Revisiting Old Work Made Them Want to Write New Songs: Death From Above 1979 Drops New Album *Private Lives* After Six Years

Touring their old albums actually made them want to write new songs even more—that's the starting point for this Death From Above 1979 comeback. Over the past two years, Sebastien Grainger and Jesse F. Keeler toured the 20th anniversary of their debut album *You're a Woman, I'm a Machine* and the 10th anniversary of their sophomore record *The Physical World*. Playing old songs night after night led them to dig back through their drawer of stashed demos and turn them into the band's first new album in six years, *Private Lives*.

Keeler said: "Playing those old songs every day actually stirs up the urge to write something new." Grainger added: "After touring the anniversary shows, we got a little tired of the 'self-celebration' on one hand, but on the other hand we reconnected with the most original sound of this band." According to band materials, the album mostly consists of previously unreleased demos that the two had privately loved all along, now finally given new life.

Speaking about the shift in their creative process, Grainger said: "When we first started making music, it was as simple as walking down to the basement—an extension of living together and hanging out together. Over the years, the process has become more deliberate. The trick is remembering what makes this thing fun and special—our band has always been a balance of sweet and sour, heavy yet tender, and playful too. We're at our best when we truly embrace those contradictions."

The title track "Private Lives" officially dropped today (September 29). The duo describe the song as focusing on "searching for privacy in an era of overexposure": "We're constantly pressured by each other to share our most intimate moments and quietest thoughts, for what? Most of the time it just becomes part of a cheap consumer feedback loop." But they also emphasized that at its core, it's still "a rock song with crazy riffs and a wild energy." The music video, directed by Eva Michon, features actor Kim Bodnia performing a dance sequence. The duo describe the ten-track album as representing "a renewed commitment to the pure industrial magic of electricity," adding: "Just like Kim Bodnia's dance performance in the video, we've always done things without holding back—either full commitment or nothing at all."

*Private Lives* is set for release on January 29 via the band's original label Last Gang/MNRK. The tracklist is as follows:

1. Private Lives
2. Escape From Steeltown
3. Mystery (featuring CSS)
4. Hi Lo
5. Put Up/Shut Up
6. Dreams
7. Drunk In Tokyo
8. Like My Ex Did
9. TV Don't Talk Back
10. Late Stage Liberal

North American Tour Kicks Off in February, Spanning Over Thirty Dates Across the US and Canada

Alongside the new album announcement, Death From Above 1979 has also revealed a North American tour set to launch next spring. The tour kicks off on February 2 at The Marquee in Tempe, Arizona, passing through San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Ana, Sacramento, and San Francisco, before heading to multiple cities in Ontario and Quebec in late February. March brings stops in Boston, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Pittsburgh, Denver, Chicago, St. Louis, and Minneapolis, extending all the way to Vancouver, Portland, and Seattle, finally wrapping up on March 31 at The Crocodile in Seattle. Ticket information is available through the band's official page.

The band's previous album *Is 4 Lovers*, released in 2021, earned a four-star review from NME and was described as "the best thing they've done since their debut album." At the time, Grainger told NME that the album thematically returned to the concerns of *You're A Woman, I'm A Machine*: "This is an album where I'm no longer looking outward like I did on the past two records, but looking inward instead... I connected this one back to our first work because back then, I was only ever aware of the small circle of people around me."