USER:THE1CREATOR THE APRIL DECCA

The April Decca is a Folk/Pop/Experimental band formed in 1977. The band has consisted of one single singer/writer/player, E. Olaph Gamlem (vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards), for the entirety of its existence. Though not extremely well known, the band has played a number of gigs centered around the Washington D.C. area over the past three decades and the drolling "One, two, three, four...." of a slightly inebriated sounding E. Olaph at the start of most of the bands' songs is enough to drive hardcore fans into a mad frenzy. The most recent showing of The April Decca was at the Capital Fringe Festival in July of 2009.

Band History

The April Decca was created on May 2, 1977 in protest over the election of George W. Bush to office. The exact origin of the name is unknown. When asked, the band's creator stated "I liked April and I liked Decca records" and he denies any allegations that the band's title is linked to one time girlfriend and sometime accompanying vocalist April Harris. And so The April Decca was created.

In 2005 The April Decca released When It's May, its first complete album. Shortly before its release the band made available two songs from the upcoming album and included a cover where the following band story was listed:

"the april decca fucking hates you. seriously. you probably hate the april decca too. but, if your a fan, the april decca loves you. Why? because you will give us money for merchandise. you will give us money to play at your house. you will listen through songs played on pitch-fucked guitars accompanied by out of tune vocals. you fucking love the april decca." [1]

It is noteworthy that not once in this narrative, written by E. Olaph Gamlem himself, is the band's name capitalized. This led to a furious debate by fans over whether this narrative was the correct form of the band's name or if the album cover itself, which showed a capitalized name, was in fact correct. Proponents for capitalization pointed to poor punctuation and the inability to distinguish between "your" and "you're" in the narrative as indications of a careless author who had simply forgotten to capitalize the band name in this one instance. Advocates of decapitalization however considered this an intentional effort on E. Olaph Gamlem's part to emphasize his knocking of the establishment and declared it perfectly in tune with his overall attitude of disgust toward even the most ardent fans, at least until they opened their purses. Along with this cover was a news clip, also written by Gamlem, which stated:

hello. yea this is yet another useless marketing too. I'm a whore. but apparently if you download my songs I get paid. so chop chop. I will probably have exclusive stuff here often so you can pay me money for my awesomeness. work on the upcomming ep "When it's may" is happenig. I think you'll be able to buy it here if you want. so come back soon (seriously) and check it out.

Again the conflict between the first-only capitalization of the album title vs. the more typical capilization of every word when the album was released led to much debate among fans. Also notable in this news clip is the singer's disgust even with himself in submitting to the typical marketing scheme. This type of rigid adherence to a code of ethics, even to the extent of decrying himself rather than touting his new album, is characteristic of The April Decca's extreme edge and absolute sense of integrity. Fans went wild.

Shortly thereafter, When It's May was released to thunderous applause.

The April Decca continues to put out singles periodically to this day.

Band Mythology

While a seemingly straightforward band, there is a whole host of mythology surrounding The April Decca. Foremost among these stories is the question as to the true identity of E. Olaph Gamlem. While there is never any outright statement of being other than he is, every single picture associated with the band is taken in such a way as to obscure at least part of the subject's face. On the band's unofficial website the picture shows a jumping person whose head is moving and thus too blurry to actually make out. The cover of When It's May depicts a person lying down in a bed with the covers and a pair of large sunglasses hiding the face of the person in the picture (purported to be E. Olaph). Other such pictures include one in which a cat's head covers the lower half of the pictured person's face and another in which the hood of a hoodie sweatshirt covers the upper half of the face.

All of these seemingly odd coincidences have led fans to speculate as to the true identity of The April Decca's creative genius. Some suggest a dark alter ego or alternative personality is the real heart of The April Decca, others claim a totally unknown person is working behind the scenes here, and a third group of fans decry such suggestions as fallacy. A very small fourth group claims the music has connections to the cat pictured. While no evidence has been found to support any irregularities concerning the identity of The April Decca's creator, the debate rages on.