Decius Trax: The Ransom Note Mix
We have your nightclub. We have your DJ box. We have thirty-six tracks, and most of them have no names because names are for records that want to be found.
This is Decius Trax – the loose, sweaty, pressure-relief side of a band that otherwise runs on pure discipline. The album project blends Lias’s voice into something unique; this is the other thing, the vehicle, the late-night chop shop where old cassettes get squeezed through the Decius filter until they come out the other side as someone else’s record wearing a new coat. Live jams, minimal tinkering, heads banging on the assumption that yours will too.
Most of what’s here you’ve never heard, because most of it was never meant to leave the DJ box. Untitled. Unreleased. Numbered like ransom demands instead of songs, because the numbering is the point – roman numerals climbing toward a second vinyl mini-album, a whole Pantone chart still to get through, no plan to stop until it tips into ridiculousness.
Don’t remix it with AI. Don’t expect liner notes on the next one either. Just make them, play them.
Track list and read the room – it’ll come with you eventually. It always does.
Decius Trax is a different beast to the band. For anyone coming to it fresh – what is it, who’s involved, and why does it exist separately?
Decius Trax is a RECORD LABEL, but it is mostly really a vehicle for our non-album DECIUS tracks. It is mainly Luke & Liam making the Decius Trax music. Our albums, DECIUS Vol I, Vol II & soon to be completed Vol III, all sit in quite a unique spot in the world, due to vocalist Lias blending his quite unique approach with ours. Decius Trax is LOOSE & is strictly cuts for the dance-floor & the DJ box. DECIUS the band is pure DISCIPLINE & is loosely for the stage & for the Hi Fi. But they all end up being part of the same thing. Parallels. From the beginning we’ve had this desire to create a version of a kind of imaginary night-time, nightclub, nightlife musical world for ourselves & open the doors to whoever wants to come in.
EP VII came out Friday. The last one made Disco Pogo’s top 25 releases of the year. At what point did you realise the Trax side had taken on a life of its own?
It was straight away really. I think you can tell it’s mostly DJs buying the Decius Trax stuff somehow. & it was always meant to have a life of it’s own too. It’s like a pressure relief valve in a way.
When you DJ as Decius, the set is made up almost entirely of your own unreleased Trax material. That means most of the room is hearing it for the first time, every time. What does that feel like from behind the decks – and does the crowd know that’s what’s happening?
I doubt that many people in the room realise that’s actually what’s happening, no. It’s not exactly obvious, or common knowledge at this stage, so probably only those who are really paying attention to the small print would know. That’s ok though. It seems like they can tell that the whole night has it’s own sound & feel, so it all fits in together & doesn’t sound like anyone else. People react like they know stuff already a lot of the time too & from behind the decks it feels good! We’ve always made music first & then just followed where it takes us. This whole thing is essentially just us dreaming up our night-club musical sweet spot & then flushing it out HARD.
Making records specifically for DJs and the dancefloor is a different discipline to making an album. Where does one mindset end and the other begin, and do they ever bleed into each other?
There is occasional crossover in that sometimes an album track just falls into place, but the main difference is the freedom to go with live takes with Decius Trax. We tend to make tracks via live jams, but although the album material mostly starts like that, it often ends up getting a lot more involved, as it’s blending the song elements with the musical jam and getting that to flow and sound free & working together can sometimes take a bit of doing. The Decius Trax music can just find it’s own way and often we just put out what we’ve recorded from a jam with very minimal tinkering. If our heads are BANGING, we assume everyone else’s will too and out it goes.
The Trax EPs are mostly functional objects – made to be played, not just listened to. Do you ever finish one and think it’s too good to give away in a DJ set?
Nah, they’re all made to be played. MAKE them. PLAY them.
What’s the worst thing a DJ could do with one of your records?
Remix it using AI.
Disco Pogo top 25. Does that kind of recognition change how you approach the next one, or is it better not to know?
No not at all. It’s nice to have that kind of GLORY, but it doesn’t change how we approach anything. We just do what we feel like & what we’re into at the time.
You’re playing music that the room has almost certainly never heard before, by a name they might only know from a completely different context. How long does it take for the room to feel like it comes with you?
Luckily, so far we always seem to play in places that are pretty open & receptive to what we’re doing, so it’s pretty much good from the off. Maybe we need to get out of our comfort zone. Seek out a CHALLENGE.
The EPs have been coming steadily – what’s the discipline behind that, and is there a point where you’d stop numbering them and call it something else?
I’m not sure there is much discipline other than a need to keep making music ALL THE TIME. I quite like the idea of sticking with roman numerals until it moves into ridiculousness… We have the whole pantone range of colours to get through too… . We’re certainly going to lead up to a 2nd vinyl mini album (to follow up the first EPs I-V release), once we’ve got to EP X. Then we’ll see what we want to do from there.
What record – by anyone else – do you wish you’d made for the Trax label, and what would it have sounded like on your system?
The thing is, quite a few of the tracks we put out on Decius Trax ARE pretty much other people’s records. Bits of them anyway, from old cassettes & stuff that we’ve chopped up squeezed through our Decius filters. So when we do next come across that record we wish we’d made, we’ll probably just go ahead & do that again.
Is there an EP in the catalogue that didn’t land the way you expected? With hindsight, were you wrong or was the room?
No, but sometimes a track 3 will turn out to be way more popular than we expected. Artists aren’t always the best at picking their HITS. But if someday, we do indeed fail, I’m certain we’ll blame the room. . .
What’s something about the Decius Trax side of things that hasn’t been written about yet, and probably should be?
That we try and provide something acid, something disco & some kind of curve ball on each release. Although some may think they’re all curve balls. Also, that our DJ set-up includes a drum machine & a custom delay & filter. We use this to ensure there is always that extra bit of SPICE & CHAOS. It’s in this DJ mix too.
What’s coming that you’re actually excited about?
The shows are getting truely WILD at the moment. So, all the new shows that are coming up & we’re excited about the next couple of EPs. We’ve recorded the main tracks for them both and they sound LUSH. We’re also planning an all night long Decius Trax event. Just looking into venues in London at the moment for that. It’ll be a DJ booth thing, rather than stage thing, but with a bit of everything musically. Including a lot of stuff that’s improvised on the spot. So, as you can see, we’re working HARD
What’s the question you were hoping we’d ask?
Would you like us to pay for your studio to have air conditioning fitted?
Decius Trax VII is out now… stream here:
Tracklisting (all tracks by Decius):
36. Body Office (Decius Trax EP VII)
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