#deathfix

And yet, while he could easily earn his keep close to home, Canty still feels compelled to get in the van. His new band, Deathfix, finds Canty pulling a Grohl, by dropping the drumsticks, strapping on a guitar, and grabbing the mic. And while the stern name may suggest Deathfix is a fortuitously timed effort to capitalize on the current vogue for '90s-era post-hardcore noise, it's actually a cheeky misdirection. The band's freewheeling debut album sees Canty and chief collaborator Rich Morel—a prolific dance-music producer who played with Canty as part of Bob Mould's 2005-06 touring band—indulging their love of '70s power-pop, glam, funk, and prog-rock, dousing the recordings in gooey George Harrison guitar licks and letting the songs wander past the eight-minute mark if need be.

Prior to the Deathfix's debut Tuesday at Wrongbar, The Grid caught up with Canty mid-move at his soon-to-be-relocated D.C. studio, while he was "sitting in a giant pile of equipment and sorting through things that haven’t been touched in 10 years." Given the many demands of his personal and professional lives, we wanted to find out how Canty keeps his shit together and stays inspired. Here are his tips:

1. Forget about sleeping

"I just don’t sleep very much," he says. "You’re there when the kids are around but, when they go to bed, you get back to work and you stay up until about 1 or 2 a.m., and you get up at 7 a.m.—and that’s just what you do. Really, honestly, that’s the way it’s worked out for me for the past 15 years. It’s completely overwhelming to have four kids but, the funny thing is, they become interesting people in their own right and they also become self-sufficient, so the job does get easier. But it is fucking exhausting, that’s for sure. All I’ll say to new parents is, once a week, give yourself a break and get some sleep. Otherwise, just expect yourself to go grey, get fat, grow old, and die early."

2. Turn off your fucking computer

"I just really hate modern computer life, where you just sit on the computer all the time," Canty says of his impetus for starting another band at this stage in his life. "And it seems like with everything I get involved with—filmmaking or music production or soundtrack work—I end up sitting in front of the computer all the time. And I found it to be totally unsustainable. I really, honestly, think it’s killing me. So I’m trying to do stuff away from the computer, with people, collaborative things—and to be honest with you, if Deathfix hadn’t come along, I might still be in front of the computer. I’m on a tear to liberate myself from the screen."

3. Learn to love your enemy

According to Canty, the eclectic influences at play in Deathfix are a natural byproduct of his own catholic musical tastes, which, as he's gotten older, have gradually broadened to accommodate artists he once blacklisted on knee-jerked principle. "There was a very small period of time when I first got back into punk rock where I rejected my passion for Funkadelic," Canty admits. "And then I turned right around and asked myself, 'Why did I get rid of all those records? Why did I do that?' And since then, I thought, 'You know, there’s probably room in my head for all these competing aesthetics,' so I really have tried to be as open as possible. I hated the Grateful Dead with a passion, and I decided I really didn’t know the Grateful Dead enough to hate them, so I should really go out there and learn everything I can about the Grateful Dead. So, about 10 years ago, I went out and bought that Long, Strange Trip book, which is an excellent biography, and I bought a bunch of their records, and I listened to them, and learned about them, and I taught myself to love the Grateful Dead."

4. Listen to your kids

Though Canty's career stretches back three decades, he's much more eager to let his kids school him on music than vice versa. "They're into Frank Ocean, Macklemore, Kendrick Lamar—they’re pretty good. It’s wild to put out a record now on the internet and, boom, everybody hears it all at the same time. That never was the case back in the day—it’s really fabulous. And the level of discourse is so rapid that my kids are just hearing shit every day, and passing it around amongst their friends. I’m always surprised by what they’re listening to. They’re turning me onto stuff every day, which is great. They follow what’s going on, and they advised us on the [Deathfix] record. They’ve been advising me every step of the way. This record got focus-grouped around the house ad nauseum."

5. Don't look back

It's no surprise that a band as principled and nonconformist as Fugazi have yet to join their '90s indie-rock peers on the lucrative reunion-tour circuit. And, according to Canty, we shouldn't hold our breath for a reformation anytime soon. The fact that the band never officially announced their break-up offers a sliver of hope for future activity but, for the time being, logistics won't allow it.

"There's nothing happening right now," he says. "We are living and communicating and that’s about it. Joe [Lally] lives in Italy, Guy [Picciotto] lives in New York, Ian [MacKaye] and I live down here in D.C. We communicate a lot by the internet and by phone, and we see each other when we’re in each others’ towns, but, beyond that, I there's not much going on. There’s always little Fugazi business to take care of, so we communicate about that as well. The live series continues to be put out, and that’s about it. We have so much cool video from those tours—like there’s a multi-camera shoot from London in 1991 that’s really great, with 24-track tape—and things like that would be so cool to have out there. But Ian’s got The Evens, and I’ve got Deathfix, and everybody’s raising their kids. Maybe there’ll be time to do Fugazi at some point, but it just doesn’t seem like we have that time right now. If only everybody got fed about communicating by computer and just realized that they need to be in the same town as one another, then you’ve got a reunion!"—Stuart Berman