Death from Above 1979 just released their first album in a decade, and judging from their current mindset the time between The Physical World and their next release will likely be much shorter. Jess F. Keeler recently spoke with Life and Times about the new record and how he got back together with bandmate Sebastien Grainger.
"I think for us in terms of timing the only thing we really ever worried about is just not being too late because I think we felt like if we didn't do this, then someone else would do it," Keeler said. "I don't know if that's a totally rational theory that we had or baseless or what-not, but we just [thought] if we don't do this, then someone else is gonna do this exact same thing.
"So, let's get it done first before somebody somehow does. Actually, I've learned since that, there have been other people who have been clearly influenced by our band in the past, which is flattering."
The duo had to work with a producer for the first time, and they selected Davy Sardy of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Oasis.
"Well, we had a shortlist of people we were considering going to, but Dave was always the first choice on my list just because he's worked on so many different things," Keeler said. "I guess our theory was that somewhere in the middle of all that maybe our band needed just a little bit of touch of Slayer, a little bit of the LCD Soundsystem, maybe a little bit of the Nine Inch Nails, or maybe, hey! — even a little bit of Oasis perhaps. Just little bits of everything that he's done — amongst all those things he's got the necessary power to work on us. I think it did."
The added voice during production was completely different for a band who self-produced 2004's You're a Woman, I'm a Machine.
"It was weird for us to work with a producer at all because generally we wouldn't receive that sort of instruction from anyone," Keeler said. "I think we both wanted to see what would happen if we did do it that way. Watching too many classic albums I guess, we were like, 'Well, this producer character seems like an important thing we should try to use at some point.' I think it did help a lot. He's very good at making things sound great without over-processing them."
And eventually the interview got down to some serious bromance.
"There's a handful of people in my life where I can tell them the things that I'm actually thinking about or interested in — just stuff that genuinely interests me," Keeler said. "Seb is one of those people that likewise I get the same from him. Someone pointed out that when we're on our own, we're one thing — we're all right. Then when we're together, suddenly our level of confidence goes through the roof. When we're together that's how we feel about everything. We've played in front of hostile crowds for so long. You either get really strong yourself or you become depressed or whatever. Our way of dealing with it, we're empowering all the time. We just become one person when it comes to the band."
