Nick Weiss and Logan Takahashi, the duo that comprise Teengirl Fantasy, met at Oberlin College, connecting over their favorite old-school techno albums while Nick studied film and Logan attended the college's conservatory.
Taking a break from their final semester to tour with Animal Collective, the project became a full-time pursuit for Weiss and Takahashi when their debut album, 2010's 7AM, was released to critical acclaim.
Since then, they've released a full-length follow-up, 2012's Tracer, as well as a new EP titled Nun. This month, Nick and Logan will take over The Garret. So we here at Crossfade chatted with the Fantasy boys about electronic dance music, collaborating with Sade, and making friends via the Internet.
See also: EDM's Five Greatest Delusions
Crossfade: How do you feel about the EDM scene at large?
Logan Takahashi: I think it would be cool to play a stadium at some point, or some kind of show that size. But we started making music years before EDM was even a thing. We're too old for that.
How about Miami? How do you feel about her?
Nick Weiss: We both really love the city, and the history is so cool. I love bass music and freestyle music, and it's awesome that you can still feel that energy there. It's a beautiful place.
You guys both talk about Sade as your dream collaboration. If you could pull some strings and spend the day with her, what would you do, where would you go?
Weiss: Into the studio, obviously! I don't know what else. I don't know what she likes to do.
See also: Miami Bass' Ten Best Producers and Musicians
You recently worked with Hoody from Seoul. How did you link up with her?
Weiss: I first heard about Hoody when Kelela went and played in South Korea, and she had two openers: Hoody, who is a singer, and also KittiB, who is a singer-slash-rapper. Kelela told us about them and how incredible they were when she got back to America, and she was really freaking out about them so we checked them out. We were really psyched, we felt like there was a strong connection between what we were doing here and what these people in a faraway place were doing. We collaborated over email.
Takahashi: There's this one YouTube video that Kelela had shown us of Hoody and KittiB and their whole crew performing. I ended up showing a lot of people that video, because the way that they're performing is really crazy. There's a DJ and it goes wild at the end. We gotta send you the link. [Both laugh]
How is Hoody different from the k-pop landscape? Do you follow that aspect of Korean culture?
Takahashi: I don't follow everything about k-pop, but I definitely have spent some time going down YouTube holes for different k-pop videos. The first time I really became aware of that was when we visited Korea in 2010. Since then, it seems like, in the West, people are really aware of the visual aspects, even more than the music.
Weiss: I also feel like Hoody and her crew are kind of outside of that world. They're more just about music. They're not part of the k-pop machine, which is operated by these really large companies. They're more like us, just doing what they want to do. I keep seeing parallels between our circle here and their circle there. Even though we're so far away, because of the Internet, it doesn't feel that distant.
Where are you based? And is that where you do most of your recording?
Takahashi: We live in Brooklyn. We've lived here since graduating from Oberlin. So three and a half years.
Weiss: We record all over.
Takahashi: For the Nun EP, we went up to our friend's spot in Woodstock. We spent a couple of weeks. I think we both have our minds set on trying to go out of the city to record. It helps with the writing process.
So you find that for real, focused recording, you need to disconnect from the city.
Weiss: It's definitely the most direct way, or the most efficient way of working -- in isolation.
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Teengirl Fantasy. As part of the Brainwash weekly. Presented by King's Head Records. With Ben Wash and Telescope Thieves. 11 p.m. Saturday, August 9, at Grand Central, 697 N. Miami Ave., Miami. The show starts at 11 p.m. and tickets cost $10 plus fees via wantickets.com. Ages 21 and up. Call 305-377-2277 or visit grandcentralmiami.com.
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