Floyd and Jeremy Daniels are the blood brother duo that make up Weapons Of Audio. Their new EP, Girl Crazy is set to be released on May 6th. We had the chance to talk with them about their journey from Charlotte, North Carolina all the way to California, their influences and more.
“Weapons of Audio.” I like the name. It’s a bold sounding name. Is there any deeper meaning to the name or is it just a cool name that you two picked?
Jeremy: Well, there’s not really any deep meaning to it. We used to be called Future Shock, but we changed our name to Weapons of Audio. We just looked up the meaning behind the thunderbolt, which was our logo and “weapons of gods” came up. We don’t really talk about God or nothing like that, so we just put “Audio” instead of “God” because we do music.
Floyd: Right, we didn’t want to come off as a religious band, so we just dropped the “God” and put the “Audio.” It does kinda have a meaning to it at the same time because music is a weapon. Music is a way of talking to people and setting the mood for somebody’s day or the mood for somebody’s life. So we think music can be a weapon if it’s taken the right way. Like with our music, for instance. We try to keep the good vibes going and try to make somebody’s day better.
Who are some of your biggest influences?
Floyd: When we first started our band, our major influence was Run DMC. Just for the simple fact that that they were “hip-hop, rockin’ without a band.” We really liked that because we kind of grew up on Led Zepplin, Jimi Hendrix…we listened to a lot of punk rock. Then we ventured off into a lot of indie music like MGMT, DOM, Twin Shadow…stuff like that.
I listened to some of your older material like “Boulevard,” which had a rock edge to it and “Life Goes,” which had more of a hip-hop feel to it. With your new material like “Night Light” and “Mr. Wolfe,” it gives off more of a new wave kind of vibe. Would it be accurate to say that your sound is always evolving? Or is your sound simply a mixture of everything?
Jeremy: I feel like if you’re a true artist, your music is always going to evolve because you evolve as a human. Just like with everyday life. If you have more success, your music may change. If you’re going through a breakup, that may inspire your music. I think real artistry is inspired through real life situations. So, yeah, I think our music is constantly evolving like we’re constantly evolving as people.
You two are from originally from Charlotte, North Carolina and you eventually made your way out to Los Angeles. Could you tell me a bit about the journey from Charlotte to LA? How you ended up out there.
Floyd: We were originally born in Charlotte, North Carolina but we moved to Atlanta around the year 2005. We stayed down there and that’s pretty much when we started our band. So we were there for awhile and then we moved to California from there. So the difference is definitely the beaches, hella good weather out here, ladies runnin’ around–
Jeremy: Weed is legal.
Floyd: Weed is legal and it’s more of a freedom kind of thing. I basically changed my whole eating habits, like the way I used to eat and all kinds of stuff. It’s definitely different from being in the south. The only other thing I see that’s different is the people. The people in the south have southern hospitality. You can be out and you’ll just be meeting friends left and right, but in LA it’s a little bit more reserved. The people here are still groovy though, but it’s just a difference.
I saw you two had a chance to play at the Vestal Village during Coachella this year. How was that experience?
Jeremy: It was awesome, man. It was a lot of people on drugs, so it made it easy for them to like our music. But it was dope. People were really feeling the music. It was a really good party atmosphere. Everybody came to dance. People came to party. They didn’t come to stand around. When we got on stage, everybody was just into it.
Floyd: And we also camped out. That was our first real camping experience, besides when we were kids. So, that was cool to go out there and camp and be with the people and just hang out. We actually got in to see Coachella and saw Wu-Tang perform and that was pretty dope.
You mentioned people being on drugs and the video for “Night Light” had a real psychedelic feel to it and the song as a whole was stuck in my head for awhile.
So Girl Crazy is the project…
Both: Yeah.
What can the listeners expect to hear from that? What kind of vibe?
Floyd: It’s definitely a fun, feel-good vibe. Just inspired off of beautiful women and having fun and just livin’ your life, man. That’s pretty much the whole thing around the EP and just the whole project is like getting your mind out of your normal day to day. You might’ve had a hard day at work or you’re dealing with other issues you’ve got going on, you can just pop this record in and unwind. You can go to the dance floor and just hang out with your girl.
Jeremy: It’s carefree
Floyd: Whatever you wanna do. It’s just carefree, man. Carefree music.
Do you all have any other projects or collaborations in the works already? Or are you working to get this EP out first?
Jeremy: We’re just putting this one out first. We’ve got a couple of bands that we’re thinking about doing some collabs with, but it won’t be on this EP. It’ll probably be just like a little single or something like that.
Floyd: We’re kinda keeping that under wraps right now, but we definitely are brewing up stuff. We’re still working and being creative everyday.
What’s something that you want the people to take away from the project?
Jeremy: Just live life, man. Have fun and just enjoy being young.
Floyd: Enjoy your time here.
Anything else you’d like to add?
Jeremy: Of course the EP Girl Crazy is coming out on May 6th. WeaponsOfAudio.com is where everybody can find videos, music, show dates and whatever. We appreciate the opportunity to have a voice.
Floyd: Exactly, we definitely respect the magazine. The publication is pretty dope. We’re definitely big fans of that, so we appreciate y’all taking the time to chop it up with us. We’ve got a new video for our “Mr. Wolfe” record that we just dropped, it’s coming out soon.
More information at http://www.weaponsofaudio.com
Follow @WeaponsOfAudio on Twitter & Like them on Facebook
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