Declan Welsh on how politics influences his songwriting

Ahead of the release of the debut EP from Declan Welsh & The Decadent West, we speak to the group's frontman about the inextricable links between politics and his songwriting

Feature by Claire Francis | 30 May 2018

Singer, songwriter and poet Declan Welsh, who hails from East Kilbride, has a particularly sharp way with words. With his band The Decadent West (a moniker chosen for its alliterative quality), they make rousing indie guitar music that unapologetically tackles sticky political issues and social norms. While many musicians would baulk at the idea of having their art and their political views so closely entwined, for Welsh, that's exactly how he likes it.

"I think – it might be quite presumptuous to say this, and people can disagree – every single bit of art is inherently political," he states firmly. We're a couple of beers into our chat at Glasgow's Stereo bar, having firstly discussed Welsh's musical background ("Basically I'm half as good a footballer as my dad, and half as good a singer as my mum, so I'm quite a good footballer and a pretty good singer") and influences which range from politically-charged acts like Billy Bragg and Rage Against the Machine, to more straight up rock'n'roll fare. "Muse and Arctic Monkeys, I was obsessed with [both] when I was younger. I stand by Muse's first three – maybe three-and-a-half – albums," he laughs.

Welsh began writing songs for acoustic guitar and after deciding the songs needed a band behind them "I created a band while playing the stuff I had written... and it was okay, but then we changed the line-up and started writing songs for a band. So there's no song in the set now that's more than a year-and-a-half old." Now, as Declan Welsh & The Decadent West (comprised of Duncan McBride, Ben Corlett and Jamie Holmes) the group release their debut EP All My Dreams Are Dull on 1 June.

The EP was recorded at 7 West Studios in Glasgow's city centre. "The biggest thing was the attention to detail," says Welsh. "We wanted to go with them because we sound quite different to a lot of the bands they produce. We are slightly different in that we're not straight up punk. There's a couple of different sides to us." The energetic collection of tracks showcases the group's reverby guitar-driven sound with nods to Alex Turner in Welsh's smooth vocal delivery while channeling the wry poetic charm of the likes of Courtney Barnett (whom Welsh cites as another major inspiration).

With Welsh, it's hard to get away from politics though. He's admirably fiercely outspoken about what he believes in, both through his songwriting and via other means of protest. When Welsh and co released the video for their track Nazi Boys – which depicts a retaliatory attack on a right-wing activist – YouTube temporarily blocked it on the grounds that it ‘incites violence.'

Back in 2016, Welsh travelled to Palestine to perform at Bet Lahem Live festival: "Bethlehem and Glasgow are twinned cities!" Welsh explains. "Who knew, right?" Then, ahead of Radiohead’s performance at Glasgow's TRNSMT festival last year, Welsh penned an open letter online urging people to boycott the band ahead of their planned concert in Tel Aviv: “If you can’t stomach a boycott then I understand [...] Take the biggest fucking Palestine flag you can find and make sure it gets on telly," he wrote. 

"The people of Israel are much like the people of anywhere else," he says. "They're barely complicit in the government's actions. How much control do we have over the actions of the UK government? Very little.

"Playing Tel Aviv is different to playing New York, because [in Tel Aviv] you're a political pawn. You could go to the US and say 'Fuck Trump' on stage and nothing would happen to you. If you played in Tel Aviv and went 'Fuck Netanyahu and Fuck Israel' then there would be a whole fucking world of pain coming your way."

Discussing what makes a band political, Welsh muses: "I think any band that's talking about being fae a council estate is a political act. Because that's not a thing that's talked about in mainstream discourse. If you're talking about fucking feeling alienated, depressed or being sad, that's not a thing you're meant to talk about so that becomes a political act. I think that fewer and fewer bands now are allowed to be apolitical."

In Scotland, Welsh also agrees that people are reluctant, as he puts it "to be earnest about anything." Given the outspoken politics of both his songs and his personal views, does Welsh ever worry about coming across as a sanctimonious Bono/Bob Geldof figure? Once he's finished laughing, Welsh stresses that "there has been no point where I deliberately set out to be a 'political singer.' It's just what I write about. If something does my head in I write about it. Whether it's about friendship or the Spanish Civil War, it's all the same thing. It's all just the thoughts in your head."


All My Dreams Are Dull is released on 1 Jun
Declan Welsh performs pieces from his debut book of poetry If You Like That Sort of Thing at Drygate, Glasgow, 18 Jun; Basement Theatre, Edinburgh, 19 Jun; Solas Festival, Tibbermore, 23 Jun

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