Electronic music rarely feels physical in the sense you experience when listening to you guys. How do you do it? What kind of mind-set do you embrace in order to unleash this force?

Sara (S): I feel we take electronic music on the same standpoint as producing punk, to a certain extent. If it doesn't have a feeling to it that both of us can embrace or dance or have an emotive with it, I don't think that we would put it out. It wouldn't fit the type of thing that we are doing. We strive to make electronic music have as much of a punk feeling as anyone with a guitar and three chords, but using different things, like textures from banging on pipes, samples from daytime television, anything to make you feel like you're caught, like you're in the middle of a scenario, you know?

Ryan (R): It's just an extension of who we are as people. We're both pretty aggressive. Just as people and with the music we listen to, even when it comes to electronic music we tend to lean towards the harsher, more experimental stuff. I mean, we're fans of techno and dance music as well, but when it comes to writing, we go back to the things that got us into music. Metal, punk and early industrial and more visceral, confrontational music.

When you write, do you have some kind of standard indicator, a sort of figurative red light/green light that tells you when you're on the right track or not?

R: We write so much, and so much of it gets thrown out. Even though it's probably good enough to use. When it has us both stomping around the house and go "that's it, that's it" that's when we know.

S: He and I read each other super well. Especially with writing. Ryan is super talented, so I think it's my job, because I'm not somebody that is as well versed in synthesizers as he is, to go in and tell him things like "this is good, please don't throw this away" and then we build from that. I'll bring in leads or a pad sound or something warmer to it, but we have to start a foundation with "don't throw this away" and then we can build off of how the other person feels and what we each add to it. Essentially.

Do threats, aggression and roughing it up help make synthesizers behave the way you want them to behave?

R: It all depends on who's using them, but they tend to be aggressive to me anyways. I mean, your ears and your hands sort of sculpt the sound, and all of my synthesizers always want to go crazy, you know, I don't really like dialling them in until they reach a nice pretty point, I like to push them until they go a certain way, and then I make sure that I keep going in that rough direction. That's when we know that we have something, when we have a sound that sounds aggressive. Then you can resample it, and add more to it. I'm always trying to be heavier than a guitar. I'm not sure I've ever reached it, but it's always my thing, because you can sculpt these sounds with synthesizers that you can't really do, well, I mean, you can use guitar pedals and stuff, but you can just get these otherworldly sounds.

S: It's also fun for me in that I really only started messing around with synthesizers when Ryan and I first met, so for me I have this naïvité about writing, that whatever I'm feeling, I don't think when I'm modulating a sound, there's no methodical way of me going, oh, I know about LFOs or I know about oscillators or whatever, so I just, whatever is felt is transcribed in that and sometimes he'll reel it into me and say, hey, go with that! Whatever you just did, which I have no idea, and he has no idea, just keep it that way! It's a lot of fun. A punk mind-set.

What's the best prank you've ever pulled - or been the butt of?

S: Well, we had this mutual prank at the Skinny Puppy (featured in this Elektron Talk) tour. We were on stage in San Fransisco, and we didn't know if they were going to prank us, but it was sort of hinted at, and I was like, ok, game on, we're going to get you guys back as well! We knew we were going to do it on the last day.

R: Skinny Puppy came up on stage when we were in San Fransisco without us knowing, and they all wore Youth Code longsleeves, beanies and masks and stood behind us like...

S: ...Public Enemy's S1W, so they were just behind us the whole time...

R: ...and they stayed that way through the whole set...

S: ...it was like twenty minutes of just like that!

R: cEvin Key was right behind me, and he's an idol, so I was very nervous with him standing there. So, that happened and then, the next day, we played the last show in Los Angeles. Sara and I made sure we drove to our apartment before we got to the venue, and we got - what are they called?

S: I got these Japanese pajamas called Kigurumi that are full pajama costumes. They have a hood and longsleeves...

R: They would be Pòkemon characters, animals or something...

