Matt Fitzgerald is in a good mood. He’s at home in Sydney catching some rays, on a day that’s providing glimpses of spring. He’s still coming down after touring with one of the world’s biggest bands, Coldplay, and playing packed stadium shows night after night. On top of this is the satisfaction of having completed the record he’s been waiting his whole life to make.

“It feels so good,” he confirms. “I’m so happy that it’s out and so happy with it. I think for the first time we really feel we’ve done what we were trying to do. We committed a long period of time and decided not to compromise until it was exactly what we want.”

They Blind The Stars, And The Wild Team is the band’s fourth album and their first offering since 2005’s Fractions. That album was a follow-on from their foray into film scores. Decoder Ring composed the soundtrack to writer/director Cate Shortland’s film Somersault, thrusting them into the spotlight in 2004. So what does Fitzgerald hear when he gives the previous long players a spin?

“I think we we’re happy with them, but the key thing was constraints of time or circumstance. I think we felt that they were aspects of Decoder Ring, not the full Decoder Ring. I think this record was about taking the time to explore everything that we were about and try and make what, for us, is the definitive Decoder Ring record.”

I read out a quote from an interview Fitzgerald did in 2007. He said the next record would be big and epic. He wasn’t kidding. Tunes like 100 Suns and A Thousand Flowers in Bloom are a rousing onslaught of synthesiser loops and driving rock instrumentation. “For us, it was trying to create something that was all-encompassing; something which has epic moments but also which has delicate moments,” Fitzgerald enthuses. “It’s hard to do a record which covers that scope in a way that works, and I think we achieved that. That song for us [ 100 Suns ]; it’s a massive song. By the time you’re at the end of it it’s just enormous. It’s like you’re being carried by the wave of that sound.”

Wave of sound, wall of sound. Maybe that has something to do with famed producer Scott Colburn, of Animal Collective, the Arcade Fire and Yeasayer fame? “Working with Scott was unreal. He’s a close friend of all of ours. What we wanted to do was capture the essence of our live show. With Scott’s records, especially Animal Collective and also the Arcade Fire, there’s that great sense of immediacy. We just stuck a microphone in our rehearsal space and just sent through really crappy demos of our songs. We thought, either he’s going to get the essence of it or not.

“He’s got this punk, DIY ethos, and he strips back a lot of the bullshit which a lot of producers use to try and puff themselves up. It was more just about trying to get the environment right and just sort of capturing the mood. That was exactly the type of thing that we were after – capturing a great performance; that sort of punk rock ethos but mixed with a trippy side.”

Decoder Ring’s live show has been described as an extraordinary sensory bombardment. It combines projected images, live instrumentation and pre-recorded, otherworldly samples. Has that side of things changed in the last four years? “No, it’s all that and more. The visual aspect is still there. A lot of this album was spent just working on those sounds so they gel together to create this force. We wanted to make an album and then a live show that was just that from beginning to end – really all-engulfing.”

Splendour in the Grass attendees, beware. Decoder Ring is getting ready to unleash the power. “It’s nice because Splendour 2006 was the last show we did before we committed to disappearing. And it’s a great time we’re playing [this year]. It’s sunset, so all our Christmases have come at once. It’s the perfect time! Just as the sun goes down we’ll emerge from out of it and take you to another place.”

The band had the chance to trial the new songs when they supported Coldplay on the Australian leg of their Viva La Vida world tour. “That was a pretty nice way to give the songs a test run! You know, just a few quiet shows,” Fitzgerald laughs. “We got to hang out a little bit. It’s pretty relentless for them. It’s media the whole time, then playing – and then they’ve got their VIP guests that they need to entertain. They’ve lost all their privacy as well. We hung out more in the sporting arena.”

The sporting arena? I’m struggling to imagine Chris Martin getting his game on.

“It’s funny you should raise that because we love our cricket and we’re fairly competitive. So we were like, ‘Okay Coldplay, you might be the biggest band in the world but you’re English and we’re Australian so we’re going to fuck you up on the cricket pitch!’ But the next thing you know, Chris Martin emerges as the best non-professional sportsman I’ve ever seen. He was the most insane pace bowler and a great batsman. So he’s in the world’s biggest band and he’s a nice guy and he’s also really good at sports. He also beat Shane Warne at ping pong! So once he beat Warney, we felt better.”

The rest of the year will see Decoder Ring head out on tour, at home and abroad. Fitzgerald says they’ll just do whatever takes their fancy. “That’s the great thing about being independent; we make our own rules. We’re just following our own path, very happily so.”

They Blind The Stars, And The Wild Team is out now through Inertia Recordings. Read the FasterLouder album review. Decoder Ring play Splendour in the Grass, followed by an east coast tour with Bridezilla in August and September.

Sun 26 July – Splendour In The Grass, Byron Bay (playing times)
Thu August 20 – The Great Northern, Byron Bay
Fri August 21 – The Sound Lounge, Gold Coast
Sat August 22 – The Zoo, Brisbane
Fri August 28 – The Metro Theatre, Sydney
Sat September 5 – Hi-Fi Bar & Ballroom, Melbourne
Sat September 12 – Baroque Bar, Carrington Hotel, Katoomba