Justin: How does playing the songs live differ from playing them in the studio? Are there moments of improv or is it exactly how it’ll sound on the studio album?

TW: There are moments of improv, but we’re probably going to end up incorporating more than that. We’ve got a mixtape out and we can play some of those songs live and people like to get down to them and they know them and are familiar with them but we’ve got so much stuff that is unreleased that we love to play live as well. So I think a lot of people are sort of “Whoa, what is this song, I had no idea!” and those tracks are going to be on the EP but then some of them aren’t even going to be on there, so it’s a way for people who know our music to hear a little more of it, songs that are unreleased and stuff like that, but then we’ll do our electronic instrumental tracks where it’s grooves that go on for a while, and it’s sort of an eclectic mix.

Justin: Are there songs that you made or had remixed that stand out the most to you guys?

LS: We’re about to come out with a Foster The People remix, we wanted to pick a song off the album that nobody had really touched, so we chose a song called “Life on the Nickel” and we kind of put our whole spin on it. So that’s been the one lately that we’ve been pumped about.

Justin: How did you guys get involved with N.E.R.D? You guys have been around for a little over a year and you already have collaborations and support of some of the biggest names around.

TW: Well, that was like enigmatic. I’d say if we were to chase back the connection long enough it started with an artist friend that we living with who did the majority of the cool art you see attached to our releases, his name is Charley Feher and he worked at the time for a company called Elusive Media with Shomi Patwary, who directed the “She Makes Me Feel” video and then did a lot of in studio documenting with us at an early stage. He had worked with N*E*R*D before on similar audio/video projects and artists like The Clipse and stuff like that. He was a fan of the music and he happened to be in The Neptunes studio and showed them what we were working on, and they really liked it. Out of the blue we got a call from Shay when we were in Boulder and just said “Yo, I think this stuff is really cool, I’d love to meet you guys and rap.” So that’s how it went down.

Justin: Speaking of artistic visions and how it ties into your music, your videos have an almost old school, home-movie-esque vibe to them. How involved were you guys in making the videos, or was that all your friends work?

TW: We’re pretty closely involved in making the videos.

LS: Yeah, the “She Makes Me Feel” video was our first music video, and Ted and I helped Shomi with ideas, we were all helping eachother. We didn’t have a big budget and in the end we wanted to make a video that a lot of people could relate to and wasn’t over the top looking. It definitely complemented the song well. Not to say we wouldn’t want to make some epic videos pretty soon but we’re still figuring it out. We’ve got a bunch of videos that we still gotta come up with right now for the E.P. release.

TW: And with those in-studio videos, we’re fortunate enough to have people that are good at not making us look like idiots and picking the right stuff to take. Those in-studio things done by Shomi in Virginia Beach and some of the earlier ones, he’s just the guy in the corner who always has the camera on, and he ends up clipping it together and making something pretty awesome, so we’re fortunate in that regard. Then the in-studio shots at Red Bull was done by Jason Beattie and he really took the reins on that and made it pretty awesome I think. That was a really cool experience to have him and that was the first time we had a lot of professional cameras on us recording tracks and we didn’t really have anything as far as making changes or stuff like that because they were really good at it and were really talented.

Justin: It seems you guys have been focusing a lot on promoting your band through social media, such as Facebook, Twitter and Soundcloud, to name a few. Is there a reason for that? How do you guys feel the internet has affected your band or the way your band is promoted?

LS: It’s been huge. We’re not signed to a label or anything like that, so we’re still grassroots, we do all of our promotion ourselves. It’s been cool, we get really excited when we’re able to release music, especially with the fact that there’s a big selection of bands and stuff on Twitter, and we’re fortunate to have a good relationship with the blogs, so we love it. Whenever we have a day where we blog about a bunch of stuff we call it “Kenny Bloggins” day. It’s so crazy in the early stages because we would just put up this song and then randomly it would be on this blog that we all like that we didn’t even have contact with and all of a sudden it will just appear there and it’s like “How did they find this?” It’s so cool. So it’s really exciting that social media and all those outlets are great tools for starting bands to get out there, so yeah. Kenny Bloggins day is our favorite day of the week for sure. [laughs]

Justin: Speaking of Kenny Bloggins day, I was reading on your Twitter account about your DJ set on Halloween. How does your DJ set differ from your live shows, are you guys playing different remixes or other artists music or is it primarily your music?

LS: I’d say it kind of factors in to our whole little mixtape angle. We just play music that we’re currently listening to and then we play some remixes that we did. This DJ set we’ll definitely play some remixes that are coming out on our upcoming mixtape as well as the one that we already released, as well as cool remixes of other people that we like.

TW: Then obviously I think it goes without saying that I’m not singing during the DJ set so that’s a big difference as well.

LS: Yeah, there’s no live instruments or acoustic instruments, it’s just a straight up DJ set. But I think as we progress I think we would like to elaborate on that DJ set a little more and maybe bring the instruments in. It’s a fun aspect that we have, we can pretty much come to a live show with three different angles: we can have a DJ set, an acoustic set or a live set.

Justin: Is there a chance that Alex Botwin is going to be included in this project? Is collaboration possible for that?

LS: Alex did a remix and helped with the remix that we’ll be putting out on the mixtape that we’re releasing in December. He’s still a good friend and we’re all homies.

Justin: Is the Pnuma Trio going to reunite, or is this pretty much your main focus right now?

LS: I’m not sure, Mansions has a lot on our plate right now, I’m not ruling anything out but like I said, Mansions has so much stuff coming out so it’s hard to think about anything else.

Justin: How was it touring with Mac Miller and Wiz Khalifa on the Green Carpet tour? Were there any performances or memories that stood out?

LS: Well before that tour we played one show at Snowball Music Festival in Colorado, and then a small show at The Mint that was a practice show, we were so new to the live scene at that point, and it was awesome. We were on the way back from our first show in Colorado on our way back to L.A. and found out that we were going to get to go on tour with those guys, and it started two weeks after that. It was definitely a learning experience, it was a lot of fun. It was our first tour to be playing in front of crowds that reached up to eight thousand people every night, it was a nice kick in the ass to get it going. Mac and Wiz’s people are all awesome people and it was a fun time.

TW: It was my first time ever on tour and really playing in front of that many people live, so to go from some really small acoustic gigs to playing in front of five thousand people was pretty incredible and crazy. I loved it, and it was an interesting, unique scene as well.

Justin: Yeah, I’m sure the backstage scene at a Wiz Khalifa concert could get pretty crazy.

TW: For sure.

Justin: What are your goals for the future, are there venues you want to play or people you want to collaborate with?

TW: I’d like to play a show on the moon, that would be cool.

Justin: A mansion would probably be the perfect venue for you guys.

TW: My whole thing is that I think music is written so people can hear it. I’d like as many people to hear my music or our music as possible, so whatever that means. I’d also love to travel Europe and travel the world playing music. That’s a lot of musicians dreams, but that would be pretty awesome.

LS: There’s no doubt about it, we want to get out there and see as many places and perform music for as many people as possible. That’s the mission statement.

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