Musync^®: You Need Better Music!

Our Take

Band Talk

Techno Squirrels is an electronic music duo based in California, USA. They have released 3 EPs and a full-length LP to date, been featured artists on KCRW’s Sounds Eclectic with Nic Harcourt, BBC’s Radio 1, XM Satellite Radio, MTV’s Real World (Sydney, Ep. 10), Sci-Fi Channel’s Regenesis, and recently released their first video. Their track “Love Comes First” is charting on Nr 1 on Sirius Satellite Radio’s Top 40 (Channel 35).

The Techno Squirrels have released 2 EPs and their first full-length LP to date. They’ve begun licensing their music to national and international television and film works. And they’ve built up a sizable group of fans from around the world-leveraging social sites like MySpace to connect with people on a one-to-one level.

Lisa Eriksson grew up in Sweden. She found herself immersed in Sweden’s techno scene. “Fluke, Underworld, Bjork, and the Chemical Brothers,” says Lisa. “That was my awakening.” Not content to merely listen to others make this new music, Lisa earned a Masters Degree in Audio Production from Westminster University, London. Lisa became one half of the Euro-Art-Rock band, Schulte/Eriksson, where she played the electric guitar, did live sampling and sang. Their single eventually found its way to legendary BBC DJ John Peele. She also lent her voice to Ladytron’s breakthrough single, “He Took Her To A Movie.”

Ryan Harlin is the other half of The Techno Squirrels. He is no stranger to production either. As a producer and studio owner in Philadelphia in the 1990s, Ryan was embracing electronic music production techniques, which have become commonplace today. “It’s almost difficult to remember how out-of-the-ordinary it was, but I was using Pro Tools version 2.0 to record bands and telling my colleagues how nice is was to use computer functions like ‘cut’ and ‘paste’ in music production,” Harlin recalls.

Lisa and Ryan met in Liverpool, England while both studying sound technology, although it would be a few years before The Techno Squirrels got started after both moved to Los Angeles. For a while Lisa and Ryan continued working on their own projects. Lisa worked on new beats and would regularly show Ryan her latest ideas. Meanwhile, a third party made regular appearances outside the window, a friendly neighborhood squirrel whose fear of humans was outweighed by his taste for organic hazelnuts.

The ideas Lisa shared with Ryan quickly became collaborative projects—The Techno Squirrels was born.