The Death from Above 1979 Interview

Ten years after their explosive debut album, Death From Above 1979 get back together to release the high-stakes follow-up, ‘The Physical World.’It’s already been 10 years since Toronto’s Death From Above 1979 erupted from the city’s underground with their explosive debut albumYou’re A Woman, I’m A Machine. Packed with pounding dream beats and the kind offervorous bass lines that sound like a hacksaw cutting through sheet metal, the album was 35 sweaty, libido-charged minutes of sarcastically delivered human desperation; in short, it was pure electricity.Despite having only released one full-length album prior to their break-up a mere two years later in 2006, DFA’s rabid cult following has only continued to grow. When news of a long-awaited second album, The Physical World, broke in early 2014, it became clear that no love has been lost, and that not even a decade has lessened expectations for the follow up.

We spoke with Jesse F. Keeler (bass, synths, backing vocals) and Sebastien Grainger (vocals and drums) in Toronto recently to find out what prompted the pair to finally write a follow-up to 2004’s You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine, what it was like to work together again, and at what point they have to take a step back and watch the album take on a life of its own.