For brash Canadian rock 'n' roll duo Death From Above 1979, the road to maximum impact has always been paved with as few elements as possible: drums, vocals, a bit of synth, and some wildly athletic and fuzzed-out bass guitar.
Bassist Jesse Keeler and drummer/vocalist Sebastien Grainger came out of the gate swinging in 2004 with their debut LP, You're a Woman, I'm a Machine, a record that proved the band's mix of unexpectedly sparse instrumentation, danceable rhythms, highwire vocals, and grimy, hardcore punk sonics to be a tremendously compelling sound. The duo imploded shortly after that album's release, but the waves created on that record would ripple long after the split as DFA 1979's legend grew.
Death From Above 1979 - One + One (Official Music Video)
When Keeler and Grainger regrouped in 2011 and set about recording their sophomore effort, The Physical World, there was tremendous pressure to nurture and preserve the sound of that first album in order to avoid alienating the fanbase they'd harnessed in their time away. Keeler explains, "When we started playing again in 2011, this idea of Death From Above was an external thing that had lived without us, so we came back to it not wanting to screw that up. We were working in service to this thing that had lived without us. That's exactly how the producers felt, so we had those producers to keep us being that band."
The Physical World, produced by Dave Sardy, made good on the band's intentions to hone the brutal dance-punk sound that made the band's debut such a smash, and the group's 2017 Eric Valentine–produced effort, Outrage! Is Now, opted to stick to a similar program. Rather than tread water for a fourth release, DFA 1979 has returned with a decidedly playful new record entitled Is 4 Lovers, which brings a new, defiant flavor to the band's discography.
"I have riff diarrhea. I have riff IBS and I just can't shut it off!" —Jesse Keeler
Is 4 Lovers takes listeners on a turbulent trip straight to the center of Keeler and Grainger's musical psyche. The record feels not unlike a sweaty, blistering live set as their dancy churn and gritty sonics remain intact, especially on tracks such as "Totally Wiped Out," and the two-part "N.Y.C. Power Elite." Elsewhere, songs like "Glass Homes" and "No War" show a new level of maturity in the band's sound as the combative edge that lined their past efforts has been replaced by a heavier dose of melody and a more thoughtful use of effects and synths.
This time around, Keeler and Grainger decided it was time to take production duties into their own hands. As a result, Is 4 Lovers may be the purest expression of what DFA 1979 is about since their debut.
Jesse Keeler's Dan Armstrong Lucite basses are all outfitted with custom pickups made by Kent Armstrong, son of Dan Armstrong. Keeler also swaps out the original fixed rosewood bridges for custom brass units milled by Canadian luthier Les Godfrey.
Photo by Debi Del Grande
Frustrated with how other producers changed their sound in the past, Keeler explains their decision: "We wanted to make it really apparent on this album that you're listening to the band—just the two of us. Part of being in a two-piece 20 years ago was dealing with people in the music business who thought it was a bad idea. They liked the music, but they thought it would need help. Producers always wanted to pad up the sound. It's not a knock to anyone we've worked with in the past, but if you're someone that's mixed all these records where the guitar is a really important thing and we ask them to do the same thing with our sound but without the tools they're used to working with, it can be tough. Doing it all ourselves, we don't have those hang-ups and we never come at it thinking there's this hole we have to fill in our sound."
The duo still makes a hell of a lot of noise on Is 4 Lovers, even without a producer pushing them to pad their sound with additional instrumentation. As longtime fans will expect, Keeler's bass tones kick the listener in the jaw with plenty of the square-wave filth he's reveled in since DFA 1979's inception. However, his rig has changed dramatically for the first time in the band's history. Rather than plugging into his trusted backline of a vintage Peavey Super Festival F-800B and an Acoustic 450 head—a pair of amps which Keeler has always described as defining elements of the band's sound—the bassist tracked his parts with a pair of Orange Bax Bangeetar preamp/EQ pedals that he modified himself.
TIDBIT: Death From Above 1979's fourth studio album, Is 4 Lovers, was entirely written and produced by band members Jesse Keeler and Sebastien Grainger and recorded all in one room.
