Canadian dance-punk duo Death From Above 1979 have released a new single, One + One, ahead of a forthcoming album.
DFA are bassist Jesse F. Keeler and drummer and vocalist Sebastien Grainger, and the single is out now via Universal Music Canada/ Spinefarm.
An unmistakably DFA-esque track, One + One is their first new music since 2017, and the first taste of their fourth album, Is 4 Lovers, which will be released on March 26.
“One + One is a love song,” says Grainger. “It’s the karmic sequel to [debut single] Romantic Rights. My wife, Eva, became pregnant not long after we started working on the song and after hearing an early version she said, ‘I wish this song was dancier’. So I went back into the studio and re-worked the drums.
“As the record was taking shape, every time I would come home from the studio the baby would start dancing in Eva’s belly. Even before I walked in the room the party would start. One plus one is three, that’s magic!”
The One + One video, created as a collage of disparate frames and moments inspired by the photography of artist David Hockney, was directed by Eva Michon, who helmed 2014’s band documentary Life After Death From Above 1979.
“Since we started playing people would come up to the stage and after and say: ‘I can’t believe there’s just two of you,’” explains Grainger. “The video for ‘One + One’ is Eva’s way of showing that our band is greater than the sum of its parts. It’s Death From Above 1979 in multitudes.”
The new album, which Grainger and Keeler wrote, produced, mastered and recorded entirely by themselves, captures the creation of a totally new sound and a reimagining of the format they created more than 20 years ago.
With the band leaving subtle hints at what was to come across social media for the last few months, fans’ response has been ecstatic. An exclusive line of merch, including limited edition vinyl variations, can be pre-ordered now HERE.
The boundary-pushing musical alliance roared out of Toronto with the uncompromising one-two punch of 2002’s fuzz-bomb Heads Up EP and 2004’s debut album You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine, complete with a North American arena tour with Nine Inch Nails and Queens of the Stone Age, before deciding mid-tour to part ways due to the strain of constantly touring.
Almost a decade later, they reformed, and 2014’s second album, The Physical World, saw them crack the Top 40 in the UK. Their most recent record was 2017 outing, Outrage! Is Now.
