Melbourne’s Declaration recently released, and launched their new 7″ ‘Before It’s Too Late‘ via Call To Arms Music. To find out a little more about the release this week we catch up with Jeremy from the band to answer our On The Record questions. Expand this post to check out his answers. You can next catch the band live at Next on Thursday 20th September with Crowned Kings and Mark My Words, then Sunday September 23rd at The Place with Outright, Ill Vision and more. You can grab the 7″ online [Here].
Tell us about the release title.
‘Before It’s Too Late’ is the title track, which is an anti-violence song, written about what’s been going on in Melbourne. It was the first song written for the band, and one of the most fun to play live too.
Tell us about the artwork.
At practice one night we sat around and decided to keep going with the Melbourne/anti-violence theme, we wanted a scene of Melbourne after something’s gone down, like a post-riot scene. Reece, our bass player took that idea and came up with the cover of Flinders St Station, an upturned and destroyed car in the foreground, which I think is amazing! It’s a 7” picture disc, so the ‘cover’ is printed on the record, and has come up looking well beyond what I’d hoped for!
What format/s will it be released on and how will it be packaged?
Like I said before, it’s going to be a 7” picture disc, which comes with a digital download code, the download comes instantly if you order online. Or if vinyl’s not your thing, you can just get the download from the online store.
Who will it be released through, and when?
It’s coming out through Call To Arms, a label started by our vocalist Adam. It was released August 24th, and launched on the 31st of August at the Bendigo Hotel, which doubled as the launch of the Call To Arms Label, and it’s first two releases, so it was a huge night!
Tell us about the studio and why you chose to record there?
We recorded at Legion Studios in Williamstown where we recorded our first EP, with Julian Renzo doing all the hard work to make us sound good! It’s a lot of fun recording there, Julian gets what we are trying to do, gets the best performance out of us, and can put up with all of Chris’ ramblings and critique of other peoples performances!
Did you go into the writing process with a clear direction in mind?
Not really, we initially recorded some tracks for a split 7” with another band but they called it a day, so after that we had 3 songs. So we then had to decide what to do with them, and thought going back into the studio to record more songs was the best plan. All the songs were written about the same time, so they work well together and show some of the diversity we have in our writing.
Were you listening to anything in particular during the writing / recording process that influenced the songs at all?
We were working to try and separate the guitars a bit more, like FC Five, Comeback Kid etc, which we definitely did a lot more of on this record, but we also wanted to show the diversity in our songwriting, with some slower NYHC kind of parts. Our first Ep was recorded before we had even played a show, and we’re playing a lot tighter now than then, and these songs let that come across.
Were there any albums you were referencing to aim for a certain type of sound production wise?
No so much any albums, but we wanted it to sound big, and have lots of impact with plenty of definition in the guitars.
How long did it take to record?
We recorded over 2 sessions, it took probably 5-6 days because in the second session we had to set everything up and aim for certain tones used in the first one. In the end, the guitars sounded a bit off, kind of muffled because we couldn’t remember what amps went into what cabs in what combination and setup, so we just went for the best tones we could. Gerry was playing bass for the first session, and he left the band so we had our new bass player Reece for the second session too, so there’s a slight difference between the two sides, but they work well together!
Any guests involved? if so, who.. and what did they do?
Makka, vocals from Crowned Kings chucked a few lines down for us in a song called Side By Side, a song about the hardcore scene. He had to work to get the words out that fast, but he did an awesome job, sounds so good! We also had a sweet crew for gang vocals, which came up great too!
Any memorable studio moments?
One song ‘Second Chances’ was written by Chris, who has the most ridiculous sense of timing, can play faster than anything and just confuses me with his chord progressions and changes. That song took me so long to get my head around just to be able to play it. And then we recorded it so goddamn fast compared to how we’d been playing it live or in practice, and I just couldn’t play it that fast. I was getting so frustrated, started getting really down on myself, thinking I wasn’t good enough etc. Finally got it right, then watched Chris just breeze through it. Luckily though, Gerry and Adam struggled too, so I was totally relieved!
What track/s are you most looking forward to playing live?
I love playing all the songs we recorded for different reasons, but I think Side By Side is my favorite to play live. The outro to that song is so much fun to play, and I know we all do, but when Adam screams ‘This means everything to me’ that he means it, and he puts everything he has into it. ‘Burden’ has this cool NYHC kind of groove to it, and singing the whoa-oooh parts is always fun!
How would you compare the final product to previous releases?
Better. Tighter. We spent more time writing the songs, recording them, we’re all so much better playing our instruments and playing together, we have better gear which meant Julian could get better sounds and tones out of them.
Anything else you want to say or tell us about the release?
Call To Arms is a new label started by our vocalist Adam, check out the label, our EP and shows.
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Grab a copy online [Here].
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