No band ever had a more perfect and fitting band name than Pop Noir. Twin brothers Luke and Joe McGarry create pop ditties with electronic loops and synths that sound exactly like their name describes — a little new-wavey, a little dark, yet utterly danceable. Pop Noir are coming out with a new single called  "Don't Fool Yourself" on May 19, and are premiereing the video on Myspace!

While the deejaying, illustrating and all-around creative powerhouse don’t have an album coming out soon (“We've actually been avoiding the album route for the time-being, focusing more on singles and EPs,” Joe said), fans can look forward to an EP—“basically it’s a hugely ambitious art project,” Joe added—coming in the fall.  

Hometown: Manchester, England

Current residence: Huntington Beach / Costa Mesa area of Orange County

What's "Don't Fool Yourself" about?

Luke: We like to leave our songs open to interpretation to a certain extent, but we did notice recently that there's a #DontFoolYourself hashtag floating around social media. It's a sort of "don't get it twisted" thing, which isn't too far off base.

Who conceptualized the video? What exactly were you doing and where were you?

Joe: I'll take credit for the idea of the video! I thought it would look brilliant to drive through Downtown LA with a GoPro stuck to our windshield, getting the reflections of the lights and neon signs. We actually intended for the video to be more complex – multiple angles, et cetera – but the footage we got ended up being strangely compelling. We'd just come from playing a DJ set at The Lovesong Bar, so this all took place about 3 a.m. A lot of what happened was just a happy accident. That's Luke genuinely yawning and swearing at pedestrians.

How did you get interested in music?

Luke: Growing up, we always had guitars and keyboards lying around the house. Our dad used to be in bands back in Manchester, right at the dawn of punk , so I guess it's a genetic thing. In fact, members of our dad's band went on to be in A Certain Ratio, Primal Scream and The Fall, all of whom we find massively influential.

Describe that moment in your life when you were like, "YES. I need to be in a band."

Joe: I think we always figured we would play music, but the thing that made us realize we could do it was sneaking in to Detroit Bar in Costa Mesa to see a band called Dance Disaster Movement when we were about 15. This was before Ableton and all those types of programs were easily available – to us, anyway – and the way that band, as a duo, was using loop pedals to get this massive, exciting sound was really inspirational.

Luke: We actually messaged them on Myspace to ask what equipment they were using!

What did you guys grow up listening to?

Joe: We grew up listening to a load of New Order, the Smiths, the Beatles, Rolling Stones—whatever our dad was playing in the car. I remember really liking Michael Jackson's "Thriller" at one point when we were about 4….

Luke: When were around 8 or 9 years old, Joe got really into Oasis and all those Brit-Pop guitar bands and I got into Chemical Brothers and electronic music. So Joe started learning guitar and I… I don't know. How's a 9-year-old supposed to make techno in 1996?

What are you listening to now?

Joe: Now we're listening to a little bit of everything, but we've got things like SBTRKT, Wild Beasts, Everything Everything and Hot Chip on a pretty permanent rotation.

Luke: If you want to hear just how eclectic our tastes get, come to one of our DJ sets! They range from Bowie to Basement Jaxx, Sly Stone to Simian Mobile Disco.

How do people tell you two apart?

Both (in unison): I'm the handsome one.

What's your song-writing process like?

Joe: It's a pretty fair division of labor, but I think if you were to break it down, I do a bit more of the music and Luke does a bit more on the lyrics. And then I'm a control freak so I do tend to dominate the production. We're in the same little studio all day, though, so Luke's ideas definitely come into play. I just won't let him touch the mixing desk.

Your dad Steve McGarry is a famous illustrator, and your mom is an artist as well. Did having artists as parents influence you to create your own music?

Joe: Absolutely. As we said, there were always instruments knocking about when we were younger, so it was sort of hard to resist that urge to pick them up and play. We've just grown up around artists and musicians and other creatives, I think our parents would be disappointed in us if we ended up with normal jobs!

You're from England, what brought you to Southern California? Would you ever move back?

Luke: Our family initially came out here when we were about 18 months old, and then we yo-yoed back and forth quite a bit between England and Southern California. Then, when we were in our teens, we moved out here permanently to go to the Orange County High School of the Arts.

Joe: I think we would probably move back if it weren't for the weather! Everyone says once you've spent a year out here it's nearly impossible to do another UK winter, which we've found to be pretty accurate. We still miss English candy and TV, but it's getting easier to find that stuff in America. Although we're a little distressed to hear about this ban on imported Cadbury chocolate.

Luke, you're concert promoter Goldenvoice's defacto illustrator now; you draw all their flyers for events from Festival Supreme to shows they present during Coachella season. What are the perks of that?

Luke: Aside from having a huge audience for my artwork, it means excellent hookups for concert tickets And every so often I'll run into someone I admire backstage at an event who says "at first I hated the way you drew me, but it's grown on me." I can imagine no higher compliment. (Editor's Note: Take a look at some of the illustrations Luke has done for Myspace!) 

What inspires you as musicians and artists?

Joe: As musicians, we take a lot of cues from the music we grew up listening to, all the stuff that was coming out of Manchester from the late ‘70s through the early ‘90s. We just try and create music that we want to hear, really. That's sort of what comes out naturally. Also, anything that can get people moving is a big inspiration. I don't like going to concerts where everyone's standing still!

Luke: As artists, I think we're inspired by comic art, especially stuff we loved as kids like Asterix, Tin Tin and Where's Wally—which was called Where's Waldo over here. That sort of clean-but-busy look, which, if I think about it, probably carries over to our sound as well, in a weird way.

What do you like better, doing art or doing music?

Joe: We love both, but music is definitely our passion. We've been drawing since we were old enough to hold pencils, but there really is nothing like being on stage or coming up with a song.

Luke: To quote one of our favorite TV programs of all time, Peep Show: "He's come up with a bass loop that is so good, when he tried turning it off, he literally couldn't. He actually, physically, couldn't do it." I don't think you can get that feeling from anything other than music.