Stronger Together, Boring Alone: An Interview With Eva Michon

by Chandler Levack

As I Skype with Eva Michon, I can hear her dog wheezing loudly; she’s having a powerful dream. The light coming through Eva’s Los Angeles bedroom is impossibly golden — — California sunshine in the middle of a drought. The editor of the oh-so-cool Bad Day Magazine, Michon is also known for music videos for bands like Owen Pallett, Trust, and for her husband, Sebastien Grainger.

This month, her feature documentary Life After Death From Above 1979 is available on Vimeo on Demand. The film follows the ten-year relationship between the formative garage rock two-piece Death From Above 1979, made up of drummer Sebastien Grainger and bassist Jesse Keeler, both on vocals, whose 2004 debut You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine set the tone for a indie rock revolution. They went through an untimely breakup, a brief reunion tour, and now, ten years after their only album, are back with their second album, called The Physical World.

Michon has been photographing since she was sixteen years old. The candid footage in Life After Death From Above 1979 — — the band freaking out watching the sound guy fix a technical error before their reunion show at Coachella, Grainger deciding what suspenders to wear while posing in front of a mirror, Keeler playing with his baby daughter on the beach — — details a love story between two dudes who are bandmates and soulmates.

Like Eva, I am also a music video director from Toronto who often works with a male collaborator (who used to be my boyfriend; we recently broke up but still work together). Figuring out how to define yourself outside of a relationship, while still trying to somehow do great work as a team, is probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Yet I believe in the film’s idea of the two-piece, stronger together and boring alone.

Over the sound of her dog’s snores and with the light fading through her window, Eva and I talked about her personal history with DFA1979, dressing as a female filmmaker, and true equality between partners, both romantic and creative.

How did you meet Sebastian?
I met him when I was sixteen. The first time we met actually in person was at some show, but we had talked on the internet before that. Jesse and Seb used to have a DJ night and they would constantly send me flyers to this party, which I could never go to because I was sixteen.

It sounds like you were a pretty cool sixteen year old…
I was always at punk and some hardcore shows. And then we met — — they had a band called Femme Fatale, so I would go see them play.

How old was he at the time?
He’s six years older and Jesse is eight years older than me. So they were probably 22, 24. They were babies.

And so were you.
At first, I really did not like him. But then we hung out a bunch, I went on tour with them, and then we became really good friends. We started liking each other slowly, when I was 19–20. It was a really natural progression.

There’s a conception when dating a guy in a band that your relationship will never be as important as the relationship he has with his bandmates. Your documentary depicts your husband’s relationship with someone who is the love of his creative life — — the most painful breakup he’s been through — — and how they got back together.
Well, I mean a two-piece band has so much in common with a marriage. If there’s no communication, things start festering. It’s fitting that Sebastien’s wife would be making a movie that’s sort of like watching a marriage fall apart and come back together.

How did you guys set boundaries while filming?
Seb and Jesse are very used to me filming; I’ve been doing it for the last 10 years. Except when we weren’t friends with Jesse for five years. For some reason they forget I’m in the room. We had to be totally invisible shooting them. There’s a lot of interview footage that was very personal but just wasn’t relevant. We could’ve made a few different movies. But this is the story that encapsulated everything in a way that made sense to me.

Is there a throughline?
It’s a film about a friendship. I’ve spent hours just observing the way that they are together.

You recently said in an interview that your husband’s boring without Jesse.
They’re really normal, nice people, and talented in their own right. But when they’re together, there’s something extra special about the chemistry they have creatively. I don’t think they could make anything bad.

There’s something about the culture of guys in bands that is interesting to me.
It’s my way of participating. I happen to be the wife of a guy in a band, but it was never my intention. Like, if someone called me a groupie, that would just be inaccurate. On the first tour, they asked me to take photos. I always had a job. I always had a place. I was never just hanging out. I think when people hear, “Oh, this movie was made by the wife of the singer,” that sets a low expectation. Which is good for me, because they might be pleasantly surprised.

The film kind of dances around the subject of why DFA1979 broke up. Do you think there is an answer?
I think the best answer was what Seb and Jesse say — — “we weren’t friends anymore.” When they broke up, there were a lot of little things that had added up over the years. They were together constantly. They were also reacting to suddenly becoming relatively famous. And they both dealt with it differently — — Jesse became extroverted and Seb became very introverted.

