The Decadent Dayze on ‘Magical Dayze’ and Brighton’s Psychedelic Sundae
Brighton’s The Decadent Dayze discuss their long-awaited debut album, the folk influences behind ‘Down By The Water’ and the city’s thriving underground music scene.
It all began with an advert. In 2014, Lewis Aslan was looking for musicians in Brighton who shared his enthusiasm for garage punk and psychedelia. He hadn’t played seriously for some twenty years, and his vintage Fender guitars had become little more than museum pieces. A few replies later, The Decadent Dayze were taking shape. Their love of ’60s garage rock, freakbeat and English psychedelia has kept them busy ever since.
Their music draws on everything from Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd and The Kinks to the darker corners of British folk. Earlier this year, they released ‘Down By The Water’ as a limited 53-copy lathe-cut single, featuring two rather different interpretations of the same song. One has Aslan on vocals, while the other features Emma V Morton of Sairie, bringing something of the old English folk tradition to proceedings.
Now, after years of writing, gigging and the occasional line-up change, The Decadent Dayze are preparing their debut LP, ‘Magical Dayze’. Recorded with Julian Tardo at Church Road Studios in Hove between 2023 and 2026, the eight-track album is currently at the pressing plant, with artwork by Sara Gossett and Stephen O’Neill. A release is hoped for before the end of the year.
The band also help keep Brighton’s psychedelic scene alive through their Psychedelic Sundae events, which have brought together local groups and established names including The Bevis Frond. We caught up with them over the summer to talk about the band’s beginnings, old folk songs, recording in a former bank vault and the long road to their first album.
“Emma’s version sounded angelic while mine sounded demonic, which was exactly what we were after.”
You started the band by putting an advert out in Brighton. How did things develop from there?
The Dayze started when I placed an advert for like-minded people to form a band. I don’t have a copy of the original ad, but it did mention psych-rock and garage punk and I got a couple of replies. At the time I went to a lot of gigs in Brighton, but they were mostly bigger touring bands. I didn’t really know many local bands or musicians, hence the advert. The advert was the rabbit hole in many ways as it led to me learning more about the local scene and meeting more musicians. I hadn’t played seriously for about 20 years, and was slightly embarrassed that I had a couple of vintage Fenders that were more like museum pieces than musical instruments. One of the people who responded to the advert was Matt, and we were quickly introduced to Sean who played guitar and sang at the time. As well as playing bass, Matt wrote drum tracks in Logic, and the three of us spent over a year writing songs before playing our first gig. We managed to get a drummer just before the gig, and the band went through quite a few line-up changes before we stabilised in 2018, and Sean switched from guitar to drums. Matt left the band in 2016, but occasionally made guest appearances before he left Brighton prior to Covid. Unfortunately he passed away a few years ago, but I still owe him a lot for getting the band off the ground, as I didn’t have a clue at the beginning. I’ve been into psych, garage and freakbeat since I was a teenager in the 1980s, and it’s probably still my favourite genre of music, despite getting into lots of other stuff since then. Most of my songs start as simple tunes written on the guitar, but The Decadent Dayze have always managed to turn them into something more.
What was Brighton like for a band playing this sort of music back then?
Brighton is amazing when it comes to music, which is one of the reasons I moved here in the first place. Even before I formed the band I was going to lots of gigs, from big acts in The Brighton Dome down to experimental electronic nights in the back room of a pub. There is a constantly changing music scene, with literally hundreds of bands and probably over twenty decent venues. Bands have come and gone over those years, and sadly some venues have as well, but it’s still a vibrant scene with lots of different musical styles covered. I can’t remember there being a specific psychedelic scene in Brighton when we started, apart from the Lewes Psych Fest, but that’s a once a year thing. I remember that some of our early gigs were with acts that were stylistically quite different to us. However, being in a band has meant that I’ve met lots of local musicians, and I’m obviously drawn to the ones whose music I like. Psych Sundae has become a bit of a beacon for psych bands since it started. Partly because everyone wants to play in Brighton, but also because it’s very well regarded within the local scene. As a result, we get lots of bands contacting us wanting to play, or people suggesting suitable acts for the event. When I go to local gigs now I always think ‘would they fit well at Psych Sundae?’ if I see a new act I like. We’ve definitely added to the psych scene, and are really happy to be part of it as we get to play some great gigs.
What do you think makes a song sound like The Decadent Dayze?
That’s an interesting question, and one that’s difficult to answer being so involved in the band. Most of our songs start with me writing the basic tune on guitar and possibly adding some lyrics. I then present them to the band (Sean, Chris and Tris) and get them to play along. I totally trust them to do their own thing, and I hardly ever have to suggest that they change a part. We normally only argue about the structure and the speed of a song. All the band are into other musical styles apart from psych, and we’ve never deliberately tried to sound like one of the bands that have influenced us. We occasionally hear bits of our songs that remind us of something else, but generally we just think we sound like us. One of the great things about making music is getting other people’s opinion on it. We’ve been compared to some really excellent bands since we started, particularly after playing a live set. A recent highlight was one guy mentioning Syd Barrett while I was packing up my guitar and pedals. I’ve been obsessed by the early Floyd for about 40 years so was a bit taken aback, but obviously very pleased.
