The Toxic Nature Of Social Media That Influenced Their Latest Release

Two-piece bands have come to the fore in recent times. Australia had produced the likes of King Of The North and Jackson Firebird, and North America has its own versions of the two-piece format, one of which is stoner/punk duo Death From Above. The pairing of bassist and backing vocalist Jesse F Keeler and drummer/lead vocalist Sebastien Grainger are set to release its third album Outrage! Is Now, and according to Grainger, while having just two people in the band can certainly streamline the recording process to some extent, it has its own challenges as well.

"It can, but you have to fully embrace it," he states, "and you have to go in being aware of the limitations. You have to draw lines and stay within them, and on this record, we were very aware of that. These are the parameters of the band, these are the things we want to do, if we're searching for something specific that is outside of those lines, then we'll be very cautious of how we do that. We weren't just throwing everything at this, we wanted to make sure that all of the parts were defined clearly before we recorded them."

While the sound on the album is that of pounding, bass driven punk and stoner rock that sounds like it was a lot of fun to write, record and play live, there are some very strong and semi-political themes running through the record's lyrics and imagery. The album speaks of a society divided, with people unable to communicate their thoughts or discuss issues in a coherent and mature manner, and Grainger is more than happy to give his perspective on the record's message.

"The main theme is a commentary on the burning of the social fabric," he explains, "there's this communication breakdown that's happening, that's due in large part to social media. I don't use Facebook, so it shocks me when I learn that people do, and I'll be talking to a friend and they'll say 'I was having this fight on Facebook with so and so and they said such and such thing, and I'm like 'is that real? Do people really do that?' There's something happening there, and it's coming out into the real world now, it's like the comment section has come alive."

The duo is off on tour across the length and breadth of North America very shortly, a jaunt that takes them virtually all the way through to the end of the year. However, the band is no stranger to Australia, having been here four times previously, and Grainger is extremely confident that they will be making a return visit to Australian shores at some stage next year.

"Yeah, we'll be down there," he says without hesitation, "we miss it too much. We'd like to hit Australia more, but you guys are literally half a world away, but we'll be back there on this run."

Any parting words for your Aussie fans? "Yes, try to discuss without disgust!"