Local Band: Decedy

Photo from decedy.bandcamp.com

Deric Becker, senior, will release his first studio album with his band, Decedy, entitled 1979, on Tuesday, Feb. 27.

Decedy is throwing a release party for the album on March 16 at the Firebird,  2706 Olive St, at 6:30 p.m. The tickets cost $12 at the door, and $10 in advance.

Advanced tickets can be purchased by contacting via Instagram @dericbecker or going online at decedy.bandcamp.com.

Decedy is a local rock band influenced by classic groups like Led Zeppelin and Rush. They have been active since 2009 and are only gaining prominence as they make more music.

The band is composed of Becker, senior, on guitars, keyboards and vocals; Dylan Becker, Class of 2014, on bass and vocals; and Isaiah Blackford, Class of 2016, on drums and vocals.

“Music helps me get my thoughts out,” Dylan said. “I tend to overthink things and it helps me rationalize my thoughts and take it as it comes.”

The band’s songwriting process consists of Deric coming to the rest of the group with a rudimentary song concept, which Dylan expands on. Then, the band rehearses until they get it right.

Blackford also helps write on occasion and is credited by Dylan with bringing a newfound energy to the band that wasn’t present when it was only the Becker brothers. This energy comes from a lot of the pop-punk and contemporary rock he listens to and takes inspiration from.

The synergetic songwriting process combined with the group’s classic rock energy has clearly proven to be a beneficial formula for the band, as they even landed a set at the coveted Vans Warped Tour in 2015.

Dylan said that if other local STL groups want to reach this level of success, they need to make sure they do one thing as much as they possibly can: promote.

“Promote, promote, promote,” he said. “Get people involved. Social media is a really big thing. Promoting is the key.”

Despite the success they’ve seen, one thing has remained constant: they are strictly a rock and roll band.

“That’s kind of our thing,” Deric said. “There are so many bands trying to corner themselves. You ask what genre it is, and they say like, six different subgenres.”

The band started on Halloween of 2009 when the Becker brothers were playing in their garage for the people passing by in their neighborhood. Ever since then, they’ve been putting out original music and playing shows around the STL area.

Prior to 1979, the band has released two EPs, “The T-Shirt EP” and “Do You Ever Think?”

The new album is composed of remastered tracks from the “Do You Ever Think?” EP, as well as a handful of new tracks recorded at the “Welcome To 1979” recording studio in Nashville, Tenn.

“Welcome To 1979” is a strictly analog studio, meaning there are no digital recording materials present. The band made the decision to record in analog to achieve a more vintage rock sound.

“The production is different, but the music is similar,” Deric said.

It took awhile for the band to get to this point, however. The band started out doing a lot of pay-to-play shows on the STL scene, where the artist plays shows without getting paid for the purpose of bringing people into the venue.

“We got noticed by doing that, because the venues liked what we did and invite us back,” Dylan said.

Deric said he is immensely proud of the new album, and has seen a lot of recent improvement in Decedy’s music output.

“I think that it was just kind of a maturing process of finally finding the writing ability and playing ability to write and record music that we’ve always wanted to write and record, we just didn’t have enough experience to go after it,” he said. “Now I think we do, and I’m excited about how these came out.”

Deric and his bandmates are highly anticipating the upcoming release party, where the new album will be performed in its entirety along with other songs.

The band has thrown a release party once before, for one of their EPs, but it wasn’t at this scale. The previous release party was attended by 50 to 75 people, while this one is expected to be attended by 200 to 300 fans.

“If you’ve never seen us as a band before and you’re only going to see us once, this is probably the show to see,” Deric said.

In fact, Deric said the party is more of an event than in ordinary show. In addition to Decedy’s performance, there will be a painter working on different pieces throughout the night, one of which will eventually be raffled. There also will be other bands performing on the bill and a comedian performing between the different acts.

As for Decedy’s performance, Deric said to expect the music to be put first and foremost, in lieu of over-the-top theatricality or special effects.

“From us, you’re going to see raw instruments onstage,” he said. “We’ve got a couple things for props, little things. But we’re not the band that has a big screen behind us or a lot of background effects or sounds or anything, so it’s just instruments and amps.”

Deric said that altogether he wants the party to be less of a show and more of an event.

“As a live show, it’s gonna be way more fun and there’s a ton of kids coming from our school already so it’s gonna be a party kind of thing,” he said.