S: Because Skinny Puppy has all these costume changes, and the performance aspect of it, we thought, there's nothing better than us coming out in costumes and messing with them. So, while Ogre was on stage, I came out dressed like a little black bear and Ryan was Godzilla. We surprised Ogre, and he got freaked out and fell backwards...

R: ...he almost fell off the stage! And we were jumping around, dancing, and running around. Everyone in the crowd was, like, what is going on? Because it's such a scary show, you know, and we're these cartoon monsters! Then we ran off. So, that was a good prank.

S: And listening to the fans react that are so serious about Skinny Puppy going "I don't think that was part of the show! I don't understand, they could have killed him!" I'm like, "ok it was just a prank, everybody, settle down."

What cartoon would you like to contribute to?

S: I love Adventure Time so much! I would seriously be so excited if I could do something for Adventure Time. It's a children's show, but the humorous overtones are very adult throughout. I really, really like it. A lot of it is very dark humour that for some reason is marketed towards children, well all cartoons sort of are but, I mean, the Ice King coveting princesses, maybe have one as his wife but he needs all of them, and he's so sad all the time and he has only penguins as friends. I love Adventure Time.

Please tell me what Genesis P-Orridge means to you.

R: You should probably answer this!

S: When I was younger and when I was getting into industrial stuff, I'm only 29, I got in through a mainstream way of things. I first found out about it through my father. He was really into it, bands like Nine Inch Nails (featured in this Elektron Talk), Ministry and Marilyn Manson. So it was my tie with my father at first. I got into it from an early age. 1995, I think. I was ten. From there, it was my sole purpose to just dive in and find out about anything that was connected with any of these bands. If somebody was wearing a T-shirt of a band, I wanted to find it instantly, or go to a record store and try to find tapes. This was at an age of chat rooms and 14.4 K modems. I'd wait until my mom went to bed and then go on dial-up, go to chat rooms and try to find things. Through Nine Inch Nails I found out about Peter Christopherson, who's in Coil and Throbbing Gristle, and through that finding out about Throbbing Gristle, and Genesis.

Genesis. This person, who is this genderless sort of cult leader-like philosopher, is a really interesting individual. I was sort of getting wrapped into TOPY stuff and the Process. I mean, I wasn't ten when I was getting into the deeper thoughts of that, but by the time I was sixteen or seventeen years old I was really interested in a lot of those different ways of thought. I think Genesis was like a figurehead for breaking out of all boxes, all barriers, everything like that. Going from super harsh experimental to acid house era, just the amount of groundbreak that Genesis has done for music and culture as a whole, to me, is super important.

To be able to have a friendship with Gen, to be someone he'll text message a little, little kissy faces or smileys back and forth, you know, I don't ever take that for granted, that the people that shaped me when I was younger are people that are now pretty much in my everyday life. It's still intense. To be able to talk with Gen, and when Angry Love put out the 7" and just seeing this blessing, was like, if you were Catholic and the Pope was telling you, "go forth on your path, I have every bit of faith that you'll do well with it," that's what Gen, and Eddie who plays in Psychick TV as well, and everyone within those figurehead communities of people that I've looked up to, having their blessing means the world to me. It's so awesome. It's something that I never thought, when you're sixteen years old and flipping through magazines and seeing people that are so astronomically massive to you in what they exude and what they think, having those people as your peers is just a phenomenal feeling. It's insane.

When we played in New York, I think the first or the second time, there was a situation where, Gen knows Ryan, Ryan went up to Gen and went "hi Gen, super good to see you" and Gen said "oh, hi Ryan, good to see you as well. Where's Sara?"

R: "Where's Sara -" I was like, "oh."

S: Cool, I'm getting summons by the Pope right now! Alright, I'll go sit with you. Anytime someone would come up and go "Gen, it's so good to see you, oh my God, I - " he would take this cane, that at the top of it has the Psychick TV cross, and go "I'm speaking with a friend!" and push them away. I was in the Royal court. Inside this dingy bar called Home Sweet Home in New York. It was surreal. It's still surreal.

