Sebastien Grainger is hungry to play some shows. After releasing his self-titled LP this October, he’s been on the road with his backing band the Mountains to promote the hell out of the record.
Grainger, the drummer and vocalist behind the phenomenal Death From Above 1979, is still haunted to this day by the DFA ’79 brand. It’s why he hasn’t been as prolific in the music scene as his past partner-in-crime Jesse Keeler (now of the DJ duo MSTRKRFT). It’s not to say that he hasn’t been busy with projects. He built a studio with Jesse Shaw of Metric.
“The band has been together for nearly two years now,” says Grainger. “December 5 is the two year anniversary of our first show, so there was this natural progression [from creating the band to putting out the album]. You can’t fake hanging out in a van with four other guys, sharing a bed with another grown man and sharing terrible food– that’s what builds band character.”
After a late night show the previous night, the band was building character at one of the seminal American food emporiums– the mighty buffet. With so much food on the menu, and the hot plates, Grainger was almost at a loss to choose just what to eat.
“I’m in this weird buffet restaurant in western Illinois,” laughs Grainger. “We just walked into this place called the Golden Corral Buffet and Grill, which is like this massive mall of buffets. I haven’t really had a chance to explore, but it looks like Andrew had some fried chicken on his plate, so I might go that way.”
Despite the desire for some heavy food, Grainger commented that his eating habits the night before called for something a bit easier on the ol’ digestive tract.
“I fell asleep directly after eating pizza last night, so maybe I should go for something a bit lighter like spinach or something,” he laughs.
It may seem strange for a musician to talk about food, but Grainger is a little bit different from the majority of his fellow musicians. In his off hours, he runs a food blog called “Sebastien is Delicious” (sebastien-is-delicious.blogspot.com). While it’s currently on hiatus due to the constraints of touring, it is still a great repository for dishes like duck soup or chocolate bread. The question remains though: how does a foodie survive on the road when all that’s available is pizza and other assorted terrible food?
“I like all kinds of food,” says Grainger. “I like really good food and really bad food as well. I’m not a food snob by any means. Sure, I love to eat really good food, but I like interesting food, really strangely prepared food or food with weird textures too. It doesn’t elbow out the options that you have when you’re travelling the great United States of America.”
Of course, when travelling the great states of America, there are numerous options with inane names to choose from. From Denny’s, Stuckey’s, TGI Fridays to Chili’s, a touring band has seen them all. When questioned about the best place get grub, Grainger was quick to respond with his personal favourite.
“The Waffle House is pretty fantastic,” he laughs.