Biography

Australian noise rock trio the Death Set fuse a punk rock approach with experimental, genre-bending production, often bringing electronic elements to their chaotic, high-energy songs. The band changed their home base frequently in their early days, leaving Australia shortly after their 2005 formation and setting up shop for a year or so in Baltimore, Philadephia, and Brooklyn. The Death Set was highly active throughout the 2000s and the start of the 2010s, remaining productive throughout all their moves and even through the death of a founding member. A relatively silent stretch after 2011's Michel Poiccard was broken in 2021 with the release of fourth album How to Tune a Parrot. Though Death Set founders Beau Velasco and Johnny Siera were both aware of one another growing up in Gold Coast, Australia's relatively small music scene, it wasn't until Siera saw Velasco playing his guitar and thrashing about in the local band Black Panda that he knew he wanted to be friends. But it was Velasco, in fact, who asked Siera to join Black Panda on guitar, and when the other members dropped out because of other commitments, the two decided to continue as a duo. After touring Australia's East Coast with the similarly minded Brooklyn duo Japanther, the two were inspired to move to Sydney, where they worked on writing and recording their own music, which consisted of their guitars, keyboards, and tinny laptop beats with the vocals sung through microphones Velasco had rigged up. Calling themselves the Death Set, they eventually decided they should move to the U.S., and after a brief stint in Brooklyn, settled on the city of Baltimore. Their self-released debut EP, To (the majority of which was written in Sydney), caught the ear of Morphius Records, which reissued it in 2006. The following year, Rad Warehouses Bad Neighborhoods came out, and in the spring of 2008 the Death Set, which at this point consisted of Siera and guitarist/vocalist Peter O'Connell with the help of a rotating cast of drummers, issued Worldwide (which Velasco did appear on) on Ninja Tune's rock imprint Counter Records. The following year the band was shocked by the news that founder Velasco had passed away. Jahphet Landis was recruited to fill the gap left behind, and the band set to work on their third album, Michel Poiccard, which was released early in 2011. The band's 2014 EP, King Babies, would be their last release for several years, and they reshuffled membership once again. In 2021, now consisting of Siera, Daniel Walker, and William Broussard, the Death Set issued their fourth studio full-length, How to Tune a Parrot. ~ Marisa Brown, Rovi