Los Angele’s own Asa Taccone and Matthew Compton collectively known as Electric Guest will release their debut album ‘Mondo’ on May 14th. Produced by Danger Mouse, the duo are also pleased to announce their first shows in the UK in March.

With meditative lyrics, catchy choruses, and dance inspiring rhythms the band brings a feel-good experience direct to the eardrums. As to the name of the band, singer-songwriter Asa Taccone explains, “When I got kicked out of high school, I started hanging out at a Dunkin Donuts. An older woman who worked there was a weirdo like me, into a lot of new-agey, metaphysical shit and before I left she told me to always remember that I was an electric guest of the universe. For some reason it stuck with me”. Like the titular origin, the band and their music is a collection of people and memories Asa has picked up along the way of his long, circuitous journey towards completion of the band’s first album, ‘Mondo’. This nomadic quality is felt in their songs that take surprising, symphonic twists and turns that are never jarring as Asa’s rich, R&B-style vocals guide you smoothly, dreamily through their unique chord and movement changes

While studying various arts at Cornish College, Asa’s focus was always on music. He maintained a strong relationship with his older brother and would play him songs over the phone. His brother then based in Los Angeles, was so impressed with Asa’s compositions, he wanted his friend who worked in music to hear and placed him on the phone one day. This was Asa’s first fortuitous encounter with Brian Burton (better known as Danger Mouse, famed music producer behind Gnarls Barkley, Gorrillaz, Broken Bells, among many others). Brian liked what he heard and asked Asa to keep sending him stuff, which he wisely did. Over several years, the two formed a strong working relationship, Asa contributing his music production skills to many of Danger Mouse’s projects. Then one day in June 2007, Danger Mouse asked him to do a record.

Having moved by then to Los Angeles, Asa, as to be expected of an LA-based young artist, moved into a large house with several other musicians. The home provided him the mental and physical space to become extremely prolific, writing over a hundred songs in his three year stay. During his time there, he met his musical counterpart, Compton. The two instantly hit it off and musical collaboration came naturally. Together, with the help of Danger Mouse, they revisited and revised Asa’s many tracks, eventually whittling the number down to a realistic 10 songs that comprise their first album.

With such an eclectic mix of instruments and influences, it’s hard to nail down the sound of Electric Guest but Asa insists that it’s ultimately pop music, disclosing, “I have a sweet tooth for terrible music so I won’t even say what I’m influenced by”