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It was deep in the heart of Oklahoma where I obtained evidence that the Japanese electronics company TDK secretly carried out mind control experiments on children– to rewire their brains from just a “lil’ bit country” into a “lil’ bit rock n’ roll”.

What’s the evidence? What’s the conspiracy theory? I will testify that two magic bullets (bassist and keyboardist Jeremy Dawson and vocalist and guitarist Chad Petree) were fired directly from these Shiny Toy Guns.

Ok, that intro might have sounded a bit contrived, but it’s perhaps the best way to relate to the 2008 Grammy-nominated Indie rock/Electro pop group now based in L.A. Aided by drummer Mikey Martin and smoking hotpants Sisely Treasure on vocals, this now sans-country duo have fixed up quite the low-calorie, Killers-meets-New Order main dish (with a side order of The Sounds). Their new remix album, Girls le Disko, is going to drop this holiday shopping season, complete with hard-to-find mash ups by The Teenagers, Ferry Corsten, Classixx, High Def, and Boyz Noise to name drop a few.

I had the opportunity this weekend to have a lengthy sit down interview with Jeremy for a quick shot 240 seconds while they were rehearsing for a performance with Erykah Badu at Red Bull’s Soundclash, in  Dallas, TX.

So, how’d the transfer from OK to LA get down?

Jeremy Dawson: In a Uhaul. 10 years ago I was a DJ writing dance music and we (Chad Petree) were like, what the hell are we going to do in Oklahoma? Nothing wrong with OK, but there was no Internet at the time and LA is where you went if you wanted to do something big. So we pawned a car and slept in a closet out there. Knew literally one person.

So from a closet to playing with Badu?

Jeremy Dawson: Well, we’ll be gold by Christmas and we’ve had a Grammy nomination.

Oh, I got that. That’s Wikipedia fodder. Let’s have a real interview.

Jeremy Dawson: (cell phone rings) Oh hey man, I’m in an interview. What’s up? Yeah, yeah, out past the porta-potties.

(Fucking Rock stars). What’s the future hold? What do you want to do when you grow up?

Jeremy Dawson: Chase storms. Half of us are 15yr veterans in it. We’ll park our armored up chase van at the airport and fly to Berlin to play a show. Ready to go when we get back.

Well, you know the old saying– ‘You can take the boys out of the country, but you can only take the country out of the boys with the aid of a giant Japanese electronics manufacturing plant down the street from where they grew up doing mind control experiments.’

Interview and Photos by Dustin Downing

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