Any other musical influences you'd like to mention?

S: The obvious ones for us, old industrial and stuff, and punk. But also things that people often don't see as being influential, at least from my standpoint of things, I take a lot of influence from hip hop, for sure, and a lot of beat oriented music, pop, house music, all sorts of different things if they have a backbeat to it or a catchy sensibility to it, to me, all of those things, even though the more agressive stuff is what comes through and shows with Youth Code, I think, you know, I can listen to a Devine 12" and be just as influenced to do something as, like, you know, a Ride record or a Pulp record, or an old Wu-Tang record, or Nas.

R: We listen to a lot of music. We have a pretty massive record collection, and it's very diverse.

S: It's always growing, it's a pretty cool thing to be able to draw influence from so many different things and not have to cap yourself off at "I'm industrial, I listen to industrial, I'll make industrial," like, what's the point, at that point? You'd be litterally pigeonholing yourself, and typecasting yourself to only one facet, when music is this diamond, with so many different shines and angles to it.

R: Yeah, we pull from a lot of different things. One band, in particular, that I think about even though we sound absolutely nothing like them, is the Knife (featured in this Elektron Talk). I think about them a lot. Silent Shout is my favorite electronic record. I can listen to that record over, and over, and -

S: You did listen to that over and over!

R: I have, since it came out. I've never gotten sick of it.

S: Fever Ray was absolutely incredible as well. I definitely remember long drives in a van when I was on tour, listening to that record when it first came out, and then seeing it live and there's all those vintage lamps and stuff on stage.

R: So cool.

S: Yeah.

What Elektron synth do you use?

R: Right now I'm using the Octatrack. It's my favorite piece of equipment, actually. It's the centerpiece for our live setup. It's also the centerpiece for writing, because we don't use computers in any way. The way it manipulates audio on the sample tracks, and then, something that doesn't get talked about a lot with the Octatrack, the MIDI sequencer is so incredibly good. So much better than any other sequencer I've used. You know, just being able to P-lock everything. It's just incredible.

Having the power to get people frantically dancing is perhaps the strongest of all powers. Have you ever had any problems with the sort of authorities who like to control and regulate dancing?

S: In Los Angeles, if you go to a certain bar and dance and they don't have a dancing permit, they'll tell you not to dance. That happened to me, I went to this bar in Melrose called The Snake Pit, a long time ago.

R: Oh man. The Snake Pit?

S: Settle! You know that bar!

R: I know I do.

S: So, I went to The Snake Pit, a long time ago, because they had shut down the club that a bunch of friends and I used to go to, so everyone put on techno records on the jukebox and we were all dancing. The bartender literally shut off the jukebox and said "You cannot dance in here, we'll get a fine for it because we don't have an entertainment license" and I said, what a bunch of bullshit! You can't dance in a bar that has a jukebox? Alright, I'm just going to stand there, and process the music, it's so stupid. It's the most ridiculous law. Don't have fun physically. Don't express yourself physically. There's just sound going on, and you have to internalize, and not be able to feel any of it. I don't think, as Youth Code, we've ever had anything like that happen to us. We've played a lot of house shows.

R: We play so many underground clubs, that are pretty much illegal anyway. So we don't really have to worry about that. We just have to worry about the cops showing up, in general!

Please share a memory of a perfect moment you've experienced.

S: I would say that one of the most perfect moments, I think, was getting a request to go to Japan. I remember reading the e-mail, then screaming like a little girl around the house. Then I briefly met the people who brought us to Japan. My entire life, since I was seventeen, I've toured, working for bands, and it's only within the last two years that we've been Youth Code that I've actually been able to be a performer. I was never a performer prior to that, so, the stipulation is that, usually, when bands get invited to go to Japan, they don't bring their crews with them. Especially not a merchandiser, because someone will be there to set it up and tour manage you and do all the merchandise for you and print everything, so I never had the opportunity to do so.

