Bobbyisms: The party's just beginning for Youth Decay

Header image for Interrobang article CREDIT: LISTEN HARDER
Youth Decay's The Party's Over, puts the younger version of the band member's selves to rest and moving forward while still trying to carry the torch.

I write about random things a lot. I write a lot about random things. I don’t know if you’ve noticed lately, but there are growing numbers of former punk musicians that are shifting their sound and emerging as some of the most gifted and eloquent songwriters in the country.

Acts like Northcote or Attack In Black alumni Daniel Romano and Spencer Burton are great examples of artists that still produce great music with the same passion and credibility, despite sculpting their sound with newer tools and tones.

Such isn’t the case with Vancouver’s Youth Decay, a super-group’s worth of punk talent that combined have spent decades building the scene in Canada.

Guitarists Stu Ross and Ben Gibbs, bassist Dana Edwards, drummer Loren Legare and vocalist Stu McKillop are all active or former members of groups like Comeback Kid, Living With Lions, Misery Signals, The Grave Life, Carpenter and more, yet despite their age or backgrounds, the band proves they certainly aren’t ready for the rocking chair yet.

“The mistakes that we’re making now we should probably have stopped making 15 years ago,” joked guitarist Stu Ross over the phone.

He didn’t elaborate, but it’s unlikely that he or the rest of the band consider their new album The Party’s Over, released this week on Nov. 6 by New Damage Records, to be among their mistakes.

The follow–up to a teaser EP released roughly one year ago, Youth Decay will celebrate the release on the road between British Columbia and Manitoba next month, looking ahead to visit us in Ontario and eastward in the spring.

According to Ross, it was downtime in other bands that got the ball rolling on the Youth Decay. As you might guess, musicians like to keep busy, and the topic of jamming together came up between Ross, Gibbs and Edwards a couple of years back. Other musicians flirted with membership, but the trio decided to forge on together, expanding to welcome Legare and McKillop in a move that cemented the lineup and the chemistry beyond a doubt.

“Loren was an obvious choice, we didn’t want to interrupt anything [Living With Lions] had going on, but we said, ‘fuck it, we’ll just ask him anyway,’” Ross said.

Getting McKillop on board also happened quickly, he joked, “It took two text messages; we hit up Stu and it came together super easy.”

The album may have come about as naturally as the band, a self– produced affair like their 2014 EP “Older, Fatter, Drunker”. The band recorded at Rain City Recorders, wrapping sessions on The Party’s Over back in February.

“I’m a bit of a control freak, being able to be in the studio and handle everything ourselves, be there every minute along the way was great,” Ross explained. “Stu’s a great producer and engineer, but he’s also on the level and there’s no ego about it.”

“Doing the vocals, it ended up being myself and Loren who were producing as Stu was tracking them, a collective effort,” he continued. “He was there the whole time because he owns the studio and was engineering everything, but when it came time to do his vocals, we were button–pushing and leading him along the way, it was a cool reciprocal situation.”

The album erupts with “Balance”, “Landslide” and “Hysteria”, three songs they previewed online as the album release drew near. It isn’t often that a band would reveal their hand in such a way, however these songs lead off the album for likely the same reason they made great tracks to preview; they introduce the record in a strong way and establish these five friends early as the seasoned vets that they are, in full control of their sound.

Not enough can be said about the sequence of the album; The Party’s Over rises and falls in perfect quarters.

Interestingly, because the album opening was previewed in advance it also places an informal emphasis on the succeeding tracks, like a big lead–up into a second act. The Party’s Over doesn’t disappoint, but rather rises to the occasion with “Slow Clap”, an explosive thrash punk song that belies its title.

The album shines in the nuances, like how the second half of the album begins with the title track, a bittersweet reflective song that doubles as intro to a muscular one–two punch in “Put It Off” and “Short Fuse”, hard and fast punk bangers that pack a lot of energy into their short couple of minutes.

In such a way, the second half starts as strongly as the first, and by the time you’re aware of the time passing, you’ve arrived at album closer “Waiting For Nothing”, the only selection that touches the four–minute mark.

“We’re getting close to our mid–30s and still playing in a punk band,” Ross said. “Now we have to have real jobs and families.”

For more on Youth Decay and their new album The Party’s Over, seek them out on Facebook or follow on Twitter @youthdecayposse. We’ll have to be patient for tour dates east of Winnipeg, but for now The Party’s Over will be available on CD and vinyl in all the usual markets or direct from New Damage Records online.

And for more of the latest music news, album streams and gigs coming to London, add @fsu_bobbyisms to your timeline. Support local music! I’m out of words.