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PANTyRAiD are coming to town...

PANTyRAiD is one part OOAH from the Glitch Mob and one part Marty Party. When speaking with Josh Mayer and Marty Folb it is fairly obvious that they are good friends, as well as musical collaborators. The two spend most of the time working on their main acts and live on different coasts. But when there is a free moment they often spend it visiting each other in Brooklyn and Los Angeles to work on music together. The DJ duo known as PANTyRAiD has been official since 'Beba/Get the Money' in 2009. Their sophomore LP 'Pillowtalk' was just released Memorial Day Weekend.

Beyond their name, the duo uses sexual overtones in their southern hip-hop influenced dirty bass, which they describe as “audio fondling your girlfriend.” A panty raid occurs when fraternity brothers steal underwear from a sorority. Pillow talk is, of course, the conversation that happens between two people in bed after the act of coitus. They employ a troupe of go-go dancers that are flown out to every show.

According to Marty it was Josh that came up with the name. “I remember we were just hanging out early on in the beginning,” he says. “We were in name mode. You know you always get in name mode when you make art - or as an artist. So we were banging around names and he just called me, or he texted me one, PANTyRAiD. And I was like, ‘Oh fuck, that’s the one.’ It was fairly youthful but not useful.”

Josh elaborates: “Years ago there was a lingerie shop in Los Angeles in my neighborhood called Panty Raid. I kind of remember driving by, but not thinking much about it. It was just a word that came to me on an airplane one night. The reason we’re named that - it’s not really a joke, but it’s kind of funny. For me it’s kind of funny.”

When we ask if they know the definition of panty raid Josh replies, “Yeah. It’s a college prank thing.” It turns out that both have had a unique encounter with panty raids before that. For Marty, it was during his college years at the University of Capetown, where he earned a BSc in Computer Science.

He reminisces, “When I was in college there were two things the male and female houses used to do. One was streak through the quad, and one was panty raiding. I remember that shit. That was when the guys went into the girls house and stole underwear. The whole trick was to steal underwear.”

'Pillowtalk' was created over the course of 2012 in between the Glitch Mob and Marty Party. Josh, who has a better temporal sense than Marty, but is more soft-spoken, explains, “We started it here in LA. Then a couple times I went to New York, where we’ve got a recording studio. And then, while he was there, I would come back here and kind of mix tracks down.

“It was cool because we both really love both cities. We like to get to represent them both in a way. I used to live in Brooklyn briefly before I moved out to LA and Marty used to come out to LA - they are kind of both our homes in a way. So it’s fun to be able to back and forth for inspiration to any city.” Josh is originally from New Orleans and Marty is from South Africa.

It was Marty who gave a feeling for the new music on the new album. “'Pillowtalk' is really just the twelve mixed songs that Josh and I wrote when we sat down together with the intention of making PANTyRAiD music.” About the production he adds, it was “a continuation of going through every type of music that we’re feeling around now and implementing our version, you know, like how we would do it. It’s just another adventure.” And the concept? “I guess it comes from... preferring to go out, going out, being out at the club, getting a little bit tipsy, driving home, hanging out with your friends and getting loud, hangover, morning. It’s the whole experience. It’s everything.”

Both Josh and Marty are excited about the next few months when residents of North America can catch their new songs live. Marty seems to be on the borderline: “It’s going to be a very emotional couple of months for us. I expect it’s gonna be crazy. Before the album it was kind of crazy. We'll see what happens after the album. We’ll be different people.”

This article originally appeared in DJ Mag USA. Read it free HERE.