When we got the invite to go to Japan, when I opened the e-mail and saw that, it was literally like a picturesque moment to me that we were doing something really, really right, that we were on to a path that was greater and bigger than we would even know, because if you're someone that goes "oh yeah, I make super cool music" then you are an idiot. Everybody has to have that sense of self-doubt or modesty or you're inhuman. You're a monster if you don't doubt yourself, ever.

So, we got this e-mail and I just realized that what we're doing is going to take us places. What we're doing is bigger than just two people that live in an apartment and dick around with synthesizers, this is stuff that is actually felt around the world, and we're going to places that I've only dreamed of being able to go to. When we got there, it was exactly everything that I'd ever hoped for, and beyond. I think, everytime I get the first sparks of communication that people want us to be there, it's always very picturesque and I feel like the Grinch that has his heart swell up three times the size. That's what happens whenever I realize that what we're doing has enough of an effect to where people need us to come over and perform for them. It's cool. That, to me, is perfect.

R: That's a nice answer.

S: What's yours?

R: I don't think I have a perfect moment. I like imperfection. That's kind of what we do, take things that aren't perfect, and make the most out of them.

S: No perfect moments in your world, huh?

R: No. But I like it like that. Then you can find the beauty in the imperfections.

S: Wow. Deep.

During school, my friends and I tried to convince our Physical Education teacher that we got all the excercise we needed by going to local EBM concerts. In vain. We weren't excused. what did you think of PE during your school days?

S: I actuallt have a funny story about that.

R: Me too.

S: Go on with yours.

R: When I figured out that I could leave campus in high school, and do whatever I wanted to, I started doing that. I'd always go skateboarding. I failed every class, except for PE, because my PE teacher had seen me skateboarding every day. He was like, "yeah, you're getting more excercise than anyone!" So I got an A in PA and PE, and failed everything else. He was awesome.

S: That's great! My PE teacher, I somehow had everybody convinced that I was working on my college portfolio, because I was in Advanced Placement Art, so I said, "listen, you know me, I'm not a runner. I have to go paint!" And my PE teacher said, "well, alright, do you have a note from your art teacher?" My art teacher said, "yeah, she's working on her AP portfolio." It almost got him fired, because at the end of the year, the principal that I had, because I went to a school separate from the high school but they were attached, so, the supervisor for the section of the school that I went to asked me "you haven't done any PE classes?" And I told her "no, I've got this note!" She said "you're about to get that teacher fired, and fail. You won't be able to graduate if you don't run a mile." I said "I spent three years basically avoiding running the mile, so I'll do it once for you. I've got you on this." So I did the mile once, and that's what it took for me to graduate. I painted instead of going to PE pretty much every day.

One mile is the longest you ever ran?

S: No. I mean, now I'm a health fanatic idiot, so I run a bunch every day. I do the stair set.

R: Yeah, we have a massive set of stairs by our house. It goes up three blocks, and it's very steep.

S: I do 500 jumping jacks, 200 sit-ups, and I do the stair set three times. I get fat way too easy. I get fat by looking at cookies. And I love sweets. So, in order to be in the shape that I'm in right now, which by all means is definitely far from perfect, I have to continuously run to justify eating, like the other day in New York we had four doughnuts, something so absurd, and I have been beating myself up that I haven't had the opportunity to run since then. I'll wake up tomorrow morning and run. I'll probably do four miles. I have to do it every day. Or else I'll be doomed to not fit in nice clothing. And I can't have that.

Have you ever considered making hard music using only soft sounds? Do you think it's even possible?

S: That's an interesting one. Like, screaming over pads, or something like that? You know what I think is really, really hard music, that's done over soft sounds? It's not hard in the sense that anyone would think, it's not screaming, but I think that a lot of the emotional challenges, and the overtones on stuff like Cocteau Twins or Sibylle Baier, where the music is, or Slowdive even, where the music is so expansive, and the lyrical content is really gut wrenching. I think that's harder to deal with than screaming about a lot of problems. That's harder to stomach. That new Björk record (Vulnicura), when you listen to that woman talk about her divorce, over such soft and melodic sounds, it is so much harder to listen to that then any hate breed song I've ever heard in my life, or any metal song, you know, where someone goes "wooh, the fortress of hell," It's so much harder for me to listen to emotional sadness and sickness.

