Q&A: 3OH!3

So Warped Tour has been going on for about a month. How has it been going so far?
Nathaniel Motte: It’s been great. Big crowds, main stage, fun time. The shows get bigger and bigger, and there’s so many kids. It's great. Warped Tour is a very communal, fun tour to be on.

How many times have you guys been on Warped?
Sean Foreman: This is our second full summer on it. We did one date on the 2007 one.

I feel like Warped Tour is the sort of tour that bands love to play, but at the same time hate so much because of the sweltering heat, lack of shade and no air conditioning. How do you guys feel about it?
Foreman: It is a brutal tour in the sense that the weather is so hot and you never know what time you are going to play, so you always have to leave early. And if you are a smaller band, you have to do it in a van, which I can’t even imagine how hard that is. Other than that, the perks of it are definitely unlike any other tour, too. The camaraderie you build with the other bands -- it’s such a summer vibe. It's like a summer camp for bands.
Motte: It's such a springboard for bands, too. So many bands have come up through the Warped Tour. For us it was everything. It was our first tour last year; it really helped us out and it still is obviously helping us out.

I think you are one of the first acts to bring the genre you’ve created to the punk scene. Can you comment on how you’ve sort of rebranded a niche for yourselves, where people come to Warped to see hip-hop- and pop-influenced bands like yourselves instead of punk bands like NOFX and Bad Religion?
Motte: It's crazy. I don't know how conscious it is. I think we just try to make music that sounds cool to us and definitely do what's comfortable and do what sounds good and feels good and is fun -- but seriously, it’s crazy to think that. It's very flattering.

Was it ever a thought to start a band with instruments and a drummer and stuff, or have you always been into making beats and doing hop-hop songs?
Motte: We both play instruments, and we actually just recently recorded a live session for iTunes.
Foreman: Our show here has a band, so we play with live music and stuff.
Motte: We're trying to meld the organic and the computerized.

So did you guys get started by doing remixes and mashups, or did you jump right into writing originals?
Motte: We jumped right into doing our own stuff. We didn't really start as DJs, so it was just kind of getting together and making fun music.

So the past few months have been pretty good to you. You guys exploded onto the scene and now have the No. 1 single in the country.
Motte: It's pretty crazy, especially since that song has been out for more than a year. It’s been a long, pretty cool climb.

Do you remember where you were when you heard you had the No. 1 single in the U.S.? Foreman: We were just starting this tour.
Motte: It was right at the beginning. I remember we were in L.A. doing a radio thing. It was edging up and up and up. So it was pretty amazing.

Since it happened, have you been getting a lot more publicity from people like me trying to get interviews?
Motte: Tons of chicks man. When you’re No. 2, there’s no chicks. But when you're No. 1, you're swimming in chicks.
Foreman: My parents have been calling me a lot.
Motte: I think our friends and family share very closely in what we are experiencing, so it's cool, too, but honestly, not that much changes. We keep playing shows and keep trying to slam out as much as we can and keep trying to make our shows as fun as we can.

You guys wrote an anthem for the Colorado Rockies. What is that about?
Foreman: Fox Sports Net approached us asking if we would do kind of an anthem thing. We grew up fans of Colorado sports like the Rockies, even though they sucked forever. We would go to games and it was always fun, so we just made a small little anthem for it that was kind of in the vein of what we do.
Motte: Yeah, it's like stadium techno.

Where can we hear it?
Sean: Online, maybe? I don't know if you can even find it online. We just got a copy of the video.
Motte: I know they air it on Fox Sports Net when the Rockies play, but I don’t know where else it's out. So you have to be a Rockies fan to hear it.

I heard you guys toured with Barack Obama during his campaign.
Motte: Yeah. We were his backing band.
Foreman: Haha. The only thing I can think of that would make that true is that we did this "trick or vote" thing at a show during Halloween, where anyone who went and canvassed to get people to register to vote would get into the concert for free. Oh yeah, and we played for Barack Obama. He rapped over one of our songs. He remixed it.

Does Barack bring the freshest rhymes?
Motte: He brings only the hardest raps ever. Haha. No, but seriously, I think we were both pretty vocal in trying to motivate as much as we could and support his campaign as much as we could, but we never actually toured with him. We did write some political stuff for some magazines and stuff, but that’s it. It would be sweet to do that, though.

You guys should call Kal Penn from Harold & Kumar; he works in the Obama Administration.
Motte: Really?

Yeah. Really.
Foreman: Wow.

So Want has been out for a year and recently has been really successful. Have you considered writing a new record, or are you going to put out more singles from this one?
Motte: I think the prolonged, crazy life of our first single extends our record cycle. We've been writing songs and are working on stuff, but we are honestly lining up a couple more singles off our first record. We remixed "Starstrukk" with Katy Perry recently and kind of made it a funner, better, bigger song. That will be our follow-up single as far as radio and T.V. and stuff is concerned. That should come out in a few weeks or so. I think we'll keep working on stuff, but I think it probably won't be until next year that we see anything new, though.

Have you ever considered doing remixes of your songs with artists like Lil Wayne and Kanye?
Motte: We were actually just in the studio a couple of weeks ago with Lil’ John, which was rad. We got hooked up through a producer friend of ours. It's amazing for me because he is kind of a musical idol for me and made me want to make beats in the first place. We got in the studio with him and worked on a track for his new record, and it was awesome. He was actually on the Warped Tour in New York and came out and sang "Chokechain" with us. It was awesome. Foreman: We did a remix of "Don't Trust Me" with KiD Cudi. He rapped on it.

You recently gave Ryan Seacrest a call.
Motte: I called him and left him a message.

Are you guys friends with Ryan?
Foreman: Uhhh ... yes.
Motte: Well, he was on the Barack Obama tour with us.
Foreman: Yeah. He played bass.

His birthday is coming up. You should play his birthday party.
Motte: Where is it?

Probably in New York or L.A. or something.
Motte: I’ll call up my man Barack and he’ll hook me up.