The Death Set talk new album and the best piece of advice they’ve ever received

We sat down with Australian duo, The Death Set, to talk their new album How To Tune a Parrot and the best piece of advice they’ve ever received from another musician.

First off, can you tell us about the band, how you got started, all that fun stuff?

Johnny: We’ve known each other for like, how long?

Dan: We would’ve met in ’98.

Johnny: Yeah, so almost 25 years. We’re both from Australia originally and then we kinda met each other at this local venue.

Dan: The Rising Crown, actually.

Johnny: We were being very debaucherous teenagers. We weren’t teenagers, we were in our twenties, I guess.

Dan: We were adults.

Johnny: Acting like teenagers. The band actually started in Australia on the Gold Coast and it came from the remnants of another band called Black Panda. Dan and I had actually played in Black Panda at various times. Dan, did you play drums?

Dan: Yeah, I’m pretty sure the initial format was Panda before it was Black Panda and I was drumming and on guitar. And then it turned into Black Panda from there. Andy joined and I think you had a stint in it, and I was drumming in that format and then, eventually, we went separate ways but Johnny and I maintained and that eventually turned into The Death Set as it is today.

Johnny: We moved to Sydney and it was kind of a new lineup so we started The Death Set in Sydney. We literally put a subway map on the wall and decided we were gonna go to New York. We stayed in Sydney and within about a year we had moved to New York City and just gave it a shot. Our goal was to just tour once and we ended up staying for 15 years.

Dan: I didn’t join until later, actually. I stayed back and was riding the DJ scene. I was into Brakes at the time and I actually ended up living in London for the first few years before I rejoined the band.

Johnny: We were playing a festival in Norway when all our lives kinda reconnected.

That’s awesome! What’s the biggest difference you found from Australia to New York? I know there’s a lot probably but does one come to mind?

Johnny: Where do you start? I mean, look, I think if you’re making niche underground stuff there’s more of a market for it. You know, so I think if you’re not making very standard music, in Australia you could make it but you really wouldn’t get that much of an audience.

Dan: It’s a very small little pocket. There’s more of a community in New York, being the place that it is, to be weird and have an audience for it.

Johnny: Plus, it’s New York City you can’t f*ck with it, you know, it has an energy that has this kind of innovative aura about it that’s really a petri dish for weird sh*t.

You’ve released two singles from the new record so far. What has that response been like?

Johnny: It’s been awesome.

Dan: Yeah, it’s been pretty positive so far.

Johnny: I mean, we’ve been away for a while and I think people are stoked on it. Just going from people’s reactions to the videos everyone seems really stoked.

And you have two more single releasing with the album. Can you tell us a little bit about those? Is it in line with what you’ve released so far or is there something straight out of left field?

Johnny: I think essentially it’s all out of left field. That’s the nature of the band. We’re trying to make weird music. I don’t know, Dan, what do you think?

Dan: It’s the same in energy, definitely, and intensity. There were some subtle differences I noticed in the way we had dealt with vocal content but it was never like the energy is. It’s always pretty much followed the same format since the start of it. There’s been changes but the energy is the same for sure.

Johnny: It’s always been an experimental band, first and foremost. It’s been very much a studio band. I made an analogy to a techno song where your techno song is 4/4 on the beat and then you experiment over the time. We’re kind of where you take your basic punk song, Ramones style punk song, and that’s our 4/4 beat, and then we experiment over the top with synthesis and samplers and weird production ideas. That’s kind of where the fun is. I think that’s where it makes it different from a regular punk band.

Dan: It’s definitely a studio born project. I don’t think we’ve ever gone into a rehearsal room and made a track. We’re not really a jam band like that. It’s kinda strange because that’s really where I came from but that’s just how it’s always been and it’s worked for us like that.

Johnny: It takes a lot longer than normal, I think, because of that fact. We’re really writing the songs in the studio rather than noodling out and getting ideas. We can kind of, very painstakingly, go down rabbit holes over any myriad of things in the song; whether it be lyrics or sounds or whatever. So, it takes a minute.

Dan: And I think, too, there’s maybe a detriment. You know, if you’re in a rehearsal room and you’re jamming on a song and you’re trying out vocal approaches and stuff like that because we have found that we’ve finished songs and they’ve ultimately been too high for us to sing. So when it goes to doing them live it’s a fail. The records done, it’s coming out, and we can’t play it so then we have to think about repitching the backing track and dropping the key.

Johnny: We never play the song until it’s completely finished and recorded and released.

What’s the weirdest production style you’ve tried to incorporate in your music? And has it worked?

Johnny: We put a theremin in there, right?

Dan: Maybe. I can’t remember. In “Set of Death” I think there’s a theremin solo.