But everything just came down to “we weren’t friends anymore.” And personally, I think that’s fucking huge. The fact that you’re in a band that’s about to do huge things, but you’re just gonna say “no thanks” because you’re not friends anymore? To me, that’s insane. Not everyone would do that.

And defining your identity separate from that is terrifying.
Totally. It’s just like a breakup. Figuring out who you are, not in relation to anyone else. I mean, Jesse jumped into a new relationship right away.

Yeah the whole MSTRKRFT thing is like a guy breaking up with you and getting a serious girlfriend a month later.
It’s more like he breaks up and starts going out with this girl who’s super fun and exciting and you see all the party photos. (note: Eva says Al-P of MSTRKRFT is friends with both Seb and Jesse; he also recorded the first DFA album and EP.)

And Sebastien was more like, “I’m gonna be single for awhile and really figure myself out.”
He had to rehabilitate himself. Because when you’re on tour for two years straight, you meet all these amazing people abroad. But I remember when the band broke up and we were living in Toronto, he didn’t have friends. Seb was always in bands, but the first thing he and Jesse really put themselves into was so successful right away. He didn’t get a chance to figure anything else out.

As a female filmmaker, has it ever been challenging to assert yourself on set?
This is something I definitely think about. Because — — knock on wood — — I haven’t had a weird sexist experience in my short career yet. I think I’ve been really lucky to have just been surrounded by people who don’t give a shit.

After film school I didn’t jump right into directing. I art directed a lot of things, I worked on commercials, I PA’d. I observed how people act and how people treat other people on set. I’m just super respectful to the people I work with and they return that to me.

I don’t know if male filmmakers go through this, but figuring out what to wear on set when you’re directing is something that I think about. Like what do I want to project today?

I wear a t-shirt and jeans.
So you’re not overly girly?

The last time I directed something, I screwed up because I was wearing a “deep V” and didn’t realize that it was super –
Cleavage-y?

But I generally try to look as much like as a guy as possible.
It’s interesting…I wonder why that is. You want to fit in?

Yeah, blend in. Usually I wear this hat that makes me look like Stephen Spielberg. As of way of going like, I am very much a man today.
Yeah, I think that is a good tactic and it usually works. I think it’s just whatever makes you feel confident and not like you’re not sticking out like a sore thumb. It’s tricky.

What do you wear?
I have a Barbour jacket that is kind of a go-to, I like it because it’s super utilitarian, but also, the Queen wears it. I like stuff that the Queen likes. I love corgis, I love the stuff she wears out on the moors. And I usually wear some sort of a hat.

Sometimes I watch behind the scenes footage of Sophia Coppola directing and she just whispers, “okay, action go.” When I’m on set I’m super loud — and I almost feel like I want to get to that quiet, contemplative, intimate, feminine place. A way of almost like, making myself smaller as opposed to shouting to be heard.
Well, I think that will be easy for you when you work with an AD because they’re the ones who yell. I love working with ADs — — they get to be the jerk but you’re actually bossing them around.

But if you want to be loud, that’s your thing. You do what you have to do. It’s the work that counts at the end of the day.

I think it’s the art of learning how to ask for what you want and get rid of that idea that it’s a burden to other people.
Yeah, I could see that. By the time I’m on set, I’m so sure of what I’m doing. As long as you’re open to things changing and collaborating with the people you’re working with. I think it just comes down to trusting yourself.

Rounding back to Seb and Jesse… They always encouraged me and always respected me. They were definitely early supporters of mine and that probably affected why I did have the confidence to do what I do today. I was sixteen, and they were like, “Yeah, come on our tour, your photos are great.”

I think sometimes the girl who dates a comedian or an actor or a guy in a band wants to be an actor or a comedian or a girl in a band. But it seems like you have a mutually beneficial partnership where you are collaborating in this way that’s really hard to do. It takes a lot of trust and honesty.
I think it all comes down to the line in the film when Seb is like, “There’s no frontman in this band, we’re equals.” And that’s just like a marriage.

Chandler Levack is a filmmaker and a writer in Toronto. Her writing has appeared in SPIN, The Village Voice and Toronto Life and her music videos for PUP were just nominated for two UK Video Music Awards. She eats a Portuguese custard tart everyday.

Photos courtesy of Eva Michon.