Western Australia punks The Decline talk "Brovine" video

"How else will they get their protein?"

Western Australia punks The Decline are currently prepping for the release of their new album Flash Gordon Ramsey Street, so naturally, they're quite busy. The band have just announced a brand new Australian tour through October with Nerdlinger that will see the band hit all the major cities through Australia on a 12-date trek. But before the all of this madness, we spoke to guitarist and vocalist Ben Elliott about their animated music video for the Vegan-anthem "Brovine", a song about sticking it to the meatheads and meatlovers of the world.

The track is just one of the great tunes on their brand new album- an album that is chock-filled with concise, up-tempo, no-frills skate punk that will entertain as much as it contemplates the lives of young punks in Australia and the world.

How did the idea for the video come together?

Elliott: I think the idea for the video came together pretty organically. The song definitely has some purposeful imagery and Fox worked really well with it and understood where the whole thing was coming from.

Did you guys have ideas to do a live-action video or was it always going to be animation?

Elliott: I don’t know about everybody else, but personally, I’ve always wanted to be animated. We really wanted to explore a few different ways of doing videos and we’re big Fox fans. We thought animation for this could go a number of different and exciting ways, so it just made sense to us.

The song is about standing up to abuse and the culture that surrounds it. How important was the message to the concept of the video and how did you want it portrayed?

Elliott: The song and the concept of the video really go hand in hand. A long time ago, I decided that I couldn’t continue being part of a system that (without good reason) views living beings as means to our own ends. You often get some ridiculous and irrational responses when you tell people you care about the rights of animals - these are often rooted in all sorts of notions that don’t make a lot of sense to me.

The video was done by Fox at X-Ray Studios- have you guys worked with him before? How did you guys end up with Fox?

Elliott: Fox has done a bunch of artwork for us and we’re big fans of his art. The idea of doing this video with him was a really exciting prospect.

What was the process of creating the video like- were you guys there for the storyboarding and how it would play out or was the idea presented to you as a completed concept?

Elliott: We had an idea of us as vigilante vegetable eaters being harassed by the “protein police”. What followed from that definitely related to the nonsensical ways people often respond to others not eating animals. Fox really helped this come to life and turned it in to something bigger.

Was “Brovine” the natural choice for the first single/video?

Elliott: It was the third choice! The first single/video we released from the album was “Verge Collection” and then we did “The More You Know”, which, although a 30-second song that may seem like a teaser, is actually a true representation of the sorts of musicians we are - easily distracted.

The Decline's new album, Flash Gordon Ramsey Street, is out August 30th on Pee Records, Thousand Islands Records, Disconnect Disconnect Records. Photo by John Goodridge Photography.