Why the change after so many years? Part of it was the need to sidestep the isolation headaches of miking loud amps while the duo tracked Is 4 Lovers live, together in one room. But Keeler also found the modded Bax Bangeetars remedied some things he always disliked about his tone."The old rig sounded good through the monitors," he says, "but it had the same issues I've always had with it. I love how all the 300-500 Hz stuff sounds through the amps but recorded it can come out as mud and there's always some loss of clarity, especially when I'm competing with tones in the drums."
The Bax Bangeetars provided an ideal surrogate for the old amps, but not without a bit of tinkering from the tech-savvy bassist, who explains his handiwork: "Those pedals are a very simple circuit, but they have this power pump that takes the 9 volts in and charges up the cap, which slowly releases it at 24 volts. I found at high gain, even with the highest milliamp 9V power supply I could find, it couldn't keep the cap filled up fast enough. I had these science-grade variable power supplies and, if you wire around the pedal's stock power supply so that you can feed that cap directly, then you don't get that headroom loss at all and it sounds really good."
Jesse Keeler's Gear
Basses
- Ampeg Dan Armstrong Lucite basses (modified with custom Kent Armstrong pickups and brass bridges made by luthier Les Godfrey)
Amps
- Orange Bax Bangeetar Guitar Preamp & EQ (modified by Keeler)
Strings and Picks
- Ernie Ball Regular Slinky Nickel Wound Electric Bass Strings (.050–.105)
- Dunlop .73 mm Tortex Triangle
Effects
- Death By Audio Echo Dream 2
- Death By Audio Fuzz War
- EarthQuaker Devices Bit Commander
- FoxRox Octron3
- Ibanez CS9 Stereo Chorus
- MXR Ten Band EQ
- Overstayer Modular Channel Stereo 8755D
Keeler says that increased headroom has long been a special ingredient to his tone and adds, "The secret with my Peavey F-800B head and part of the reason why it's so special is that it's running on 36 volts. The schematic for that Peavey amp says 24 volts, so whenever anyone would clone the circuit, they'd do it to run on 24 volts and, when you try to play it like I do with the distortion cranked up to 10, it starts self-compressing and crapping out!"
Despite the major shakeup in Keeler's amp world, the bassist's primary muse remains his small collection of vintage Ampeg Dan Armstrong Lucite basses. Thanks to their skinny neck profile, short scale length, and easy access to all 24 frets, the bassist credits these instruments with unlocking his unconventionally athletic playing style in which he bends strings and frequently combines droning open notes with guitar-lead-like riffs that he plays simultaneously in the upper frets.
While these basses are a great fit for Keeler, he's found some need for modifications. All of his Dan Armstrong basses have been re-fretted with wider fretwire and outfitted with custom pickups made by Kent Armstrong, son of Dan Armstrong. The most important mod that Keeler does to all of his basses is to swap out the original fixed rosewood bridges for custom brass units milled by Canadian luthier Les Godfrey. Godfrey's bridges have fully adjustable saddles, which makes life a lot easier as Keeler used to struggle with the original bridge's intonation issues.
Jesse Keeler mainly sticks to his modded Dan Armstrong basses, but he also has several custom Rickenbacker 4030 models.
Photo by Jim Bennett
The brass bridges also offer an important tonal benefit. "The overall problem with that bass is that it sounds like talking with your hand over your mouth; it's a very muffled, low/mid sound with not enough brilliance, even with brand new strings on it," Keeler says. "I wanted as much bright attack as I could get out of it. When playing notes in quick succession, I want the initial attack of the note to be very present, so brass saddles and brass nuts really help with that." These modifications take a lot of effort, but he adds, "I did all this work to make them right because I love them so much."
For effects, Keeler pulled his usual pedalboard apart and got experimental in the studio. A pair of Foxrox Octron3 octave pedals appear on nearly every track, with each one sent to their own Bax Bangeetar and set to accentuate slightly different frequencies. The bassist also frequently called upon a Death By Audio Fuzz War but claims to have had the fuzz control barely on, using the pedal more for its powerful filter than its heaps of gain. One of the most vicious tones on Is 4 Lovers can be heard on "N.Y.C. Power Elite Part II," which he happened upon by plugging into an EarthQuaker Devices Bit Commander and turning the volume on his bass down to the point where it began to starve the synth box of enough signal to track its multiple octaves properly.