Shindig called you ‘Brighton’s guardians of the garage-psych grail’. How did you feel about that?
The Shindig quote came from a live review by Ben Graham, who we know from the Brighton scene. He’s a great journalist, and has written books about Texas Psych music and Pink Floyd, so it’s nice to know that he likes us. We were obviously happy with it, although it might just reflect the fact that we’ve been playing for over ten years. It’s hard to keep a band together for that long, and the Dayze have had several line-up changes over that time. The present line-up was established about five years ago when Tris joined on keyboards. Previously we had always had two guitarists, including myself, but the other guy left shortly after Tris joined and we decided not to replace him. The addition of keyboards has definitely given us more options musically, but I still love writing catchy psych songs so we find it relatively easy to keep the flame burning, as all good guardians should.
How did Psychedelic Sundae get started? Having The Bevis Frond on the bill in March must have been a special one.
The idea for Psych Sundae came about after I met up with a couple of guys from another band in 2018. We basically wanted to put on a psychedelic event featuring both bands and a psychedelic lightshow. Around the same time I discovered that there was a blossoming scene of much younger people making groovy music in Brighton, so we managed to get some other bands to play. After the first one went well we decided to make it an irregular event at the Green Door Store in Brighton, usually twice a year, and we’ve had no shortage of bands wanting to play since then. We’ve had loads of great bands play over the years including Rokurokubi, Wax Machine, Diamond Family Archive and The New Eves, but putting on The Bevis Frond was a wish come true. Brighton is a very important place for the UK music scene, as there are lots of venues and literally hundreds of bands. The psych scene is just one of many in Brighton, but it’s obviously the closest to my heart, and I’ve met a lot of cool people since I started putting on gigs in the city.
You recorded with Julian Tardo at Church Road Studios over several years. What were those sessions like?
For various reasons our sessions have been spread out quite a bit. We actually started recording with Julian in Summer 2023 and finished six tracks, including Emma’s version of DBTW, early the following year. Four tracks were issued on the 3,6,9 EP, and we didn’t return to the studio until late 2025. Eight more tracks, including the psych-rock version of DBTW were finished in Spring 2026. It’s quite obvious as soon as you enter Church Road that Julian knows what he’s doing. He’s been recording there in a former bank vault since 1996, so this is his 30th year, and the many records and CDs on the walls are only a fraction of the work he has done. All the tracks were recorded live with drums, bass, guitar, keyboards and guide vocals to start with. We rehearse regularly, so we usually managed to get a final version of each song in 2-3 takes. Most of the tracks we recorded had been played live before, so Julian didn’t feel the need to comment on their structure etc. Apart from the vocals, we only added a few overdubs to the tracks including clarinet, banjo and some extra guitar and keyboard bits. As well as Emma on vocals, we managed to get our friends Gregg McKella (Paradise 9), Francis Field (Moondrive 71) and Roger Johnson (Red River) to add some clarinet, guitar and banjo on certain songs. Julian did a great job mixing the tracks, and added quite a few vintage effects such as plate reverb. He seemed to enjoy making certain things as ‘psych’ as possible without overdoing it. We were extremely happy with the finished tracks, and I was personally very pleased with how the vocals turned out. It’s obviously taken us quite a while to complete all the recordings and have enough material for an album. This was partly due to other commitments (we all work full-time and are involved in other things), but also because we needed to spread the cost of the sessions. However, having checked my bank statements, we managed to finish 14 songs in 8 days, which is pretty good going.
‘Down By The Water’ came out in two versions, one with Emma V Morton singing and one with you on vocals. Did you have both versions in mind from the start?
When I wrote the song I had a woman’s voice in my head, possibly due to the subject matter, but also because I am a big fan of late 60s folk-rock bands such as Fairport Convention, Trees and Pentangle. It was written on acoustic guitar before I played it to the band, so had a folky vibe from the start I suppose. We know Emma through her band Sairie, who are a local band that have played at Psychedelic Sundae more than once. She sings and plays autoharp in Sairie, and has a very English folk voice that reminds me of Celia Humphris from Trees in particular. We were very happy when she agreed to record a vocal track, and also add some backing vocals to our song Nine Maidens. As expected, Emma’s vocals definitely gave the track a folky feel, which was added to by Tris’s restrained Mellotron, and Sean’s backing vocals. It was the first time I’d got someone else to sing one of my Decadent Dayze songs, and I was happy just to sit back and play some jangly rhythm guitar. We all loved the finished version when we heard it, but we didn’t include it on our 3,6,9 EP. Apart from one performance when Emma joined us on stage in Brighton, the song never became established in our live set and slowly got forgotten as we worked on new material. Fast forward to December last year when we returned to Church Road to record a load of new songs for a possible album. We knew we already had a couple of unreleased tracks from 2023 in the can, including Emma’s version of Down By The Water, but I thought it might be a good idea to do a remix with me on vocals and start playing it live again. I probably hadn’t sung it since Emma recorded her version, but I knew the track very well and it’s quite easy to sing. Julian used the basic track we recorded in 2023, and we added my (heavily effected) vocals, some extra guitar, and some new keyboards / synths. We wanted a more psych version, and when he was mixing the song Julian mentioned that Emma’s version sounded angelic while mine sounded demonic, which was exactly what we were after.