Johnny: This one had lots of modular synthesis almost on every track. We’ve got some weird old synths. Dan has an old Moog Prodigy with a wooden case, a real old beast that’s just doesn’t stay in tune and is f*cking awesome. It’s just constant experimentation with whatever instruments we have, like, what’s an outboard stuff, what’s an in the box stuff? And then, like I said, your standard drums, bass, guitar. I think with this album we went sort of back and forth on the vocals probably more than other albums. Just the way that we wrote lyrics and delivered a lot of them was back and forth. But no horses or anything like that.

Were there any new challenges that arose in your creative process, since you are a studio band, because of the pandemic?

Dan: The record was done before all that went down for the most part. We were trying to find labels and stuff even before the pandemic but the record was done, as far as working in the studio. I haven’t really been writing that much. I don’t think either of us have.

Johnny: Yeah, the pandemic just delayed everything.

Is there one song on the new record that you’re more excited for everyone to hear than others?

Dan: My favorite track to listen to, just because of the vibe I love it, and I really love playing it too is “Set of Death.” That’s probably one of my favorite tracks off the record.

Johnny: I think my one is “Elephant” but we haven’t figured out how to play it yet because we don’t know the lyrics. It’s too fast. I think with this record it was very frenetic, chaotic, just super energetic. I think with the last record for the circumstance that it was in, there were some slower songs and more introspective songs. With this record it’s just, like, how do you make 100 kids in a warehouse go f*cking crazy for 25 minutes?

If you were shipwrecked on a desert island, but all your human needs such as food and water, were taken care of, what two items would you have with you?

Dan: I only want one thing. My cat, Masterpiece.

Johnny: Well the obvious thing would be my baby and my wife.

Dan: It sounds like heaven already. All my needs were met and I was on a deserted island with no one? That’s heaven, I don’t need anything else. That’s perfect.

Johnny: I feel like it’s a trick question because the answer is in the question. It’s perfect as it is.

What is the best piece of advice another musician has ever given you?

Johnny: I think just from the sake of being a DIY band is “to do it yourself.” Don’t wait around to get anyone’s approval to do it. And that goes for recording, shows, artwork, touring, music, instruments; just everything is do it yourself first and continue doing it yourself. Because I’ve found, even when other people are doing it for you, I would still want to do it myself. Coming from Australia, I didn’t really have examples of bands in my network or in my world that were doing that. Just Australia being so geographically vast, the touring network is much harder to do. You can only do, really, three or four shows on the east coast and that’s it. So looking towards America when there was 30-40 dates I was like, that’s what I want to do. Just do it yourself first. There’s no shame or problem about getting help as well, or collaborating with people that are more skilled than yourself, but don’t wait. Do it yourself.

Dan: My uncle is a drummer. He started in the jazz scene but played in a lot of punk bands, too. He’s an amazing drummer and when I was 16, I asked him to teach me how to play drums and he through me a cassette tape of techno and he said “when you can drum from the start of each side without falling out of time then you’re a drummer. That’s all you need to know.” He didn’t teach me technique or crazy fills or anything like that but if anything he was just outlaying the importance of timing. And that was how I taught myself how to stay in time and play drums by playing to techno with my crazy uncle.

Aside from the record that just dropped, what can we expect next from The Death Set?

Johnny: Touring when we can. We were meant to be in Europe next month but then delta kinda screwed that up. So, touring when we can and then obviously releasing this record. We released it in three different territories; Japan, Europe, and America. Probably doing more videos and who knows, maybe we’ll release another record in 10 years.

What is your favorite place to play a show?

Dan: I love the origins of how the band started. In grimy, warehouse, dirty, off the grid locations. And it doesn’t have to be a lot of people. Sometimes the smallest shows can be way more fun than super packed, huge venues.

Johnny: I agree. First and foremost its always been the kind of illegal warehouse. You put a sh*tty sound system and ram as many all ages people in there as possible and go crazy until the cops shut it down. That’s kind of been the origins of the band and I think the funnest shows still to this day. There’s one show in Paris that comes to mind where it was a tiny boutique and we did the same thing. I just think those kinda off the cuff, DIY spaces are the most fun.

Lastly, is there anything to the All Punked Up readers?

Johnny: We’re back, baby. Get it. Sorry for the decade wait. There were a few things that got in the way. We made it out the other side.

Dan: And thanks to all who are still listening and will hopefully come out to shows when we start playing again. We’re looking forward to seeing people, human beings again. Not just cats.

Johnny: Yeah, just thank you so much to everyone who’s still listening and hopefully there will be a new audience as well that will be interested in this kind of weird mix of electronics, and punk rock, and hip hop beats. It’s a bizarre sandwich that hopefully some new ears will be into as well.

 

We want to give a huge thank you to The Death Set for taking the time to chat with us! You can stream their new album How to Tune a Parrot on all streaming platforms. Check out their latest music video for “Fall Down” below!