the band. "Decoder Ring has that whole visual aspect. It's really an important part of the band. This tour is so exciting because I think for the first time everything's just going to fuse together in a big way. The shows are going to be such a great experience. Which is a really fucking stupid word to use, but it just feels right I think, because it's exactly what we're going for. It's just what Decoder Ring's always been about - not just making it about the music. It's about the visuals as well, and we want to bring it all together to give people an amazing night."
Fitzgerald is also keen to credit the audience as much as the band for the success of the shows. "That's why we try to stay invisible as a band," he says. "We don't like that distinction between the band and the audience. It's what the listener brings to the album which makes them feel. That's the final piece of the puzzle. That's something which I think the whole musician-as-celebrity thing denies. They act as if it's all them, but it's actually the way people react to it that makes a great album. I think it's rude and arrogant to place yourself above the listener."
Their latest album 'Fractions', self-produced in swift fashion just after the BDO tour, was recorded in keeping with the live tradition. According to Fitzgerald, the aim was to keep energy levels up and avoiding overstudying the sound. The result covers an insane amount of ground, blending electronica, rock and ambient vibes, all in a logical and beautiful fashion. "Just because things sound different doesn't mean that it has to throw you around in a way which is disconnected and dislocated," remarks Fitzgerald. "If there's a narrative, in the same way that a film has a narrative, then each scene can be wildly different. You can build the story, and we wanted to apply that to an album."
It's interesting that Fitzgerald brings up the film analogy himself. It's one that's always been applied to the band, and Decoder Ring is happy for people to do so. "To some extent, we've always seen film as being more analogous to what we do than a lot of other music that's around," he explains. "Because when people talk about films they don't talk about whether it's a two piece, or a six piece, or if it's a grunge act or whatever, they talk about what the film is about. As to why music speaks in such a retarded way about itself, I don't understand. Some bands are more like action bands, I suppose, or then you can have more dramatic bands. I think it's a much better way to describe things, using the film language, because it actually gets to the heart of what you're feeling. And who really gives a fuck about what they're technically seeing up there? Unless you're going to some drum clinic or some Joe Satriani guitar wizardry clinic, you're not going there for the instruments; you're going there for how it makes you feel."
Eddie Chan
 | Decoder Ring play Fowler's Live on Thurs 13 Oct with Expatriate. |
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