Punk Shit Interview w/ Johnny Siera of The Death Set

Punk Shit Interview

By: Bill Leary
I was first introduced to The Death Set while seeing Lifetime play a basement show in New Brunswick a couple of days before their big performance at The Bamboozle and I was shocked to say the least. The Death Set are a high-energy electro-punk hybrid originally from Australia. They have a very spaz-core art house style to them which is an incredible sight to see live. They have recently joined Rabbit Foot Records and are pursuing a full length follow up to their self-released debut EP âToâ

PS!: Since signing to Rabbit Foot the To EP has been re-released with the brand new song Boys and Girls added as an extra bonus. Were the songs re-recorded or just re-released? If they were re-recorded, how did they change and are you happy with the changes?

Johnny: The re-released material was just re-mixed a little, not much and re-mastered. Our original EP was released by us basically to document our time in Sydney where we formed the band. The extra song was recorded in my friends basement in Baltimore but the backing track had already been written in Sydney. Basically we do the entire process ourselves so we are happy with it. We both have control over the whole process of writing, recording and mixing as we do it all ourselves. There really is no third party to interfere so we write and tweak until we are happy. I find it kind of funny its even released and in the public domain as it is really just two kids spazzing out with computers, drum machines and guitars in bedrooms.

PS!: You guys are originally from Australia, right? What made you two travel to the states?

Johnny: To answer simply we just wanted to play and tour everywhere as much as we could so moving to the US accommodated that. In Australia it is about 800 miles between cities so it makes touring harder. We both grew up mostly in a town called The Gold Coast which is I guess kind of equivalent to a surfing based Florida. Lots of retirees, lots of rednecks. I mean, its very beautiful and cool at the same time but hard to find inspiration. We were both in a band called Black Panda and Beau (other member) set up a tour of the East Coast of Australia with Japanther from Brooklyn. We toured and met lots of amazing kids who put us up and were so cool and awesome. For me it just lit a spark that was like, actually I can do this. I don't need to be amazingly talented, I just need to want to do it and have the enthusiasm because the music will come if we stick to it. At that point Beau and I moved to Sydney, decided that this was our mission and locked ourselves away in a one bedroom studio. We subleted a room from a flamingly gay glass artist and began to write. I used to sleep next to a half empty bottle of lube sometimes. It was kind of hilarious and super fun. We put a picture of NYC on the wall and decided that we were going there to tour and destroy. No doubt.

PS!: The Death Set has a very unique sound, the only live instruments you play with are guitars and occasionally the keyboard along with some sort of badass microphones, but drum machines, laptops, TV/film/hip-hop samples are used to create the background music. What made you guys take the musical route that you did, instead of simply starting a normal 3-5 piece punk band? Did your roots in Australia play any part in the style of your music? And what exactly are those microphones made out of and how do you get them to produce that insane sound?

Johnny: We pretty much produce the backing tracks and recordings on my laptop mixing it down in ProTools using a lot of soft synths and samplers. I'm at the controls and Beau stamps around the room saying tweak this and that. We rely heavily on sampled drums and loops and synth bass but we put anything in there, toys, casios, synths we borrow, pots and pans... and very distorted vocals. The microphones are old harmonica mics, which we put telephone receivers into. It gives that nice AM telephone sound which is pretty forgiving to be honest when we don't sing the best. We both really listen to a lot of different music. I mean I listen to as much Hip Hop and electronic music as I do punk. So thatâs a big influence. I don't feel like the music we make is Punk per se but I feel the way we approach it is. The energy that itâs performed and the DIY mentality and touring and being a part of the punk network definitely is.

PS!: The first and sadly the only time we got to see you guys perform was when Lifetime played that unexpected basement show in New Brunswick and you guys were crazy to say the least. The intense energy that you guys gave off was bizarre! You had everyone in the place going, âWhat the fuck is this shit?â But by the second song everyone was totally into it. Is that the normal response you get from an audience that has never witnessed the rawness of your performance?

Johnny: Dude, that was a weird show. For me it was quite difficult. In general, hardcore kids aren't really down with TheDeathSet. So all I saw was a lot of folded arms and disapproving looks so I'm glad you thought people were into it. It was Lifetimes reunion show in Jersey for fucks sake though. Kids were there to see Lifetime and were waiting for the supports to finish. I was stoked that Dave from Lifetime asked us to play and he has been super cool to us since the get go. He makes a lot of electronic music as well so I think that might be a reason he likes us. As I was saying before we aren't your typical punk lineup so a lot of kids can't get past that but most do. Responses are always different but they have been overall awesome. Lots of dancing, smiles and good times. Shit... sometimes people even singing the words. We play a lot of punk houses or art school warehouse type things so usually the kids are totally informed on the bands that play already and are super stoked that we made it to their corner of the world and when its kids like that in a small basement or something and everyoneâs stoked and having fun its the best!

PS!: Now I thought you guys went nuts when you played with Lifetime but then I checked out your MySpace and youâre bleeding in almost every photo taken! Does the intensity of your shows vary? And why wasnât their blood at the Lifetime show?

Johnny: As I was saying we weren't really getting much crowd response from that show so it was a little more chill. However we both love to go as crazy and energetic as possible and when the crowd is too it can get real crazy. All fun and positive though. I think the photo you saw of Beau was in NYC when he grabbed a glass light off the stage and smashed it into his head until he bled. It made for good photos but we usually escape a show with just a few bruises.

PS!: The other thing that was shocking was the bond that the both of you obviously shared. It was as if youâve been best friends your entire life. Is that the case? How did you guys meet? And did you both share the same musical ideas at first?

Johnny: We were in similar circles growing up as the number of kids that go to shows or were interested in making music were not too great where we were from. But I didn't actually start chilling with him until he asked me to play guitar for the Black Panda / Japanther tour about a year and a half ago. We both connected in the fact of going spastic when we played shows and wanting to do this for real but the other members had priorities like kids or houses so we just decided to go for it as a two-piece. I was already writing electronic based music so we combined the punk energy with that. That put us in a bizarre situation of living and together in a new city working towards a shared goal 24/7. So we just had to learn how to do that without driving each other crazy. But we are both really positive so any trouble is mostly not really turned into trouble at all. I was always playing in punk bands then started to write electronic music. Beau was DJing and producing electronic music then started a punk band so we walked the same path but just started at the opposite end and met in the middle.

PS!: A new release is in the works as we speak; can you give us any details on that yet? Will it be another EP or a full-length album?

Johnny: The full length is almost finished. As I said before we do all the recording and mixing ourselves in our bedroom studio. It will be around 35 minutes and around 20 songs. Its due out on Rabbit Foot around the beginning of the new year. I am really excited.

PS!: Since Punksh!t was created to get the word out about local bands struggling to make a name for themselves, what is your personal favorite up and coming band?

Johnny: At the moment I think Baltimore has an amazing scene of kind of post art school weird high-energy bands. Bands like the two guitar only Ecstatic Sunshine and the more rocky Ponytail are bad ass. We have experimental electronic dude Dan Deacon and spastic backing track drum guitar duo of Video Hippos. In Baltimore, we mostly all live in spaces where we put on and host shows in our spaces so its really fun. I'm super stoked at the moment on Matt and Kim and Aa from Brooklyn and of course Japanther.

PS!: Thanks again for allowing punkshit.org to interview The Death Set. We cant wait to see how crazy you two get the next time we catch you live! Thanks!

Johnny: Thanks. We are going on tour to Chicago and back in August so check our tour schedule if you live near.

Thanks!! Good luck with your webzine.