RTL Talks: Death from Above 1979

Rock the Lake will shake Prospera Place from Aug. 11 to 13.

Ahead of the show, 104.7 The LIZARD, 103.1 Beach Radio, and Kelowna10 will be the place to be for all things RTL - from exclusive interviews to ticket giveaways!

Among the bands taking the stage is Death from Above 1979 on Friday night.

The Canadian rock duo, composed of bassist Jesse F. Keeler and drummer/vocalist Sebastien Grainger, has been making waves in the music scene since their formation in 2001.

Known for their high-energy, high-volume sound influenced by punk, hard rock, and dance music, their music is a captivating blend of raw power and infectious rhythms. With their latest album "Is 4 Lovers" released, the band continues to captivate audiences with their electrifying performances.

Ryan, from 104.7 The LIZARD, sat down and spoke Grainger.

Below is a condensed and edited version of the interview.

Ryan: How many times have you performed in the Okanagan?

Sebastien: Only a handful. We played there once back in the day. We were in Vancouver, and we got our van broken into and then we drove to Kelowna with a garbage bag for a passenger side window, that I remember. I also remember playing there one time with Billy Talent and we were making the video for Blood on Our Hands. It's like back in 2004. So, we had to fly off tour and fly back to Kelowna and they lost our luggage. So, we had to play with some borrowed equipment. But those are all the memories where something went wrong.

R: Well, we're hoping that's not going to be the case. You mentioned borrowed equipment specifically, how do you perform a show when it's somebody else's gear?

S: I mean, we're a very gear dependent band because as a two piece, the sound is everything, you know? It's like it's the songs filtered through the sound, so it's pretty challenging. We don't really do it. We don't do it anymore. You know, we did. That was like we had to do something there. And we played one time in Las Vegas with The Stills from Montreal. We played on their gear and that was just brutal. So, we never really did it again, you know? It’s like wearing someone else's clothes.

R: Yeah, exactly, you get that weird feeling in your head. Now I know the two of you. You've came up with some pretty wild stories on how you'd met. What's the wildest story that you've ever told?

S: Probably that we met on a pirate ship. People haven't asked us how we met in a long time. I don't even remember how we met. The fiction and the reality are kind of blended into one at this point.

R: When you when you're writing a song, do you do you add lyrics? I always thought it was incredible. You hear about some musicians, they'll write lyrics and put music to the words that just I don't understand that. How do you write a song?

S: It depends on it depends on what I'm writing for. In general, it’s music first and then words after. But the words will come easier if there is the nucleus of an idea already. So I'll have like a notebook or, now I just do it on my phone, and so once I have once we have the music and I kind of sit down in front of a microphone and try a couple of things and whatever hooks in me the fastest is usually the best thing. And then I'll kind of go through my concepts, document it and see if any of the words that I kind of scattered will match with some of the ideas. And then lately they kind of write themselves in that way. You know, the lyrics kind of come pretty easily for me at this point.

R: You guys are well known for just the energy that you bring. How do you keep up that energy as a two piece? Like I understand in the studio, you can just keep layering as much as you want, but as a two piece live, how do you bring all that energy?

S: We've always played too hard and too loud, and that's pretty much the whole deal. When we started, we were very confrontational because we started in the punk rock hardcore scene, which in it, you know, it's kind of by its nature is a little bit aggressive because you're so close to the audience. Starting out as a band, we were trying to prove ourselves, I suppose, and especially when we started playing on rock stages and playing as an opening band where we felt like people didn't actually want us to be there. And so we would play very fast and very hard and very loud, almost as a F-you, in a sense, to the audience being like, Well, you don't want us here because you're waiting for the Foo Fighters or Billy Talent or whoever it is, you know, Anthrax or the Yeah Yeah Yeahs or whoever we opened for back in the day. And so, we would play in a very confrontational manner. And that carried over to a certain extent, although we've stopped playing as fast because it's too much man.

R: How do you feel about fans checking out a band setlist before they go to a show?

S: Oh, I don't care. They can do whatever they want. What does it matter to me? I mean, if you're not into being excited, then that's fine. It's easy to decode what our setlist will be. It's pretty much what the last one was. Or if you look at like the set length, if we're expected to play 60 minutes, look for a 60 minute set from somewhere this year, that's probably what we'll play.

R: I know that yourself and Jesse, you have experimented with so many different kinds of genres and everything. Is there anything that you haven't touched that you'd like to?

S: I mean, I have secret fantasies, but those are private. That's my private life, guy. I'm not going to tell you about that. There are things that I would like to do musically that are probably never going to happen in my lifetime because I'm too old. But I would have loved to be at like a great operatic tenor in my lifetime. But it's too late for that for me. I mean, maybe if I really, really focus now, I can become that in my sixties. But it's one of those things that takes real practice and real dedication.

R: Do you remember the first time you ever heard yourself on the radio?

S: Yes, I do. I remember it was on 102.1 The Edge in Toronto. I knew that it was going to happen because our label at the time kind of gave us a heads up and I thought it sounded good, but I thought, oh, we could improve that.

R: What would you like the good people of Kelowna and the rest of the Okanagan to know before next Friday when you guys are headlining Friday night at Rock the Lake?

S: My hope is that people come to the show, and they leave their phones in their back pockets, and they just experience the moment with the people around them and don't take any videos or photos because they're going to look like total garbage and you're never going to look at them and no one's ever going to look at them. So yeah, just be there for the moment and for yourself and no one else. That's what I want. I can't wait to play it, I'm excited. This is going to be a great show and nothing bad is going to happen. No van break ins, no lost luggage. You know, no foreshadowing. I'll be handsome, it'll be great.