Death From Above 1979 Members Reveal They Turned Down Opening Slot on Daft Punk’s Final, Legendary Alive 2007 Tour

In a recent interview with NME, Death From Above 1979 has revealed that they had been invited to join Daft Punk as supporting act of the legendary music producers’ final tour. The band explained their reason for declining the tour was due to the fact that they had recently separated, after releasing their debut album.

“When our band broke up, we decided in 2005 to stop playing together but we hadn’t told anybody yet,” the band’s Jesse F. Keeler told NME. “That’s when Daft Punk’s manager, Pedro [Winter] asked us to open for them on that tour with the pyramid [the 2006/2007 Alive world tour]. I told him: ‘Dude, you’re too late!’”

“Only the greatest tour that ever happened!” the band’s Sebastian Grainger said.

The band’s interview centered around their upcoming album, Is 4 Lovers, which will be released on Friday, March 26. Originally written in 2019, some of the album’s recording process had to be postponed due to the pandemic. Their upcoming album will be their third, and is led by the single “One + One.”

After officially disbanding in 2006, Death From Above 1979 reunited in 2011, releasing the album The Physical World in 2014. Their initial split had been due to burn-out from relentless touring, playing over 500 shows in the span of four years.in the interview with NME, they explained that they would usually drive from show-to-show together in a van with just the two of them. The long hours on the road sometimes led to Keeler hallucinating.

“I swerved one time to avoid an old man on the road,” he said. “I said to Seb: ‘I nearly hit that old man’ and he was like: ‘There was no old man… we should probably stop.’ I was hallucinating. He looked like the guy on the cover of Led Zeppelin IV.”

The band’s side-project, MSTRKRFT, released the EP, New Sunshine of My Life, in 2019. That same year, they released the single “Buffalo Fat.”

Daft Punk’s Alive world tour had been their last, however, they released the album Random Access Memories in 2012. After eight years of minimal releases, the electronic duo announced their official split.

Photo credit: Marisa Rose Ficara