American Lips features Death From Above 1979 drummer Sebastien Grainger, Jessica Bruzzese and prolific producer Adrian Popovich, also known for his time in legendary Canadian rock act Tricky Woo.

Inspired by Wax Trax! Records, Shep Pettibone, Art Of Noise, and a hot cut from The Ghostbusters OST, American Lips shed the punky garage-wave of their 2017 debut LP ‘Kiss The Void,’ and take a hard-drive dumpster-dive, emerging with a kind of “sample-bank pop” – at once danceable, but stylistically hard to pin down (don’t call it dance punk!). Double A-sides ‘Waste Of Crime’ and ‘Labor Of Hate’ are backed by extended dub remix ‘Labor Of Dub’.

<a href="https://americanlips.bandcamp.com/album/waste-of-crime-maxi-single">Waste Of Crime (Maxi Single) by American Lips</a>

I really enjoyed the latest ‘Waste Of Crime’ (Maxi Single), would you like to talk about it?

Adrian Popovich: The release took shape after Sebastien added horns (using Fairlight CMI samples) to the song ‘Waste Of Crime’ as a “joke.” It was his Johnny Greenwood sabotaging ‘Creep’ moment. As a big fan of Tom Jones’ 1988 cover of ‘Kiss,’ I took it seriously and here we are. The inclusion of a “dub remix” was inspired by the lost marketing strategy of the “Maxi Single” format, notably Prince’s ‘Batdance’ 12”.

You are all coming from different backgrounds, how did the American Lips originally start?

Adrian Popovich: Sebastien and I met as children on eBay back when it was still an Ebola-related message board. We hung around there, chastising people for their opinions on the virus. This was obviously WAY before everyone was doing that kind of thing. Early internet trolling was our first love but we eventually got to talking about our side-interest, music, and a relationship grew out of that. We always intended on collaborating on something but it wasn’t until Jessica and I met while liberating a puppy mill that we had enough people to start a band. This all led to the formation of the Ancient Fashion Records label, as well.

Having had underwhelming experiences with labels in the past, Sebastien and I decided that if anyone was going to botch the release of the American Lips record, it might as well be us. In the end, we were satisfied enough with our work that we took on the reissue of the ‘Heads Up’ EP by Death From Above 1979.

You released your first album in 2017. What’s the story behind ‘Kiss the Void?’

Adrian Popovich: Jessica and myself had been working on a separate band called Double Suicide. It was a kind of gloomy, mostly electronic project in which we militantly advocated for federally enforced veganism. We also had a separate batch of demos that were much peppier and in what you might call a “polka” or “2-car garage rock” style. I sent them to Sebastien asking if he would play drums and he accepted on condition that he mix it in “the perfect hotel room,” which took well over a year to find.

You are planning to release a series of new and archival records in 2023. Are you planning to release an album as well? Would you mean revealing some info about it?

Adrian Popovich: There are several albums worth of releasable, but unmixed, American Lips material sitting on hard drives. Perfect hotel rooms are in shorter supply.

Okay, let’s go back to your early teen years, what kind of records would we find in your room? What kind of gigs did you see early on and how that transcended who you become today?

Adrian Popovich: It would have been a wide variety of punk and hardcore music – everything from Paul Simon to Madonna to John Denver.

Describe your time in Tricky Woo?

Adrian Popovich: We were very young and thought that we sounded like Aerosmith. In retrospect, the tempos were often much faster.

What about FRVITS?

Adrian Popovich: FRVITS is more like a municipal political party than a music project in that we have no skills or qualifications to do what we do, nor any kind of attainable vision.

What about ‘Naissance De L’Infini?’

Adrian Popovich: One of my great loves is ambient music, dating back to being a child, listening to my parents’ copy of Tangerine Dream’s ‘Phaedra’ then discovering Eno’s ‘Music For Airports’ after borrowing the cassette from the library. It’s like an audio vacation for me. ‘Naissance De L’infini’ is a collection of some of my ambient tracks.

How did you get involved with the Dears?

Adrian Popovich: Murray and Natalia are old friends. I was never directly involved with the Dears in any capacity other than conceptualizing a fake, provocative video about cheese for them, and recording the band at my studio. I did add guitar to a couple of songs on ‘Missiles’ but that was merely circumstantial.