Bassist Jesse Keeler says he and drummer/vocalist Sebastien Grainger no longer have to talk about writing: They simply feel it out and intuitively know when an idea has clicked. Their shared killer instincts are palpable onstage.
Photo by Debi Del Grande
Songwriting is a collaborative process for DFA 1979, and something the duo has fine-tuned over the course of their discography. Keeler admits, "I don't really think of myself as a songwriter, I just vomit out riffs," he says. "I have riff diarrhea. I have riff IBS and I just can't shut it off!" He goes on to explain, "I try to distill my ideas down to make things musical enough that Sebastien can sing over, because he wants a melody. I've given him things in the past that became very hard to find a melody for because I would write things that you could only scream over," he says. "Sebastien is the one that moved me towards making songs and not just trying to create a feeling."
On Is 4 Lovers, the writing process came from shared instinct rather than intellect. Keeler says he and Grainger no longer have to talk about writing, they simply feel it out and intuitively know when an idea has clicked. "We made this record entirely within one room," Keeler says. "We'd hit record the minute we got there and play through the day, so a lot of what you hear on the record is the actual creation of those parts the moment they were made up. I'm really into that immediacy."
This method of writing and recording allowed the band to deliver a tight and focused record that totally aligns with how Keeler and Grainger want DFA 1979 to sound. "I think the results are amazing and I think this is the best sounding record we've made," the bassist says. "Not to take anything away from anyone we've worked with in the past, but this one sounds the most right to me because it's all us."
Death From Above 1979 - Holy Books (Live in Toronto)
Jesse Keeler's bass tone will explode from your speakers in this live version of "Holy Books" from Death From Above 1979's Outrage! Is Now. The bassist's heavily distorted riffs pummel along with Sebastien Grainger's hard-hitting grooves throughout the song's main sections, while he conjures a just-on-the-verge-of-feedback tone for the melodic breakdown starting at 2:23.
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On her new record with her trio, Molly Miller executes a live-feeling work of structural harmony that mirrors her busy life.
Miller has a lot on her plate. In addition to gigs leading the Molly Miller Trio, she also plays guitar in Jason Mraz’s band, and teaches at her alma mater, the University of Southern California (USC), where, after a nine-year stint, she earned her bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate in music. In 2022, she became a professor of studio guitar at USC. Prior to that, she was the chair of the guitar department at the Los Angeles College of Music.
Molly Miller's Gear
Miller plays a fair bit of jazz, but considers herself simply a guitarist first: “Why do I love the guitar? Because I discovered Jimi Hendrix.”
Photo by Anna Azarov
Guitars
- 1978 Gibson ES-335
- Fender 1952 Telecaster reissue with a different neck and a bad relic job (purchased from Craigslist)
- Gibson Les Paul goldtop with P-90s
Amps
- Benson Nathan Junior
- Benson Monarch
- Fender Princeton Reverb Reissue (modified to “widen sound”)
Effects
- Chase Bliss Audio Dark World
- Chase Bliss Audio Warped Vinyl
- EarthQuaker Devices Dispatch Master
- EarthQuaker Devices Dunes
- EarthQuaker Devices Special Cranker
- JAM Pedals Wahcko
- JAM Pedals Ripply Fall
- Strymon Flint
- Fulltone Clyde Wah
- Line 6 Helix (for touring)
Strings & Picks
- Ernie Ball .011s for ES-335 and Les Paul
- Ernie Ball .0105s for Telecaster
- Fender Celluloid Confetti 351 Heavy Picks
To get things done, Miller has had to rely on a laser-focused approach to time management. “I’ve always kind of been juggling different aspects of my career. I was in grad school, getting a doctorate, TA-ing full time—so, teaching probably 20 hours a week, and then also doing probably four or five gigs a week, and getting a degree,” explains Miller. “I had to figure out how to create habits of, ‘I really want to play a lot of guitar, and gig a lot, but I also need to finish my degree and make extra money teaching, and I also want to practice.’ There’s a certain level of organization and thinking ahead that I always feel like I have to be doing.”
“The concept of the Molly Miller Trio—and also a part of my playing—is we are playing songs, we are bringing back the instrumental, we are thinking about the arrangement.”
