They’re cute, they’re crunchy, and most importantly…they’re back! Collaborating with mega producer and master remixer Junkie XL, the power-pop electro duo Electrocute have just released their newest EP, On The Beat. Combining the light hearted glee of ’60′s beach party music, garage band punk, and the throbbing pulses of today’s most modern electro sounds, the girl’s six track mini-album provides a quick, powerful thrust of addictive energy in just over twenty minutes. I was quite pleased with the total package; it’s exciting, unpredictable, and relentlessly teasing. Just listen to the first ten seconds of “On The Beat” and tell me you’re not thirsting for more. So check it out and ride the beats while they last, because before you know it, the album’s notes blare to a close and the party’s over. Click here to download the album from here, and check out their MySpace here!

Now…I present a transcript of the e-mail interview I conducted with Nicole from Electrocute! She explains a bit more about the construction of the album, delivers a bit of sass, and questions my fandom of Britney Spears. A thin line to cross, my friend. A thin one. Nevertheless, here we go!

Your new EP, On The Beat, just came out on April 15th. Congratulations! What are your thoughts on this new record?

We are just happy to be free from a label and independently releasing our own music again. It’s really fun and we feel now that we are all set up to digitally distribute our songs we will be much more prolific and it’s an exciting new world in music.

How long did it take to construct this EP?

All of our lives and about 6 months.

You worked with Junkie XL in producing this, who happens to be one of my favorite producers. What was the experience like working with him?

He is totally awesome. We also collaborated with him on some songwriting for 3 songs on his latest album “Booming Back At You” and one of the songs called “Mad Pursuit” that’s featuring Electrocute was just in the movie “21″ as well as the soundtrack CD. We love working with him. He’s a really nice guy, one of the smartest people we’ve ever met. The guys brain is just on fire. But he’s also a great sound crafter and he gave the songs a different life.

Any disagreements, or was this a very cordial experience?

He got mad because we drank so much of his fancy coffee out of his $4000 espresso machine (ha,ha)

It features a rather interesting album cover as well, haha! What’s that all about?

It took a really long time to decide upon the album cover as you can imagine. The photo was taken by Evan Lane who is extremely talented “we met him on myspace”. The shoot was really fun as it involved raincoats, bikinis, cling wrap and a fog machine. Voilà!
Having recently acquired three new members to make up a fuller live band, do you feel that your live shows have more to offer now?

Well, we’ve always prided ourselves of dishing up pretty exciting live shows compared to most. But the musicians playing with us are exceptional and it’s a lot of fun to get their different input into the songs we have created.

I wish I could go to a show–you should tour over on this side of the pond!

We tour everywhere they will have us! When’s the show?

Now what sort of music do you get your influence from to create music?

It changes all the time as we both have extremely short attention spans.

In your biography, you say that the band was inspired by the sounds of the Berlin electroclash scene. Since I wasn’t there, I would love to know what that was like. Can you describe the environment at that time?

Fun, deranged, lost, and no damage control.

What about the electro scene in America? Is there even one?

yeah, there’s all kinds of music here. we don’t really pay too much attention to “scenes”. Just great music, interesting people. They are rare but you find them everywhere you go.

Now Nicole, you co-wrote “Heaven on Earth” with Freescha for Britney. As her number one fan, I feel required to ask if you worked directly with Britney or not, and if so, what that was like? Were you aware that the song would be serviced to Britney?

Number 1 fan? I’m sure that would have to mean you have beaten out some very obsessed people, I’ve seen some of the fansites. Britney is great, she did an amazing job with the song. It’s one of the best songs I’ve ever written and I think it fit nicely to her voice.

And now, what’s next for Electrocute?
We are heading off to Europe for the month of May for a mini tour and we will commence work on a new E.P once we get back to L.A.

Any last things you’d like to say to our readers?

Look out for our new video for the song “On The Beat”. Its a collaboration with Jeaneen Lund and the ultra talented dancer/choreographer Ryan Heffington and his “Fingered” dance troupe.

I’d like to thank Electrocute for popping in and giving us all a taste of what’s happening. I look forward to seeing more!