Back in 2009 or maybe it was 2010 I randomly went to a club and saw Barn Burner performing. You worked with them, right? They ended up autographing their debut album and someone from the band wrote, “take more drugs,” so yeah, it was a fantastic show.

Adrian Popovich: I love those Barn Burner records and Kevin and the boys were amazing/hilarious to work with. They had a nurse on staff who gave them daily Pabst drips. They tried to pressure me to do it as well. I refused and they settled for me wearing one of those beer-holder baseball caps instead.

What were some of the main influences for you when starting Death from Above 1979 with Jesse F. Keeler?

Sebastien Grainger: Deep Purple, Gary Newman, Joy Division, Spice Girls, Sir Lord Baltimore and the films of Jim Jarmusch and John Cassavetes.

I listened to ‘You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine’ very often when it was released, would you like to share some of your favourite memories from working on it?

Sebastien Grainger: We had a very small budget, but our engineer/producer Al-P worked at a great old studio called Chemical Sound that was down an alley behind a strip club. Because he had the keys we were able to sneak in after hours and record all night. Sometimes we’d be having a cigarette outside and the strippers would be there smoking between dances and we’d nod at each other like “it’s a living!”.

How would you compare those early Death from Above 1979 material to your 2021 album, ‘Is 4 Lovers’?

Sebastien Grainger: When we made our early records the government of Canada was providing musicians with free ephedrine or what is colloquially known as “trucker speed.” It was a way to ensure recording sessions happened within a certain time-frame with a certain amount of vigor. The drug was intended to be supplied to beneficiaries of government grants, which we were not, yet through a loophole I found because I have scoliosis we were able to get unlimited ephedrine pills. That gave those early records a very specific vibe. ‘Is 4 Lovers’ was made in a basement in Philadelphia with absolutely no government interference. It was a strictly street drug record.

And how would you comment on ‘The Physical World’ and ‘Outrage! Is Now’?

Sebastien Grainger: Halfway through recording ‘The Physical World’ the producer Dave Sardy was hospitalized for severe dehydration caused by a gastro-intestinal condition (colitis).

We finished the record with him over Skype then he billed us +23% (USD!) for administrative fees. ‘Outrage Is Now!’ was lovely to make. Producer Eric Valentine took acid for the first time after not having ever consumed a drop of alcohol in his life. It was bliss. He used a $300,000.00 microphone on the Hi-Hats. Hollywood!

How did you get the name and what’s the deal with elephant trunks?

Sebastien Grainger: We “borrowed” the entire idea from a Tibetan blues band in Parkdale Toronto. They still play the bar “Stone’s Place” every Wednesday night!

You released several very interesting solo albums, not to mention The Rhythm Method or the very early band called Femme Fatale, what are some of the albums that was the hardest to make?

Sebastien Grainger: I made most of my first solo record in my underwear because it was summer. Our studio had a big old analogue console that generated a lot of heat. Also, I didn’t know what I was doing. I played the record for Adrian and he submitted it to a Provincial arts council in Quebec and by doing so it triggered an arts protocol and I had to travel to Montreal to re-record the entire album in a government licensed studio with French-Canadian engineers.

You are part owner of Giant Studios in Toronto, Ontario with Jimmy Shaw of Metric, how much time goes into your studio? What are some of the latest projects?

Sebastien Grainger: Wikipedia lied to you. Jimmy Shaw never owned the studio. I bought it with members of Canadian garage rock band “The King Khan & BBQ Show” and their bass player died in the building when they were making their second record so I sold the studio to Joules Scott-Key, the drummer from Metric, who’s uncle is an exorcist.

Let’s end this interview with some of your favourite albums. Have you found something new lately you would like to recommend to our readers?

Sebastien Grainger: Some favorite albums of all time are Suicide’s first, The Damned’s ‘Damned Damned Damned,’ Iggy Pop’s ‘Lust For Life,’ Lou Reed’s ‘Transformer,’ Wire’s ‘Chairs Missing,’ ‘Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround’ by the Kinks, ‘Workin’ with the Miles Davis Quartet,’ ‘Music For Airports’ by Brian Eno, ‘Pauls’ Boutique’ by Beastie Boys, The OST to Dennis Hopper’s ‘Colors’.

Loving almost everything that comes out on Feel It Records these days. Also listening to Dr. Joy because I saw their album on your Instagram and loved the cover. Great record!

Klemen Breznikar

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