A tour through the Death By Audio factory

Take a romantic stroll with our crushes at Death By Audio for this special Valentine’s Day episode of Show Us Your Junk. DBA founder and A Place to Bury Strangers frontman Oliver Ackermann, and his partner, Heather Bickford, DBA’s Managing Operations Director, walk us through their shop and tell the story of how they met and expanded their company into what it is today. Oliver shows us his collection of Fender Jaguars, most of which are broken or sawed in half, but somehow still functioning, and tests out some early DBA prototypes. Oliver has many creative outlets and sonic endeavors. Initially, he started tinkering with building his own effects to craft unique sounds in his band. He then started making and selling flagship pedals like the Total Sonic Annihilation to save for a backpacking trip to Europe, and eventually relocated to New York from Virginia where he found a warehouse space and started throwing shows where legendary bands like Deerhoof, Japanther, Thee Oh Sees and Metz performed. This was the start of Death By Audio. In the early 2000s, the DBA space operated as a performance venue, pedal factory, recording studio and living space all in one. Though the venue closed in 2014, the scene’s undeniable influence lives on. Oliver and Heather found a new building in Queens in 2017 and renovated it on their own, where they currently operate and continue to churn out pedals by hand. Shot by Chris Tran, Jeff France, David Whited, Dannesh Moosa Audio Recording Dannesh Moosa and Jeff France Edited by Chris Tran Thumbnail Image by Ebru Yildiz Check out Ebru Yildiz photobook “We’ve come so far: The Final Days of Death By Audio“ Visit our site: Follow us on Instagram: Like us on Facebook: Follow us on Twitter: