Pitchfork

Photo by Eva Michon

Strap in and hold on tight: Sebastien Grainger is off to the races, with a freshly-signed Saddle Creek contract, a new EP out now, and a full-length primed to arrive in October. We caught up with the former Death From Above 1979 drummer/vocalist as he was recovering from a performance at this past weekend's Osheaga Festival in Montreal to talk matters past, present, and future.

Sebastien Grainger & the Mountains collects 12 tracks and arrives October 21. Don't be thrown off by the nomenclature though: this is, in essence, a solo record, and the Mountains are not so much a band as the "idea of a band," according to Grainger's MySpace.

"That's just a convoluted way of saying that I basically recorded a whole record myself," Grainger explains.

He continues, "My concept behind the band name is to change it with every record." Grainger already has some ideas for future band names lined up, but he isn't divulging any just yet. "I sealed them in an envelope and mailed it to myself, so if anyone steals them before that record comes out then I can sue them," he teases.

As for the album itself, "I think it's a pretty big record. The EP is kind of a little ballad-y...[but] this is like-- it's a big record. Like, it's pretty heavy."

At least one track on Sebastien Grainger & the Mountains only came about thanks to some kind of cosmic conspiracy involving alcohol, MySpace, and significant others-- normally lethal in combination. "I wrote and recorded 'Niagara' during a half-drunken evening when I was supposed to be working on another song," Grainger reports, "and then put it up on my MySpace page and forgot about it. And two days later, I was like, 'Oh yeah! I got drunk and recorded a song!'

"I listened to it and thought it was fucking weird, but my girlfriend convinced me to put it on the record."

Along with Land of Talk and Tokyo Police Club, Grainger is part of a fairly recent wave of Canadian artists to take up residence on the once-hermetic Saddle Creek roster. But unlike TPC, it seems he wasn't wooed with any dessert items.

"Those assholes got cake!? We didn't get anything," says Grainger, adding, with a laugh, "They sent me a bunch of Bright Eyes CDs."

Bright Eyes wasn't the draw for Grainger when it came to Saddle Creek, though. "They're just really nice people and the deal was really friendly and super easy to do. They took the scum out of signing a record deal."

Grainger has high hopes for this new thing. "Anything I do, I wanna take it as far as it can go. I don't see the point in making something and then being like, 'I really wanna keep it at this small level because that way I have freedom or whatever' or [be able to say] 'I'm not a sellout.' You can maintain freedom at any level. It's just it's up to you, you know? I'm looking to take it as far as it'll take me."

And even if things for some reason don't work out, Grainger always has his electronic project the Rhythm Method to fall back on. "It's sort of like the Mountains is my full-time job," he explains. "And Rhythm Method is something I do very casually when I'm in that kind of mood. It's computer music, so it's fun to do when there's nothing else to do, you know?" Grainger hopes to release a Rhythm Method EP "in the near future."

As for the past, Grainger reports that his relationship with former Death From Above 1979 bandmate and current MSTRKRFT member Jesse F. Keeler hasn't changed much since the duo's breakup two years ago. "It's pretty casual. It's at, like, maybe a handshake level now? And like a nod on the street? It's been consistently that way [since the breakup]."

"[Keeler]'s got his, like, full-on crew. You'll never see that guy alone on the street, ever. He's always rolling with his posse." Grainger wasn't clear on whether that posse always walks around in hockey masks.

Mountain-man Grainger is still exploring his options for touring this year, but in the meantime he'll put in an appearance at the Rock the Mill festival in Cambridge, Ontario on August 9.

Sebastien Grainger & the Mountains:

01 Love Can Be So Mean
02 Who Do We Care For
03 By Cover of Night (Fire Fight)
04 I'm All Rage (Live '05)
05 I Hate My Friends
06 (Are There) Ways to Come Home
07 Niagara
08 (I Am Like a) River
09 Love Is Not a Contest
10 American Names
11 Meet New Friends
12 Renegade Silence [ft. the Rhythm Method]