The Molly Miller Trio’s latest release, The Battle of Hotspur, had its origins during the pandemic. Miller and bassist Jennifer Condos started writing the songs in March 2020, sending files back and forth to each other. They finally finished writing the album’s last song, “Head Out,” in December 2021, and four months later, recorded the album in just two days. The 12-song collection is subtle and cool, meandering like a warm, sparkling country river through a backwoods county. The arrangements feel spacious and distinctly Western—Miller’s guitar lines are clean and clear and dripped with just the right level of reverb, trem, and chorus, while Jay Bellerose’s brush-led percussion trots alongside like a trusty steed.
The Battle of Hotspur has a live feel, and that aspect was 100-percent deliberate. Miller says, “That’s the exact intention of our records—we want to create a record that we can play live. Jason Wormer, the recording and mixing engineer that did our record, came to a show of ours and was like, ‘This is incredible.’ He’s recorded so many records and was like, ‘This is the first time I’ve ever recorded a record that sounds the same live.’ And that was our exact intention. Because I feel like [the goal of] the trio itself was to be full. It’s not supposed to be like, ‘Oh, let’s put saxophone and let’s put keys and other guitars on it.’ The concept of the record is a full trio like the way Booker T. & the M.G.’s were. It’s not, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if you added another instrument?’ No, we’re an instrumental trio.”
Musicality is what separates Miller from the rest of the pack. She has prodigious chops but uses them appropriately, when it makes musical sense, and her ability to honor a song’s written melody and bring it to life is one of her strong suits. “That’s a huge part of what we do,” she says. “The concept of the Molly Miller Trio—and also a part of my playing—is we are playing songs, we are bringing back the instrumental, we are thinking about the arrangement. The solo is a vehicle to further the story, to further the song, not just for me to shred. So often, you play a song, and you could be playing the solo over any song. There’s not enough time spent talking about how to play a melody convincingly, and then play a solo that’s connected to the melody.... Whether it’s a pop song, an original, or a standard, how you’re playing it is everything, and not just how you’re shredding over it.”
Miller still gets pigeonholed by expectations in the music industry, including the assumption that she’s a singer-songwriter: “I don’t sing. I’m a fucking guitar player.”
Photo by Anna Azarov
Miller’s strong sense of melody can be traced to her diverse palette of influences. Even though she’s a “jazzer” by definition, she’ll cover pop songs like the Everly Brothers’ “All I Have to Do is Dream” and the Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” Miller says, “I spent nine years in jazz school. I practice ‘Giant Steps’ still for fun because I think it’s good for my guitar playing. But it was a release to be like, ‘I am not just a jazz guitar player at all!’ Why do I love the guitar? Because I discovered Jimi Hendrix, right? What made me feel things in high school? Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, and No Doubt. It’s like, Grant Green’s not why I play the guitar.
“I play jazz guitar, but I’m a guitar player that loves jazz. What do I put on my playlist? It’s not like I just listen to Wes Montgomery. I go from Wes Montgomery to the Beach Boys to freakin’ Big Thief to Bob Dylan to Dave Brubeck. The musicians I love are people who tell stories and have something to say—Brian Wilson, Cat Stevens.... They’re amazing songwriters.”
“Whether it’s a pop song, an original, or a standard, how you’re playing it is everything, and not just how you’re shredding over it.”
Despite a successful career, Miller continually faces sexism in the industry. “I went to a guitar hang two days ago. It was a big company, and they invited me to come and check out guitars. And I’m playing—I clearly know how to play the instrument—and this photographer there is like, ‘Oh, so are you a singer?’ And I’m just like, ‘No, I don’t sing. Fuck you,’” recalls Miller. “It’s such an internal struggle because of the interactions I have with the world. This kind of gets this thing in me where I feel like I need to prove to people, like, I am a guitar player. And at this point, I know I’m established enough. I play the guitar, and I know how to play it. I’m good, whatever. There still is this ego portion that I’m constantly fighting, and it comes from random people walking up to me and asking about me playing acoustic guitar and my singer-songwriter career or whatever. And I’m like, ‘I don’t sing. I’m a fucking guitar player.’”
YouTube It
Molly Miller gets to both tour with and open up for Jason Mraz’s band. Here’s a taste of Miller leading into Mraz’s set with some adeptly and intuitively performed riffs from a show in July 2022.
