JFK MSTRKRFT

As it happens, the dance punk has been working on his own project for the past three years. The news will surprise those who anticipated a third MSTRKRFT album, with Keeler and cohort Al-P (Alex Puodziukas) freely offering the singles Beards Again and Back In The USSA last year. “Well, I guess in about the end of 2009, early 2010, I had a whole mess of ideas of things that I wanted to try to do that didn't really fit with MSTRKRFT and I needed to see them through,” Keeler explains. Indeed, he'd dabbled in his home studio.

The sometimes stockbroker first met international kudos as the bassist in Toronto's thrash disco combo DFA1979 alongside vocalist/drummer Sebastien Grainger. In 2004 they dropped a cult debut, You're A Woman, I'm A Machine, only to announce their apparently sudden split after a remix set. In the interim, Keeler, a Chicago house head, conceived MSTRKRFT with Puodziukas, DFA1979's producer. Their 2006 album, The Looks, taking in Easy Love, was widely compared to Daft Punk. More ambitious was MSTRKRFT's follow-up, Fist Of God, with big-name urban guests like Kanye West's soul protégé John Legend on the popular Heartbreaker.

Keeler did briefly pursue pop production. (MSTRKRFT remixed Katy Perry's California Gurls.) “In 2010, for almost a year, I'd moved to Los Angeles and I was doing that. I worked with a lotta different people on a lotta different records. It was a real challenge for me 'cause I'd never really done that before. In the end, after a long time of doing it, I felt like it wasn't for me. I really like remixing because it's still for me. I can be selfish for the benefit of everyone musically. But, in terms of just being a producer in the back, that's still an elusive thing – 'cause I'd like to do it, but I don't know if I can detach myself enough to really do it. That said, I have a tonne of unreleased stuff... Actually, it was really funny – there's one track that I produced for rapper Eve [that] got leaked on YouTube and it was labelled 'produced by David Guetta.' That was like, 'Ah, fuck!' I was so frustrated.”

Keeler isn't abandoning MSTRKRFT – or, for that matter, DFA1979. There could yet be another album for the indie legends, despite their historic creative conflicts. Laughs Keeler, “I don't wanna start talking about it, but I was at band practice today – I'll let you know that. So that's as 'on the record' as I can get about that.”

Keeler's ventures opened the way for a new wave of buzzworthy Canadian acts, from Crystal Castles (who've sampled DFA1979) to the illwave Drake and The Weeknd to Montreal's Grimes. Yet the DJ/producer doesn't identify himself as belonging to any 'scene'. “I am completely the wrong person to ask about it because at home I've always been on the outside. I live in the city of Toronto, but I live in, like, the Queens of Toronto, the East Side of Toronto, in a really old neighbourhood that's never been gentrified. I just keep to myself. I have a family and I just like to make music and I stay in my neighbourhood... I never feel like I'm a part of anything here. I've spent time in all types of different places. I would prefer to just be like, I don't wanna say 'lone wolf' 'cause it's so horrible (laughs), but I just try to exist on my own... If my girlfriend and kids would be okay with me living in the woods, I totally would.

JFK will be playing the following dates:

Saturday 24 November - Stereosonic, Sydney Showgrounds, NSW
Sunday 25 November - Stereosonic, Claremont Showground, WA
Saturday 1 December - Stereosonic, Melbourne Showgrounds, VIC
Sunday 2 December - Stereosonic, RNA Showgrounds, QLD