Death From Above 1979 has spent the last year taking the indie scene by storm. The bass and drums punk duo plays a thrashy mix of guitar squalls and danceable grooves. The name gives you the general idea that the band is probably not too interested in emotions or warm, fuzzy topics, but you couldn’t be further from the truth. Voice Leisure interviewed drummer/singer Sebastian Grangier and asked him about how the band’s debut album, You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine, came about.
“The studio became this weird therapeutic area,” Grangier said. “We’d put a pause on the mixes and fucking jam all night. In the end … we were these record machines, and we had these women in our lives who were getting neglected. It reflects a time when it became difficult to balance our new lives.”
Grangier and bassist Jesse F. Keeler seem about as easygoing as can be. Perhaps this is only because we talked with the soft-spoken Grangier while he was on tour.
“On show days I tend to be economical because I know I’m going to do something crazy for an hour, you know?” he explained when asked about his surprisingly laid back personality.
You’re a Woman was released last October, and the band was in D.C. Tuesday night rocking out in support of the LP. Loaded with heavy riffs, high-pitched lyrics and the occasional cowbell, the music is danceable, but it really wants to talk about relationships and get romantic. The worst you could say about the album is that it’s derivative and a little monotonous, but it’s hard to let hang-ups like that get in the way of enjoying the sheer fun of the music.
Songs like “Turn it Out” and “Sexy Results” showcase the album’s trademark sexiness, but it’s not like the strutting glam-rock libido of new artists like Louis XIV or even the dark menace of The Kills. Instead, it’s the reptilian seduction of the guy who sidles across the dance floor and whispers dirty nothings in your ear-but when he gets you home, all he wants to do is cuddle.
“You were expecting ‘yeah man, we fuck chicks all the time, we’re sex machines? On the road, rock and roll, man?’” Grangier asked when we talked about the strange dichotomy. He went on to mention how the tour van stopped in California’s redwood forest so they could run around the sequoia trees.
The band is originally from Vancouver, where the two members played in a different band before forming DFA 1979. After an unsuccessful attempt to put out a record in Los Angeles, the band returned to Canada and laid down roots with local management, before being signed by record label Vice. Infamous for the outrageous hipster style of its magazine, the label caught the band unawares.
“They’re not a ridiculous label,” Grangier explained. “The magazine is ridiculous, but the operation behind it is a steady, successful, steadfast business. Walking into the office and not getting spit on really surprised me. People who write ‘pink is the new black, brown is the new pink,’ work across the room from the person who is marketing our record. It’s a really interesting dynamic.”
The band will start work on a new album this summer, but for now they are concentrating on touring through May. They aren’t really plugged into the music scene given their busy schedule, or they’d probably be disgusted by how much the White Stripes’ new single blatantly rips them off.
“People ask me what three bands I’d like to see in a show; I say I’d like to stay at home and make some rice,” Grangier said. “I go to a concert every night … we don’t try to fake it, every time we do it, it’s authentic and during the day, I know I’m playing tonight.”
