"You can still see the cocaine deposits..."

[Livia]

MSTRKRFT: difficult name, easy success MSTRKRFT

Jesse F. Keeler (left) and Al-P jettison the indie-rock focus of previous and current projects for their burgeoning remix work as MSTRKRFT (pronounced "master craft.")

By Stuart Berman
Apr 27 2006

TORONTO - James Brown may still be the hardest working man in showbiz, but Jesse F. Keeler surely has the hardest working cellphone. Since his disco-thrash duo Death From Above 1979 released their seismic debut album, You're a Woman, I'm a Machine, in September of 2004, the man's been receiving text messages from Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl, collaboration offers from k-os, and tour invites from Josh Homme (whose Queens of the Stone Age ended up taking DFA79 on an arena trek with Nine Inch Nails last fall).
But not all the phone calls Keeler receives are to compliment him on his neutron-bomb bass riffs. Lately, he's been fielding inquiries from the likes of Armand Van Helden, Alan Braxe and Tommy Sunshine, big-name DJs who are more interested in Keeler's other, less celebrated talent: remix production.
If DFA79 is Keeler's current hot fling, his downtime is spent tending to his first marriage: that is, his seven-year friendship with house producer Al-P (formerly of electro-popsters girlsareshort), with whom Keeler has officially united under the production/studio moniker MSTRKRFT (pronounced "master craft").
"A lot of studios in the city become demo factories for local bands, and that's my biggest fear," Keeler says. "I don't want to **** around. I've got the clout to take out loans. So I said to Al, 'Why don't we take the recording budget from the next Death From Above record and build a real studio?' It's great, because Death From Above serves as an advertising tool for what we do here."
The three of us are sitting "here," in the house that DFA79 built: MSTRKRFT Studios, located in a loft space in downtown Toronto, purchased in May 2005 for "as much as a really nice condo in Toronto." We're gazing reverentially upon the heart and soul of the operation: a 24-track Neve recording console built in 1970 and bought for "close to the starting price of the cheapest condo in Toronto."
"It came from a studio in Vancouver called Pinewood Sound," says Al, the clean-cut foil to Keeler's rocker shag and 'stache. "Previous to the ownership there, it was used on Fleetwood Mac's Rumours as the auxiliary studio. I think you can still see the cocaine deposits on there..."
"It was also used to record all the Kiss solo records, but that's not the first thing we tell people," Keeler says, laughing. "The first time I saw this console was on my birthday last year, in Vancouver. I hugged it goodbye. I was so sure there was no way [Pinewood] was going to sell it to us because we didn't put up any money - we just strung them along for six months until we found the cash. I came up with every scheme you could think of to get this console... I remember saying, 'Do you think we could get that equipment out of that studio without getting caught? How can we learn their security codes?'"
Once the console was finally procured through legal means, the debut MSTRKRFT production for Brooklyn prog-punkers Panthers (featured on a Vice magazine sampler and the Sound of Young New York compilation) led to a steady stream of remix offers, including tracks by Buck 65, the Kills, Annie, and Bloc Party. The duo also recorded Toronto garage-rockers Magneta Lane's acclaimed debut album, Dancing with Daggers, and completed some DFA79 remixes before starting work on an album of original MSTRKRFT house productions, to be titled The Looks.
Says Keeler, "I mentioned on our website that MSTRKRFT was doing a cover of the Death From Above record, and Pitchfork wanted to do a story on it the next day. This was six months before the beginning of it! I got asked by Billboard about the MSTRKRFT album and someone in the U.K. asked about a publishing deal for the remix cover record - which [didn't] even exist! So I'm just like, 'Okay, I guess we're doing something right.'"
Not least of which is keeping the cellphone charged. ?
Opening for Tiga. Saturday, April 29 at Richard's on Richards (1036 Richards), 9 p.m. Tickets $25 from ClubZone.com


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