Boy+Girl

Melbourne-born electro-pop duo Boy+Girl were formed two years ago by lifelong friends Dan ‘Zee’ Zielinksi and Dan ‘Caz’ Caswell, who decided to launch their slick and seductive musical vision upon the world after indulging in “Many intense conversations in nightclubs about what was wrong with music and what the music industry needed.”



Like so many young upstarts before them, fuelled by self-belief, some guitars, and a vast array of synthesisers, they retreated to the nearest available bedroom (which, conveniently enough, happened to be Zee’s) and began throwing ideas together. “I wasn’t really expecting anything to come from it,” Caz says now. “But slowly we wrote enough songs to do a live set, so we booked a show.” The show was played, the crowd were blown away, and – as inevitably as a well-timed bassline shuddering across a dancefloor – the Boy+Girl gospel began to spread. It hasn’t stopped since. “We’ve continued to improve and evolve, but we’ve always been for ourselves.”



The enthusiasm surrounding their slinky synth-studded sound is such that the boys have already supported the likes of Justice (“We had everyone on the floor moving and shaking”), Boyz Noize, Busy P and Kele Okereke from Bloc Party (a confirmed admirer of their talents, he danced at the side of the stage for the duration of their set).



Ask Boy+Girl what their influences are and the response is likely to be an emphatic: “Absolutely everything.” Though the pair will admit to a penchant for the likes of Depeche Mode, Royksopp, The Faint, Cut Copy, Talking Heads, DFA, Suicide, Gary Numan and The Knife. Unrepentant techheads who place as much importance upon DJing as playing live (sometimes doing both in their underwear), they make their music using Protools, Reason, Mac G5s, Moogs and Juno synths. “We usually start with a synth line or drum pattern and work up from there.”



Boy+Girl’s first single release will be ‘Shirley Temple’ – a brooding, hyper-realised slab of electro perfection built around a playful Tetris-bleep melody and Zee’s incisive come-hither vocals. The track serves as a superb introduction to their anything-goes aesthetic. “We’ve never been about recreating styles or what someone else sounds like, because that’s why niche bands exist, and we feel we have more to offer musically.”



‘Shirley Temple’ is backed by a huge-sounding Geek Chic Soundsystem remix and a stunningly choreographed video. A debut album lurks on the horizon, and those jaw-to-floor live shows keeping on coming. The Boy+Girl party is most definitely not one to be missed.



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