R: It's kind of what we have been talking about for the next record.

S: We don't talk about the next record!

R: Gotcha.

S: As much as I would like to, this is going to sound so crazy, and conspiracist in a weird way, but I feel like there are a lot of people right now that are kind of getting interested in industrial, that previously weren't interested in industrial. A lot of people that were just club kids or whatever. That's good, and I'm very happy with people doing stuff because they're excited to do stuff. What I'm not happy about is, when you get a certain unique characteristic, that is pretty unique to yourself, something that you like to try, if you expose those little tiny secrets and tidbits, people hear it, and they always try to get one ahead of you. So, at this point in time I read something where, there is a band, and I know that they hang around and talk to our friends, and they referenced a genre of music that I know none of them like! I know it in my fucking heart of hearts that none of them like this kind of music. So, they did some thing where they were like, "yeah, this is what we're going for now" and I was like "you sons of bitches! I know you're just trying to get one up." So now I've made this pact that I don't want to talk about the record until people start hearing about the record. But it is going to be very interesting, that's for sure, and well versed in a bunch of, I mean, it's not like we're going to write a pop record, but maybe we will. Maybe we won't. No one will know, at this point!

What real-world phenomenon would you like to be able to control with a synthesizer dial? What real-world phenomenon would you like to parameter-lock?

S: I would p-lock the shit out of the weather. That's for sure.

R: We live in LA. It's always nice in LA.

S: Yeah, but if you could p-lock so that it was, right now, the feeling of an LA springtime, you know what I'm saying? You could do glitches for rain.

R: That'd be cool.

S: If you had an Octatrack for seasons, that would be sick. You'd be like an X-man.

R: I would do it for sleep, I think. I love sleeping. Actually, I'd do it so she couldn't complain about when I'm sleeping!

S: Oh, the most! I get up every morning at seven thirty, eight o'clock, I make coffee, I work out and I try to do stuff with my day. And by the time I'm done working out, I'm so energized, and I've had so much coffee that I expect everyone around me to be awake, it's ten! Ten o'clock is the time people wake up! He'll sleep 'til two PM if I don't wake him up. I'm so glad that the sleep-schedule Octatrack doesn't exist.

R: I'm going to p-lock you out of the room.

The Banu Musa brothers of Baghdad invented a mechanical sequencer back in the 9th century. Would you like to see more automechanical machinery in contemporary music? Anything you'd consider using?

S: Well, I mean, that dude Author & Punisher has a really cool setup of doing stuff where it literally looks like he's in a Terminator suit, or a Transformer or something, and I think it's really interesting, and I like the mechanical stuff, but I don't know.

R: I like to watch it. I don't want to have to play with it, though. I like my instruments how they are.

Lastly, can you share a favorite synthesizer technique of yours?

R: My favorite thing, that I'm doing right now with the Octatrack, I'm setting the MIDI channel to, let's say, a Mutable Instruments Shruthi. It's a wavetable synth that has operators in it. What I do is I send my MIDI sequence to it and I have all my control changes mapped, so I p-lock different control changes and change the waveforms on every single step so I have this really complex sequence with all kinds of modulations, and then I run that back into a Thru Machine, with the FX, and I just do effects locks on it, and then resample that, and then you can go and slice. You can get some really crazy sounds, just like that. Then, you can cut the slices and find the other parts and you have new synthesizer sounds you never had before. It's really cool. The cool thing about resampling synths like that is, and it's something that gets brought up with our band a lot, is you get the Wax Trax sound. Because it cuts in a really abrupt way sometimes, the sample, it gets clunkier, and chunky, and it's a cool way to get a kind of vintage, fucked up sound. It's a good way to get a really rough effect.

S: Awesome.

Interview by Daniel Sterner