Death by Selfie
The music of DBS evolves between old-school electro, psychedelic pop and French-touch by merging vintage analog instruments and digital technology. Augmented humans or sensitive robots, DBS assumes the shift and the difference, dares the second degree, the poetry and the nuance in texts in French where the vocoder and the autotune are not intended to correct the voice but to make it deliberately inhuman to take the listener on a journey conducive to letting go.
The band's universe is also visual and, after the release of the 1st Ep, DBS has endeavored to create an original visual identity with the production of music videos: Fluid Gender in December 2021, Warhol Effect in January 2022 and Animal Totem in July 2022.
On stage, with a hundred concerts to their credit within various past projects, the musicians of Death by Selfie refined their setlist and their scenography during a residency in January 2022. They have since performed as opening act for artists such as French 79 or Sopico.
Who are "Death by Selfie" and how did you get into music?
Stan: We are two old friends, Harald and Stan, and started to play together in high school. We had the chance to start playing on old Korg rhythm machine and analog synths…
Harald: My father bought these instruments at the end of the 70’s after spending some time in Germany where he got into the german electronic or prog-rock sound of the era like Can, Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream… For us, the musical revelation was the French Touch from the 90’s-2000 period, like Daft Punk, Air or others…
Stan: Yes, the 3D glasses that we wear in our clips or on stage are a kind of low-tech nod to Daft Punk and their helmets and our use of vocoders comes from Air.
"Souvenirs du futur" sounds extraordinary, what's the story behind the song?
Stan: Thanks! Well, this song is very significant for us and says a lot about the band’s universe (or rather Multiverse which is the title our latest Ep). We love vintage electronic sounds, vintage science-fiction and retrofuturism in general, things related with our childhood or teenage period… So the title of the song and it’s lyrics are about that, the way we imagined and dreamt about future when we were younger and what was so great about it… and no longer is.
Harald: Future is no longer something you can dream of but we wanted to make this song a positive one, a kind of retro-disco hit, an 80’s thing with a strong beat, funky guitar and crazy synths. And yes, it sounds so good thanks to our producer Jean-Pascal Boffo, a great mixer and also an amazing prog-rock guitarist.
Social Media ... great tools to promote yourself or more a necessary evil?
Stan: Well, I guess we chose the worst band’s name for social medias! That was not really on purpose, though! But we got really fed up with that selfie-mania, all this narcissism and “Death by selfie” sounded funny to us (it may sound morbid or tragic, of course, but for us it’s more an ironic symbol of modern society). Still, as we don’t like and don’t do selfies it’s not so easy to appear on social medias…
Harald: In the same time, it is a great tool for building imaginary universes and tell stories! That’s what we try to do, use social media to create a kind of parallel world, our own virtual reality.
What was in your opinion the last turning point in music history?
Stan: For me, it’s the autotune, which is a tragic turning point in music history! It has very quickly contaminated all musical genres and created a terrible habit for listeners. I mean, I’m not against the use of effects in music, not even against autotune in itself but the way it is used by so many artists -even really good singers- is really too much.
Harald: For me, digitalization was the last turning point! Platforms and playlisters have become prominent and, as an artist, you can now release your music in a single click. It’s a good thing but in the same time, with so many daily releases it’s not so easy to get heard, especially when you’re an indie band.
The best part of being Indie is ...?
Stan: Having the control on everything! Our songs, from composition to mixing, our visual universe through clips, covers… That’s priceless!
....and last but not least what are your plans for 2023?
Harald: Growing! Musically and in audience as well. We will continue recording more music and shooting more videos. We don’t know yet if our next record will be another Ep or a first Lp. And of course, we want to play live and why not tour abroad!
