Revitalised & Fighting Fit, Descendents Are Ready To Bring 'Hypercaffium Spazzinate' Down Under

"We always have a blast when we come to Australia — and in fact this will be our third time there since we started touring again. Australia was one of the first places we toured when we got together as a band again, and I remember that first time I actually lost my voice. Even on the second tour I was struggling a bit — this time around though I'm in much better shape. When I rehearse now I mimic the live situation — so I'm much better prepared and ready to go."

"I'm actually not an attention seeking person — I'm really shy — and that's the irony of the whole situation."

As Milo Aukerman alludes, for many years Descendents were an off and on proposition. Fast forward to 2017 and Descendents are firing on all cylinders. "I don't work as a research scientist anymore so I can concentrate on the band full-time," explains Aukerman. "Also [drummer] Bill [Stevenson]'s health is much better than it was — so the roadblocks that were there for the band have pretty much gone. We still all work around things like having families, but now we can play a lot more shows and hopefully put out a new record in the next few years. Our fans deserve new music — and I should say that we've already started writing songs for a new record — so it's really exciting."

With an extensive back catalogue behind them, putting a setlist together is always challenging for Descendents. But according to Aukerman the perfect recipe is a little bit of everything. "We like to play something from all the periods of the band going right back to 1981 and the Fat EP. Obviously we also have the new record out and we plan on playing several songs from that record — they've been going down really well over the last six months."

When the Descendents began in 1977 it was a fertile time for punk rock. Bands like Black Flag were tearing up the rule book with a raw and frightening brand of punk that quickly became known as 'hardcore'. Descendents, however, delivered a high-intensity sound that relied on melody rather than distortion — and joy rather than anger. Aukerman credits a very unlikely source for this approach.

"Both Bill and I were huge Beatles fans," he reveals. "There was also a band that started around the time Black Flag did called The Last, who were doing a harder-edged punk rock version of the Beatles. That really left a big impression on us because we loved the aggression of the punk movement but we also wanted to write melodic music."

Aukerman isn't just 'the singer' of the band. He's also the mascot, his bespectacled visage graces pretty much every Descendents record cover and a bucketload of band merchandise. How does Aukerman feel about being a punk rock visual icon? "It was never my plan to be the 'face' of the band," laughs Aukerman. "We are very collegiate as a band but if anyone is really the band leader it's Bill, not me. Actually, it was Bill's idea to take the cartoon of me that a classmate of ours had drawn and put it on the Milo Goes To College album. We try to move away from that face whenever possible," he laughs, "but when it comes down to it, it's a cool, simple drawing that sticks in people's head. I'm actually not an attention seeking person — I'm really shy — and that's the irony of the whole situation."