Sebastien Grainger is like no one I've met before and he certainly wasn't what I expected. In my mind, he was a free-spirited hipster who would probably dance his way through our interview. What I got was more along the lines of a darkly-comedic, highly-artistic, PBR-swigging foodie. There's something mysterious about him - but at the same time you feel like you could ask him anything and get an honest (if not kind of bizarre) answer. Grainger was one half of former punk-dance band Death From Above 1979 and you can tell that that ship has sailed. Sebastien isn't all that thrilled to be talking about that former life - one in which there was a lot of artistic compromise and accountability to a partner. Now he has the freedom to make all of the decisions and takes full advantage of this fact. He has gone out and made not one but two names for himself. Grainger's got his electronic project, The Rhythm Method, and his punk rock outfit, Sebastien Grainger and the Mountains whose self-titled album kicks ten thousand asses and has been getting a lot of great press. When we sat down in the narrow stairwell leading to a much larger green room (he thought we might have more privacy there) I was about five whiskeys into the night and unsure of how much he would even want to answer my questions. After all, he had been traveling, still needed to soundcheck, was running a bit late and knew that his seared tuna salad was waiting for him just a few feet away. Still, with PBR in hand and questions to be answered - he indulged me with some clever anecdotes and interesting ways to deal with an animal's death.
Download American Names(mp3)
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