L.A. trio Health plays Commodore Ballroom

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Health

When: March 29, 7 p.m.

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Where: Commodore Ballroom

Tickets and info: From $60.69 at Ticketmaster.ca

Rat Wars is the sixth full-length album from Los Angeles noise/industrial trio Health. Released on Loma Vista records, the recording landed on many 2023 best-of-the-year lists.

The group featuring drummer B.J. Miller, guitarist/vocalist Jake Duzsik and bassist/producer John Famiglietti is a hot new thing after almost 20 years together.

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Formed in 2005, the group became mainstays of the experimental music venue, art gallery and vegan eatery called The Smell. Artists associated with the space include such popular indie acts as No Age, Ty Segall, Best Coast, Warpaint and others.

Health first gained mainstream attention for a 2006 remix of the song Crimewave by Toronto synthpunk crew Crystal Castles, which helped break the band in the U.K. That gave Health significant attention as well and it didn’t even have an album out yet.

Since then, the band has enjoyed a steady rise up the ranks in the underground industrial rock scene. Frequent contributions to the soundtracks of many popular games has also spurred on support for the trio’s grinding, loud and frequently danceable tracks.

Famiglietti discussed Health’s rise to healthy scene recognition before the group’s hyped Rat Wars tour:

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Here are five things he focused on:

1: Why Health formed and why it’s still here: Initially, we just really wanted to come together to be a part of this really cool avant-noise scene that was happening at The Smell, and maybe tour or put out a record.

Then we kept on getting these unexpected opportunities — remixing Crystal Castles, critical reception for the Health/Disco album in 2008 in Vice, Pitchfork and other publications, a hugely well-received DIY U.K. tour, being asked to open for Nine Inch Nails, etc. — that we probably shouldn’t have received from an album of 11 blasts of atonal noise.

Here we are almost 20 years later, fully committed to the cause.

2: Video games: Industrial music has been big in films like the Matrix and in games since Quake Version 1. Game designers just love the s–t. It’s been a long and welcome relationship for us contributing to titles like Grand Theft Auto, Cyberpunk 2077 and the anime Cyberpunk: Edgerunners’ series.

3: Working with Victoria producer Stint (a.k.a. Ajay Bhattacharyya): What’s cool is that he is a guy who works almost exclusively in pop music with artists like Kesha, Carly Rae Jepsen and others but he totally likes our kind of music. The chemistry was instant and he works more as a co-writer with us over the past few projects. He’s a pretty key part of the Health studio family.

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4: Remix albums as, or more, popular than studio releases: Once again, it was a period in time when remixes were really popular and we caught the wave. Maybe because our music was hard to approach, it meant people who were involved in the Health/Disco remix releases worked harder to come up with something. By the time of Disco3+, which took forever, we were done. We did Disco4+, but that was more collaborative. I would do another one for Rat Wars, but it is not loved by streaming services or the music biz these days.

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5: Vancouver as an industrial music founder: At the very least, you could say that Vancouver was a seminal force in the whole creation of the industrial genre with bands like Skinny Puppy and others. Honestly, it’s proved a very hard nut to crack for us but the last few shows have been really good and things have really changed. We’re still a three-piece, but there are things on Rat Wars that are edging close to needing a fourth guy to recreate live. It’s a big show we’re bringing this time.

sderdeyn@postmedia.com

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