Recently, TMN was granted the privilege to talk to the whimsical personalities of Alexander Odden and Michael Parsberg, the dynamic duo behind Pegboard Nerds. Before kicking off two major releases with Monstercat–Bring The Madness: The Remixes EP and their feature on Monstercat’s 021 Perspective Compilation–we had a chance to sit down with them in NYC’s Webster Hall right before they threw down a massive set.
Bring The Madness (Ft. Mayor Apeshit)
TMN: How’s it feel to be playing at Webster Hall in NYC? This is your second time back right?
Alex: Being back at Webster Hall feels fuckin’ awesome. It’s kinda intimidating too you know because it’s such a stable trademark of New York so you gotta be on point and deliver.
Michael: Same.
Alex: (Laughs) You can’t say same!
TMN: Best response yet. How did you guys first get involved with Monstercat and how do you feel about the future of the label?
Michael: Well it started back in 2012, early, early twelve. A friend from Australia actually pitched one of our songs to Monstercat because they were needing a track for one of their compilations and it kinda just went on from there. They wanted one more track, one more track, one more track, and it went on, went on, went on and all the way up. Yeah, so that’s how we started.
Then you asked about the future of the label, right? It’s difficult to predict, but I think they have a good track record and a good following, and the philosophy of the label is really good. They’re not focusing on doing the next big Hardwell, Axwell, Made-well, Big-well, Aoki-well, Sleep-well, whatever. They just wanna do great new talent.
TMN: Of course. You recently released a single titled “Bring The Madness” with Excision. How did that collaboration first come about?
Alex: Actually, it started out as a remix of a Destroid track called “Flip The Switch,” and so the –
Michael: We were fucking lazy so we didn’t get it back in time.
Alex: Yeah we kinda missed the deadline. It’s not funny, but at the same time shit like that happens. But, we all felt like Excision’s team and our team, that there was something going on there that had –
Michael: There was potential
Alex: Thank you, there was potential right there. Savior of the night (referring to Michael). So we kinda changed it to being a collab with Excision instead of being a Destroid remix, which is cool for us.
TMN: Seemed to work out in your favor then. Would you guys be able to walk us through the recording process for that song? Was there anything different or special about the way you approached it?
Alex: “Bring The Madness”? Well, we kinda told you some of it already, but we’re all touring a lot. I mean we met Jeff (Abel) maybe once? At the airport we were like “heeeey!” He was like “hey, how’s the collab coming?” We’re like “yeah it’s really good…” You know? That’s how it is. So there’s the internet, and the internet is really good ’cause he would send us stuff, we would work on it, and then send it to him. Then he’d work on it, send it back and it’d go back and forth, back and forth until it’s as good as it can get I guess.
TMN: Same, Michael?
Michael: Same.
TMN: There’s also a remix package for “Bring The Madness” slated for release later this month featuring Noisestorm, Aero Chord, and more. Do you have any favorites from that upcoming release?
Michael: Who is “and more?” Who is he?! Who is it?! We wanna know right now!
TMN: Guess we’ll just go with “to be announced.”
Michael: Yeah it’s probably to be announced. We’ll play the Noisestorm remix tonight.
TMN: Dope, so what’s the craziest experience you’ve ever had while on tour? Alex, feel like you could answer this one.
Michael: I feel like he could NOT answer this one.
Alex: I cannot answer that. Michael CAN answer it, but he can’t. I’ll give you the PG-rated experience.
TMN: Just give us a “highlight experience” you’ve had on tour then.
Alex: I’m just gonna give this one to Michael and pretend I’m not here. I’m gonna pray he does the most PG-13 story he can do.
Michael: I think one of our best shows–well one of the great experiences–was closing for EDC Vegas last year. That was a lot of fun. We knew that we were gonna play until sunrise and we made this special track, a sunrise track, which would play exactly when the sun came up over the horizon. It was just timed beautifully; it was great and seeing that crowd was unbelievable. But we’ve had a lot of really great shows too.
Michael: Don’t worry I won’t tell anything. He’s (Alex) afraid I’m going to spill the beans here. But we’ve had a lot of fun. I mean, I think the worst thing we’ve probably experienced is United Airlines. Hashtag United Airlines. THE worst experience.
Alex: This is all like PG-8.
TMN: So is that your final answer?
Michael: Is that our final answer?
TMN: Yeah, or is there something else you guys want to share…
Alex: Panama City?
Michael: Okay okay. Yeah we’ll tell you about Panama City after the interview.
TMN: Well then in that case, let’s start wrapping this up. If you could be any video game character, who would you be and why?
Alex: I would be Mega Man ’cause I played the shit out of those games as a kid and I wanted to be that guy so bad. I don’t know, that’s like, being able to shoot bullets out your arm.
TMN: Think we’d like being able to shoot bullets out of our arms too.
Alex: FUCK YEAH!
TMN: What about you, Michael?
Michael: Are we talking 80’s or right now?
TMN: We’re talking anything
Alex: Yeah anything, it doesn’t matter.
Michael: Okay wow. I would be, uhm, Commando.
Alex: OHHHH!
TMN: Well that’s a new one. Okay, last and final question, “who the fuck is Paul McCartney?”
Alex: Jennifer Lawrence.
Michael: Who he is? Oh that’s uh, I think it’s uh, this old dude that Kanye West made–
Alex: He made him popular.
Michael: He made him popular right? Yeah, I don’t think we’re going to hear from Paul McCartney again.
TMN: Guess that’s a wrap then!
Michael: Wait, you mean you’re not going to ask us about the future of EDM?!
TMN: Oh, naturally. What do you guys see being the future of EDM?
Alex: The future of EDM is right on our hard drives.
We’d like to thank Pegboard Nerds for taking the time to talk to us. Make sure to follow them on Facebook and SoundCloud to stay up to date on all their new releases!
