The Blow UP: The death Set

(They're on Ninja Tune ya know! Bye bye dinner jazz!)

Presenting ‘The Death Set’: loud, unruly kids, from Australia and now residing in Baltimore, US. They roam around with makeshift instruments, packing a punch into electronic music by ‘punking’ it up to its utter limits. Loud, abrasive and sickly fun, they compare to noise stalwarts Tiger Force pumped up on Love Hearts, the excitement and energy seeping through their sweaty pores and instruments in a tangled, hyperactive unison. But it seems, as I call up Jonny Sierra, one half of the spazzed out duo, I’ve caught him at the worst of times.
‘Hi. I’m Jonny Sierra, and I’m really hung-over right now’ he burbles politely when asked for an introduction. ‘Let me go and splash my face with water’. Meanwhile, on the other end of the line I shuffle my notes and chuckle; what a way to break the ice so commonly reserved for us lowly music hacks. On his return, we chitchat idly about alcohol, bands, and the Baltimore rock scene.
‘I guess it’s really good’ he suggests. ‘It’s changed since I moved here (from oz). There was a crazy warehouse scene, and people were doing loads of mad shows. There’s a lot of spirit to it.’ The conversation flows as we chat about fellow BA noise merchants such as Dan Deacon.

Taking the DIY ethos literally, the band have shed sweat and tears, relentlessly touring and recording 3 eps and many collaborations; Jonny’s got every reason to feel worn out. But since Counter Records, Ninja Tunes rock offspring label picked the band up, the workload is easing off.

‘We haven’t had much strong label support or anything up until now. We did everything ourselves, y’know what I mean? That DIY ethos is sort of ingrained in us and our music (the band offered their homemade synth for sale on their myspace) from touring and putting on our shows. Yeah, playing shows with Dan Deacon in Baltimore to like four kids!’ he snorts gleefully.

And it seems Jonny’s excited to be among the first on this fresh, breaking imprint. ‘I’m totally psyched. This record’s been planned for such a long time, and to have someone help us push it is amazing. I’m generally psyched about everything, and its great to get help from our label!’
The conversation drifts into struggling bands without label backing, relentlessly playing out of love and hope, so I appropriately ask how he felt to support legends Suicide a while back.
> ‘Oh it was so weird’ he laughs. ‘We were playing in the financial district of Manhattan. It was cool, but it was weird to see them on this big stage in the middle of Manhattan with families walking around and suits and stuff!’ he quizzes. ‘Obviously, you can’t turn down the chance though.’



If he thinks it’s weird to find Suicide in Manhattan, imagine what it must’ve been like to hear a noisy band screaming and shouting their vocals at the passing traffic. Is this hybrid sound more of a concentration on dance or on punk music?
‘First and foremost, we’re a punk band’ he says proudly. ‘Obviously we have that big electronic element. The reaction we usually get is like kids going to punk rock shows rather than out clubbing’ Jonny slowly muses. ‘We’ve played shows with 100% dance acts like Bonde Do Role, but we’re punk all the way’ he states

So what makes the elements of a good punk show? Mad energy? Crazy attitude? Or simply just youth having fun (take note reformists)? In some circles, DS are known for serving up high octane, fever pitch shows, where kids literally run riot; blood, sweat and sticky booze. Surely Jonny has seen some insanity whilst touring.
‘Its usually kids man’ he grins, ‘its getting harder and harder to play on the floor. They’ll try to help by holding the mic stand and they’ll thrash out, smashing you in the face. It’s all fun, but those Brooklyn shows are especially badass’ he pauses, as he gulps a mouthful of liquid (presumably water!). ‘We played with Dan Deacon at this one venue, and there was asbestos everywhere and kids were hanging on pipes made of it and stuff…scary shit, but the crazier the crowd the more fun it is. It’s hard to play high energy music to three people with their arms folded. We feed off each other, the audience and us’ he says admiringly.
>
> And punk music’s core lies within the audience’s interaction, seemingly a strong part of the bands success. On inspection of the myspace site, it’s refreshing to see that the band give away song accapelas for people to download and make remixes of. After all, we live amongst the ‘free market’.
> ‘I guess it’s really the idea of ‘the more versions of our songs out there, the better’ and it’s good for feedback’ admits Jonny when quizzed behind his thinking. ‘We’ve been getting some really good ones lately, id love to hear them in a club someday!’ he laughs. And, I wonder, what with the more high profile mixes?
‘I really like the Dan Deacon remix, but my favourite has to be the Bonde Do Role one, its completely rad!’ he gushes.

The only way to finish this interview is with Jonny’s line about the forthcoming album: ‘It’s totally mental’. Clocking in at 25 minutes over 18 tracks, it’s a short, sharp cardiac burst of colourful mayhem. Go grab the ‘MFDS’ ep and prepare yourselves!


Words: Joe Gamp