Decline The Fall - Our biggest ambition is to reach a stable way that we living from our music

Decline The Fall’s string of successes since forming in 2015 is merely a glimpse of what the five-piece band has to offer. Following the release of their debut album Our Own Demise, Decline The Fall are ready to explode on the international scene and descend onto the metalcore world with their compelling and refreshing music.
Decline The Fall are Kris Farrugia, Ehren Fenech, John ‘Castiel’ Gatt and Matthew ‘BomBom’ Mercieca but calling them band members doesn’t do them justice, this is a brotherhood. When it was time to step up to the plate, Decline The Fall rose. Collectively the five-piece are a force to be reckoned with and in 2017 showed the world what they are made of.
Unfortunately, the panademic threw a spanner in the works, but the band was not deterred. They are very active on social media, and have a very interesting YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr9vS_9LEiJi-ZP6sh6HxzQ 
We had a nice chat with John 'Castiel' Gatt about social media and the debut album. We also got a glimpse of the future plans of the band.

Who are Decline The Fall? How did everything start, tell more about yourself?
Decline The Fall started 7 years ago and always been a band that represents ‘’Never Giving Up’’. Our name is Decline The Fall so we want to be an inspiration to those that want to do what they love. We try to speak about subjects that not many people speak about as ‘’Our Own Demise’’ speaks about our perspective in this world especially in Malta ( Where we come from) We moved to Slovenia a year and a half ago, mostly for music and it’s been a lot of fun!

To me it’s not really important what style you playing, but you know when it’ comes to concert promoters and things, the first thing they ask is ‘what style you playing’?
Yes, that’s indeed the biggest problem. To us it doesn’t matter we just play metal you know, but if we had to put it under one style it would be metalcore or numetal-core

As far as music style goes, there are indeed many possibilities  But  who were your big sources of inspiration?
Most of us are listen to different kind of music. Nu-metal is something I’m inspired by, most of us are inspirited by that too, Especially when we were younger. But we also listen to very heavy music. When it comes to inspirations there is a whole range of bands and music styles that emerge as inspiration but you can hear that in our music.

You debut 'Our Own Demise'  came out in middle of this pandemic. Very difficult times, but how important was this debut for your career and did it open some doors?
The problem was that all gigs we would do to promote the album got cancelled. So it was difficult to make it to open doors. We had a plan to go on tour, and things, and then.. well you know how it’s been going the last two years.. At the other hand I’m happy because we had good reviews and response for our debut, so that was nice. But for the rest we could not do much. I just think it would have been so much better if the situation was different.

But it’s not that you been sit back and relax, that’s a good reaction on this difficult times I guess. You are very active on the social media, how important is social media for you? And does it bring you the fame you are aiming for? or the recognition? Especially the YouTube channel is interesting, partly because of the stories behind it, besides the music. A conscious approach? And does it really help?  -
It’s the only thing we really could do. We live together here, and well the social media was our only weapon to ensure that we stay in the limelight.. to keep in touch with the fans, to promote the album and things. It kept us busy and motivated to do something with our music as well. Soo yes it does help us to go through this bad times we are living in.

I like that ‘live hangout’ how did you guys come on the idea? It’s like we are hanging out with you guys , and relax and drinking some beer together. Well done. And are there plans for more ‘live hangout’ clips in the future?
Spending some time with the fans, and having a conversation was the idea. We first wanted to do one YouTube clip in that way. We got pretty good reactions on that, so we sure going to do more ‘live hangout’ with the fans on YouTube.

Your debut ‘Our Own Demise’ has been received with praises, both locally and internationally. For me it’s a blast of all kind of emotions, going from anger, to frustration and pain. Is this correct? And is that a conscious choice?
Yes, that is correct. We wanted to let free our emotions of frustrations and anger about what’s happening around us.

And was this pandemic an inspiration for the album?
It is an inspiration for the second album. We finished the first album before the pandemic. But now we are creating the second album due the pandemic, so yes a couple of songs are inspired by that.

So there is a new album coming up? When?
We are not sure about the WHEN yet because we still plan to promote the first album this year. So hopefully next year we’ll have something new for sure.

