MSTRKRFT's Jesse F. Keeler: Death From Above Felt Like A Side Project

05/30/06 5:30pm

by Phil Villeneuve (CHARTattack)

Jesse F. Keeler and Al Puodziukas (Al-P), Toronto's mysterious disco-house duo known as MSTRKRFT (pronounced masterkraft), knew exactly what they wanted to hear when they set out to make a dance record: a dance party made strictly for your feet and rump.

"We only make bangers for the club, we're not trying to make music for people to listen to in their houses or just sitting around," Keeler says. "If they do, that's cool, but our intention is to make everything for playing in a nightclub. We want to make people dance, and that's the bottom line with everything we do."

The duo have created eight ground-shaking, wall-breaking hard disco tracks on The Looks. Even though the tunes were made with synthesizers (the Super Jupiter is their favourite), there's definitely a human element in the songs.

"The song 'Bodywork' is for our friends in Chicago, The Opaque Project," explains Keeler. "'She's Good For Business,' we made for our friend Mikey Apples here in Toronto.

"Basically, If we can't picture someone playing the song, then we don't do it. People that say there's no human side to techno just means they have no feelings. It's all feeling. A bass movement from one note to the next can pull a room's emotions around. What made me fall in love with house music was how emotional it was."

MSTRKRFT made their debut in a studio surrounded by old disco records, and this quickly becomes evident on the album. There are nods given to everyone from drag-disco icon Sylvester to Joe Jackson. These boys just wanted to have fun, which makes one wonder what MSTRKRFT are getting now that Keeler wasn't receiving from his other band, Death From Above 1979.

"Bitches, money, fashion — no," he confesses. "Music is music, but for me Death From Above felt like a side project, not a band.

"I wouldn't have made music like that in my spare time, and it just sort of fell into place. 'Romantic Rights' is the bass line for a house song I made years ago and didn't do anything with, and then one day Death From Above wasn't doing very well and we were thinking about breaking up. But I had this idea to use this old bass line, and suddenly things felt a lot better. So the root of my involvement in that band is still from dance."

Now that Keeler and Al-P are comfortable in their indie-disco skins, they're ready to party — and sometimes that means drinking and decking.

"Do we drink at the decks? Almost exclusively," Keeler states.

"We don't call it alcohol, though, we call it talent juice," Al-P quickly adds. "Even when we're at home rehearsing, we get some beers or whatever.

"I don't want to advocate drinking to accomplish things, but it is part of the party situation. It's a party, don't worry about it."

MSTRKRFT are touring Europe ant the U.S. through June, but will return to Canada in July for these shows:

July 7 Toronto, ON @ Brigantine Room, Harbourfront
July 8 Montreal, QC @ Club Soda
July 17 Halifax, NS @ Evolution Cabaret
July 19 Quebec City, QC @ Rouje Arts Et Evenements
July 20 Montreal, QC @ Saphir
July 21 Toronto, ON @ Circa
July 22 Ottawa, ON @ Capitol Music Hall
July 24 Winnipeg, MB @ Pyramid Cabaret
July 25 Saskatoon, SK @ Amigos
July 26 Edmonton, AB @ The Starlite Room
July 27 Calgary, AB @ Hi-Fi
July 29 Victoria, BC @ Lucky Bar