On Thursday evening all of you early bird ticket holders will be heading to Leicester for the special acoustic performances and a special from Saint Raymond and Airways, amongst others. Today we chat with Max from Nottingham alt-indie duo Deco.
This year has been one hell of a year for Max and John and there’s still six months left of 2019. There has been singles ‘Rain’ and ‘Don’t Waste Your Time’, UK tours galore and they have just finished performing at Y Not and Truck festivals, as well as a huge support slot with Jess Glynne.
Singer Max said: “This year has been pretty pivotal, to be honest. We supported Kovic on tour early this year and played our biggest headline shows to date in spring… and there’s still so much more to come.
“By the end of this year we’ll have been on five tours if you include the festival run. We’ve known Casey for a while now and also co-wrote a single coming out later this year with him – we can’t wait to join those guys on the road.
“Supporting Jess Glynne was unreal. Scarborough Open Air Theatre was such a huge place for us to play but we really felt at home on such a big stage. It was amazing to meet so many new fans too who hopefully will stick around for the rest of our journey.”
Last year Deco performed at 110 Above Festival to a packed out Old Town Hall set (see video below), the simple question is, Max what can you do to top this?
“Well that would be telling!” laughed Max. “We’re doing a full Deco live set complete with smooth moves in the Old Town Hall on Saturday afternoon and then we’re doing what has become a signature 80’s inspired acoustic set in the Gopsall Inn that night.
“It was rammed last year so we can’t wait to be back. Expect 80’s bangers, singalong moments and maybe some old Deco tunes that’s all I’m gonna say.”
We hope you all are packed and ready to hit the road on Friday but like we have done with all of our interviewees, we’ve asked them what their top festival essentials are.
“Got to be sun cream this year hasn’t it?” stated Max. “Nothing worse than waking up on Monday with a serious hangover and red itchy patches, no one wants that. Oh, hang on… The bum bag is the in thing this year?”
Before coming on stage we asked APRE if they had a pre-gig warmup or ritual to which they said “it’s all about the love”. For Deco, Max said it was listening to ABBA in the van.
He said: “I’ll normally go through some vocal warm-ups and get myself in the zone but there’s no rituals as such. We always have a tour van ritual of listening to ABBA’s greatest hits on the first day of a run of shows.. but before the show, we’re all just pretty keen to get on the stage and do our thing so you can probably find us backstage doing some stretches and drinking Fosters!”
If you’re reading this and you’ve never listened to Deco or seen them perform live, Max said their favourite songs to play live including latest single ‘Rain’.
“Our latest single ‘Rain’ was definitely fun supporting Jess Glynne as Lula joined us on stage to play the saxophone in it. But traditionally it’s been ‘Chances’ It’s the one people are most likely to know of ours and everyone can have a lil boogie to it.”
And you might even see Max and John in the crowd having a lil boogie themselves with the many other acts performing. “We always seem to know quite a few of the bands that play 110 Above,” Said Max. “But this year we’ll definitely be checking out our pals Casey Lowry, Marsicans, Only the Poets and Spinn who are playing straight after us. We’re in great company for sure. Also a big fan of Flyte!”
Follow ICM on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for updates on all the action at 110 Above including exclusive video interviews. In the meantime, get yourself to grips with Deco’s tunes below.
