EMQ’s with DECENT NEWS
Hi Everyone. Welcome to our new EMQ’s interview with New London County, Connecticut based Hardcore/Industrial band Decent News! Huge thanks to Eddie LaFlash for taking part!
What is your name, what do you play and can you tell us a little bit about the history of the band?
My Name is Eddie LaFlash, I play Guitar, Synth and I do occasional Vocals. Decent News was formed after one of my older projects imploded. I think it was roughly March of 2016; our former drummer Collin and one of his friends wanted to form a metal band and wanted a second guitarist or bassist so I jumped at it, having working with Collin before. I showed up at the E.O Smith building at Uconn a few days later with my shitty Peavey Raven combo amp and BC Rich Bitch 10 to meet up with Collin and the other guitarist and we all had pretty good chemistry. The next week we dragged Laken along to fill in at bass and that became our first line up. I don’t think Laken had ever even touched a bass before his first practice with us. A few months in and everyone started butting heads with the other guitarist because any music that we wanted to submit to the group got shot down and we were stuck playing the same three songs over and over at every practice so we decided that he had to go. We started fresh in 2017 writing our asses off and trying to find a vocalist. We recorded a live demo that summer with me on vocals but I can’t sing and play guitar at the same time so we knew we had to find a permanent vocalist. Enter, Caleb Moore. He might look the type of dude that will steal shit from your house and help you look for it, but he was a natural fit and plus we’ve been friends for 10 years and we always work better playing with our friends. We started working on our First album “Filth” and sent the single “Skin Puddle / Deafland” to Chris at Machine Man Records and got signed in January 2018. Laken left for a little while because he was having a kid and Collin ended up leaving to focus on school. Fast forward to right now, Laken is back and we just released our second album “Monolith”. Fuck that was long winded, I’m sorry!
How did you come up with your band name?
We were originally called Freakquency because we thought it was a clever name, but so did a lot of other bands. We made a list of about 100 names and just narrowed it down till we were left with two names ‘Decent News’ and ‘A Few Boys’. Every bit of us wanted to go with ‘A Few Boys’ but Decent News was way easier to design a logo for.
What country are you from and what is the Metal/Rock scene like there?
We are from the United States. More specifically we’re from Connecticut. The Metal/ Rock scene here is mostly cover bands. There is a Doom/Stoner metal scene here and a pretty good chunk of Metalcore bands in our area.
What is your latest release? (Album, EP, Single or Video)
On August 30th we released “[M O N O L I T H]”. It’s a 10 track album that mixes a lot of our unique styles to make a very pretty okay album.
Who have been your greatest influences?
Personally, my greatest influences are a lot of Industrial and thrash metal bands. KMFDM, <PIG>, Armageddon Dildos, Melvins. Caleb’s more into hardcore and pop punk and Laken is our little scene queen.
What first got you into music?
I got into music because my Mom was a musician. She always had instruments lying around and it was always something I wanted to do. I think Megadeth was the first band I heard that made me want to start writing.
If you could collaborate with a current band or musician who would it be?
Probably Street Sects! I am in awe of how those guys can take something that at its base is so harsh and noisy but actually structure it and make it catchy.
If you could play any festival in the world, which would you choose and why?
Ooo, that’s a tough one. For me I’d either say Rock am Ring in Germany (which is highly unlikely) or Cold Waves. I think we’d fit into Cold Waves very nicely.
What’s the weirdest gift you have ever received from a fan?
I think the weirdest gift is actually showing up and seeing us play.
If you had one message for your fans, what would it be?
We’re sorry we ruined your night out, there’s probably better bands playing whenever we have a show.
If you could bring one Metal/Rock star back from the dead, who would it be?
It’s got to be Chuck Schuldiner. He probably had a lot more music left in him and his death was super untimely.
What do you enjoy the most about being a musician? And what do you hate?
I like the occasional praise that we get. It makes all the hard work we do kinda mean something. One thing I hate is being in a constant state of trying to prove ourselves.
If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?
It’s probably more of a local thing, but I’m not a fan of the cliqueyness of local scenes. When you’re starting out just about zero people are willing to give you a chance unless you’re going to literally every local show. When we were starting out it was really hard to break into the scene because we all work 2nd shift factory jobs and we couldn’t really make it to a lot of local scene shows. Whenever we did we’d usually get brushed off because we’re Decent News and we don’t really fit into any of the scenes out here.
Name one of your all-time favourite albums?
Melvins – “Houdini”
What’s best? Vinyl, Cassettes, CD’s or Downloads?
I like vinyl, I really do, but I get really annoyed when they don’t come with a digital download card.
What’s the best gig that you have played to date?
33 Golden Street in New London is always a blast. The place is always full and the staff are always really nice to us.
If you weren’t a musician, what else would you be doing?
I’d probably just cosplay as a factory machine operator working myself to death as is my current alter ego.
Which five people would you invite to a dinner party?
Keith Richards, Lightning Hopkins, Lady Gaga, Steve Wilkos and 寶親王
What’s next for the band?
Next year we’ll have a remix album for “[M O N O L I T H]” coming out and eventually we will be working on a third album. For right now we’re just gonna keep playing as many shows as we can.
What Social Media/Website links do you use to get your music out to people?
https://decentnews.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/decentnews/
https://machinemanrecords.com/decent-news
https://open.spotify.com/artist/25d1l8Nle2nHekQJOLxEjd
Jaffa Cakes! Are they a cake or a biscuit?
After googling Jaffy Cakes and learning everything there is to know about them, for taxation purposes, it’s a cake!
Thank you for your time. Is there anything else that you would like to add?
To anyone reading, please go out and buy “[M O N O L I T H]”, Laken has promised to rip his own head off with his bare hands if you do it. He’s strong as fuck.
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