Bassist Sebastian Steinberg’s credits range from deep-cut avant-jazz to the highest levels of pop stardom.
Think weird samples, colliding harmonies, and half-sung boho poetry, all over some seriously sick grooves, with Steinberg driving the bus to Beelzebub with his thick upright tone and funky feel.
“In the middle of every groove, there’s the stupid part,” he told me then, drawing my attention to, as an example, the steady high-hat part in Sly & the Family Stone’s “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin).” If a groove makes your head nod, he said, “there’s something absolutely idiotic weaving its way down the middle.” As a bass player, he cautioned: “Sometimes you’re it.”
This idea stuck with me over the years, so I thought I’d see what Sebastian was up to. I caught him at a good time. After three well-received albums in the ’90s, Soul Coughing went their separate ways, and Steinberg went on to play both upright and electric with a variety of artists, including several that he describes as “fearlessly original.” That’s him on Fiona Apple’s acclaimed pandemic release, Fetch the Bolt Cutters, as well as singer-songwriter Iron & Wine’s latest album, Light Verse. This summer he’s touring Europe in a trio with drummer Matt Chamberlain and pianist Diana Krall (who didn’t want to play with “jazz guys”), and in the fall, he’s hitting the road with a reunited Soul Coughing.
I asked what it was about his approach that appeals to certain artists. “I like to play songs,” he answered. “But I have a musical curiosity and I can throw in my own ideas. My hands tend to be the smartest part of my body, so I can follow where the music leads.”
Steinberg says Fiona Apple’s 2020 record, Fetch the Bolt Cutters, “surpasses anything I’ve ever been involved in.”
Interestingly, when Sebastian started working at different points with Apple, Iron & Wine, and Krall, all three artists asked him not to listen to their previous albums. They wanted to create something new, current, and genuine, rather than, as Sebastian puts it, “trying to do stuff that’s already happened.”
“I’m not the bass player for everyone, which I’m really delighted to discover,” Steinberg continued. “But I’ve been sort of working out that there is a place for me. I’ve always been drawn to music that tends to ruffle feathers rather than smooth them. I gravitate towards people who are really strong individual thinkers, sometimes very much at the cost of their convenience, comfort, and public opinion. But the music is real. When musicians are real with each other, they’re as real as it gets.”
Sebastian describes the making of Fetch the Bolt Cutters as this kind of very real, exceptional experience. “It surpasses anything I’ve ever been involved in, including Soul Coughing,” he says. “I haven’t made an album so true, where nothing like this music has existed before, since Soul Coughing’s first album,” he said, referring to 1994’s Ruby Vroom. “Both albums were alive, unfettered, and truly unexplored territory.”
Fiona put the band together in 2016, inviting Steinberg, drummer Amy Aileen Wood, and multi-instrumentalist David Garza. “The four of us would go to the house, stomp around, sing in a chant she’d made up, and literally play like children or birds. After a while, songs began appearing. By the time we started going into the studio, we’d developed a level of trust and intimacy with each other, because we’d been playing in this non-specific but very personal way together. It's the most powerful band I’ve ever been in.”
“There are so many ways to approach music that transcend what the instrument was built to do. But you should know what it was built to do, because that’s a great job. It’s the best seat in the house.”
Sebastian notes that you do have to balance this kind of boldness with musical functionality. “Bass is a function, not an instrument,” he says. “There are so many ways to approach music that transcend what the instrument was built to do. But you should know what it was built to do, because that’s a great job. It’s the best seat in the house.”
So how does one go about getting real? “It’s about getting out of the way of whatever niceties musicians tend to inflict on each other,” he says. “You have to overcome fear and let the truth speak. Find the music and play it. Don’t bring your ego into it, but don’t let somebody scare you off from the music. And if you believe in what you’re doing, stick to it.”
A note of clarification
Last month’s column was about playing style, with Funkadelic bassist Billy Bass Nelson as an example. However, the magazine was already off to the printer when I finally connected with Nelson after several attempts. He told me that he did not play with a pick on Fred Wesley’s “Half A Man,” but often used his fingernails to get a similar attack. He also suggested two other songs that exemplify his style: Parlet’s 1978 track “Love Amnesia,” and the Temptations’ 1975 single “Shakey Ground.”