Decrypting Decoder Ring

Tue 6th Jun, 2006 in Features

I’ll be brutally, if not perilously honest – I knew virtually nothing about Decoder Ring before I started researching for this interview.  I knew they’d scored the music for Somersault the film, I’d downloaded the somersault single when it was released and I recollected skimming over some articles on the band and their releases in street press papers a few times. I was, how should I say, mildly interested in the band, but not so much as to detour from the main stage into the boiler room at the 2005 Big Day Out to see their live set.  Needless to say, if you are an erudite Decoder Ring aficionado this article may not fascinate you, but if you, like I was, are keen for some information concerning the band then read on.

Decoder Ring formed in 2001 and released an EP and a self-titled LP in their first two years respectively.  Their sound has always been largely indefinable in terms of genre, with the group opting to shift direction constantly rather than permit themselves to be pigeonholed and build up a genre specific fan base. It was however, in 2004 that the group were thrust into mainstream consciousness when they were approached by writer/director Cate Shortland to compose the soundtrack to her film Somersault. The film itself and the densely layered, transcendent, dreamy music that infused its scenes operated in inextricable unison to provide a complete sensory experience. The film was immensely successful and became the recipient of a plethora of awards and a standing ovation at the Cannes film festival, whilst the soundtrack too was lauded as a masterpiece in its own right and released in Europe and more latterly America. Decoder Ring, now with singer Lenka Kripac as a fully-fledged member of the collective, spent much of 2005 touring, including playing the major Australian festivals Splendour In The Grass and the Big Day out. Decoder did in fact only agree to play the Big Day Out on the condition that they play a DJ set of entirely new material, marking yet another change in direction, this time toward more bass oriented, dance-friendly music. After scoring the music to Jewboy (which was also shown at Cannes), Decoder Ring re-entered the studio to record 2005’s Fractions, an eclectic, sonic mix of atmospheric mood music and experimental, electronic-rock of sorts (again, assigning a genre to this group is nigh on impossible!) 

That brings us up to the present day; Decoder Ring has just returned from SXSW in the States. Matt Fitzgerald, one of the band’s founding members, and a man who spends his time playing keyboard, sythns, and guitar (no, not simultaneously), spoke to me regarding this experience.  “It was received amazingly well! We didn’t expect the type of reaction we got, everybody started dancing and hollering”, and the New York folded arms “we’ve seen everything” set went unreservedly wild for it.  “Over [in Australia] we’re sometimes treated as the black sheep of the musical family”, whereas in the States the crowds seemed thrilled to be treated to a vastly different live musical experience. Decoder Ring’s live shows have been extensively celebrated as “psychedelic, sensory experiences” where, as Fitzgerald describes, “everyone gets lost in it. We do, the crowd does, it’s not about us being up on a pedestal.” “The music and vision come together to produce an altered state…psychedelic is the key word”, and he refers back to the sixties, avowing that Decoder Ring, in part, look to “carry on the psychedelic tradition.”  This is not to say however, that Decoder Ring look to revive the past at all, or assume a ‘retro’ sound, but as Fitzgerald asserts, to create “music that’s different; it’s 2006, it’s time to make new music and not be re-hashing the past”.

The visual aspects of the production Fitzgerald refers to are the projected moving images that screen like a sonic music video to the soundtrack of the music.  Simon Killalea (or ‘Simon K’) is the man responsible for these filmic backdrops and, a propos of Decoder Ring’s vision for their live gigs, he is considered a member of the band. Fitzgerald chuckles when asked if Simon K needs to adapt the visuals at all according to the venues. “Simon has a moment scouting the room seeing where he can project, it’s a constant nightmare for [him], you’d think every stage has a flat wall behind it but it doesn’t,” citing that there have been backwards sloping walls, octagonal shaped venues and other horrendous scenarios.

As a result of this interview, two nights later I attended the Decoder Ring show at the Spanish Club in Melbourne, and it truly was an extraordinary sensory bombardment. 

I felt the odd sensation of being concurrently hypnotised, entertained, intrigued, and somehow involved in the event.  There was certainly no figurative pedestal for the band to haughtily stand atop, and as convoluted and hippy-ish as it sounds, the audience and band alike were both partaking in the same experience and appreciating it on the same level.

The rest of 2006 signals more of the same from Decoder Ring; which in turn means that they are sure to embark on projects that will be, for fans, wholly unexpected.  Fitzgerald revealed that for this year’s Splendour, they plan “to play Somersault in its entirety, something [they have] never done before”.  “Simon will be doing his interpretation [of the music]”, rather than screening snippets of the film. Similarly, a new record is planned for sometime in the not too distant future.  When quizzed about this record’s direction Fitzgerald yells “God only knows! It grows, it moves. We are in the early stages, trying to build a slightly bigger thing, more epic”, remarking that “it’s a natural process, the songs just kind of write themselves”. “It’s the opposite of a radio single which is very calculated. You have your path and you just follow it”.

Lastly, the most poignant comment Fitzgerald makes on the creative process of the band comes across somewhat like a mission statement. “Decoder Ring have never been about the single parts, but about morphing it into one.”  So get on board Australia, before the allure of thousands of hollering Yanks again proves too attractive an option for this band that truly has ‘redefined our musical landscape’.

Decoder Ring’s Fractions is out now. If you’re lucky enough to have tickets, you can catch Decoder Ring when they play at Splendour in the Grass.