‘Down By The Water’ feels quite close to some of the darker old folk ballads. Where did the story come from?
I’ve always liked songs which are short stories, and The Kinks and The Who immediately spring to mind in that respect. Another influence is European folk music, and particularly those songs which moved around the British Isles and even westwards across to America. Some of my favourite songs are not only very old, but also have a supernatural element, such as Tam Lin (Fairport Convention) and Greenwood Sidee (Kaleidoscope). Down By The Water wasn’t based on a real place or event, but inspired by some of the darker folk songs I love, along with some of the imagery from films such as The Wicker Man, The Virgin Spring and Jan Svankmajer’s Alice. The story is quite simple, although I like the way it doesn’t resolve itself, and you don’t know if the spell will work. Even I don’t know, so maybe I should write a sequel.
What did Emma bring to the song, and how did the idea for the 53-copy single come about?
Emma’s voice certainly means that her version doesn’t sound like anything else we’ve done, as it is so different to mine or Sean’s. I think she found it quite easy to sing, and I feel it made the band play a little more laid back when we recorded the backing track, knowing that she was going to sing it. Julian definitely had to work some magic on the drums and bass for the psych-rock mix. Once we had recorded the two versions of Down By The Water we had the idea of releasing it as a 7”. We approached Phil Macy at 3.45RPM, who produces lathe cuts locally, and he kindly agreed to put it out on his Gardeners Delight label. All his GD releases are limited to 53 copies, for reasons only Phil knows. It’s our first proper release on vinyl, so we were very excited about that, and we’ve managed to sell quite a few copies, including some to the US and Europe. We were helped by a good review in Shindig and having it played on national radio (Stuart Maconie’s Freakzone – BBC6 Music).
The digital release also includes ‘Jack of Diamonds’. Was it The Charlatans’ recording that made you want to play it?
I’ve always loved The Charlatans’ version of Jack of Diamonds since that great compilation ‘The Amazing Charlatans’ came out years ago. I knew of a few other versions, but their one really got me. It’s such a great song, and I’ve since found out that it’s got a long history, especially when it incorporates ‘The Cuckoo’, like the Charlatans’ version does. We’ve kept the lyrics and structure pretty true to the Charlatans’ version, and got our friend Roger Johnson to add some banjo. It was in our live set for quite a while, then got dropped for some reason, and we’re now planning on reintroducing it. We played it recently at a practice session and all agreed that it’s fun to play. It also suits my voice really well. Traditionally we haven’t done many cover versions. In fact, in over ten years, I think we’ve only played Picture of Dorian Gray (Television Personalities), Wicked Annabella (The Kinks) and Cymbaline (Pink Floyd) live. That said, we are planning on doing a version of If You Want This Love of Mine (West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band) in the near future, but we’ve only just started working it.
After all these years, what made you decide it was finally time for a full album?
The band has written dozens of songs over the years, most of which we no longer play live. We’ve dropped some good songs in the past, but it always seems more exciting to work on new material, and these newer tracks then get added to the live set. The recording sessions at Church Road have been a really good experience for us, as we’ve managed to get more than enough tracks finished for an album. That has never happened before, partly due to line-up changes in the earlier days. The album will feature eight songs, all of which have been written since Tris joined the band. We’re really happy with the songs we have selected and think they will make two very enjoyable sides of music, as we always had vinyl in mind. I’m obviously hoping that people will like it when it’s released, and that they’d see that the band can vary quite a bit from track to track, in a good way. It’s all quite psychedelic but we think the songs show a range of different sounds and styles. It’ll be interesting to see what people think.
When you answered these questions in July, the album artwork was still being finished. What else did you have planned at that point?
We are currently waiting for the final artwork for the album and will then be looking to release it by the end of the year. Sara Gossett is working on the front cover design at the moment, and we’re hoping to get the full colour version soon. We’ve contacted a couple of labels who put out similar stuff to see if they’d be interested, but if we don’t hear back from them we will probably self-release it. It’s a bit quiet on the gig front at the moment, although we are playing in Brighton at the end of July, and have our next Psych Sundae lined up for 11th October. We’re always looking for decent gigs to play and are hoping that the single will get our name out there, so we get asked to play more. Apart from that, we are still rehearsing regularly, writing new material, and enjoying it.
Klemen Breznikar
The Decadent Dayze Website / Bandcamp