Did you came out stronger as band true this pandemic as band you think?
Living together during a pandemic has definitely made us stronger. Unfortunately we had to go through a couple of changes in the band but all decisions based on what’s best for the band to keep moving forward

Something else In my opinion this is music you have to hear live, ones on stage the magic really works, right?
We are eagerly waiting to get back on stage because that’s where the magic happens in my opinion. It’s addicting and very satisfying.

We already have live concerts here, with seats and mouth masks, for jazz concerts which I also attend no problem, but with metal (and certainly your metal genre) it is a problem, right?
It’s of course better than nothing. But at metal concerts, you just need the energy between the band on stage and the crowd in front of you. It not working with seats, it’s not the same..

Collectively  you guys a force to be reckoned with and in 2017 showed the world what you are made of by playing alongside genre legends like Mayhem, Rotting Christ and, most notably, Lacuna Coil. This was followed by their first invite in 2019 to perform at the well-known Hills of Rock Festival in Plovdiv, Bulgaria with over 50,000 attendees. How important where this tours for you as band?
It's how we got all the experience we have now! By meeting all these legends and people with a lot of experience and stories to share with us We’ve been a fan of Lacuna Coil ever since we were young so for us it was such a great honor to share the stage with them and to have them over at our gig in Romania. Hill of Rock was one of the greatest experiences of our lives so far. They treated us very well and we had such an awesome time! We can’t wait to do it again

Is there something like a true rock scene in your country? If there is, why we don’t about it here? ?
Malta is a small island with the biggest percentage of bands. I think the rock scene is very much alive but we are very limited on how many gigs we can do and how much money we can actually get by just playing metal

Living from you music is possible?
Unfortunately it is not possible at the moment but that’s what we are working on. Even if the band becomes self-sustainable , we’re happy with that.

Recent you bring out a brand new video ‘Sinister’ a real sinister song, is there a story behind this song?
Sinister is our perspective on how people tend to judge one another especially us that look different cause of the style we portray and music we listen to. We created the room in Ehren’s (Drummer) bedroom with garbage bags and spray paint , it was very fun!

Is the new album going in that same direction?
This new album is going to be named ‘’Perspectives’’ and it’s going to be about different perspectives in life from different people that we would want to talk about and not many people tend to do.

Let’s look at the future, what are the future plans for the band? Going on tour hopefully I guess? And maybe in Belgium to?
We have a couple of shows and tours booked this year if they don’t get cancelled due to Covid. Belgium is a place we really want to visit and have shows there but so far we have nothing booked there yet.

What are the ambitions of Decline The Fall next to world domination, something that everyone want this days?
To see as much as possible from the world is one of our greatest ambitions. We love traveling and to share our music with all these beautiful places is a dream

Is there also something like a ‘end goal’ ? or you not busy with that?
We don’t have something like a ‘end goal’, I mean, death is an end goal (haha) I guess. But no we’re not busy with that. We always see what’s the next step.

Is there something more you want to tell our readers?
If you want to know more about the band visit www.declinethefall.com  !

Thanks for this nice interview, hope to see you on stage soon, especially in Belgium of course

For The Fallen Dreams is één van die bandjes op het Artery-label, een beetje muziekkenner weet dan al  dat het om het zoveelste Amerikaanse metalcoregroepje... ‘Wasted Youth’ is al de vierde plaat van dit vijftal uit Michigan en is in vergelijking met vorig werk heel wat toegankelijker. 
De band klinkt een stuk poppier door vooral de vele cleane zangstukken, daarnaast is er overvloedig ruimte voor de nodige breakdowns.  In het Blink 182-achtige  nnummer  “Please Don’t Hurt” wordt bovendien het experiment niet geschuwd. 
Het geluid op deze plaat tenslotte klinkt wat ons betreft enorm (misschien wel iets te) gelikt.  Het plaatje is zeker voer voor fans van The World Alive, Parkway Drive en A Day To Remember en zal in Amerika enthousiast onthaald worden.  Afwachten of dit hier ook het geval is...