Since meeting in high school over a decade ago Coz and Ryan, a.k.a. Streetlab, have not only re-interpreted classic tracks from rock legends such as The Beatles and Led Zeppelin, but they also breakdown categorical barriers with their original productions. &quotIt's all kind of the same if you get the energy right," explained Coz remembering a Fatboy Slim show he saw a decade ago where the opening DJ spliced Nirvana samples between two club tracks. This experience is just one of the catalysts that lead to Streetlab's formation in 2001, and the live beat manipulating duo's penchant for universal sound hybrids that accommodate the sonic needs of music fans everywhere. Besides their fashionable USB flash drive wrist band marketing campaign, Coz and Ryan's most innovative quality is their belief that the delivery of music is just as important as the music itself. That philosophy is what allows Streetlab to effectively combine hard rock's essence with the energy of dance.

1. How much of your recording is done at home versus in the studio?
100%.  We have a home studio and a sound-proofed room set up for recording vocals or percussion instruments.  We write, record, mix, and master everything in-house.  What you hear on our album or on the radio came directly out of our room. We run a 32 channel board, 2 macs, 2 PCs, and lots of pedals and outboard synths.

2. Is there a piece of equipment that you find particularly inspiring when recording at home?
I recently got a Suzuki OmniChord and its GREAT for writing demos.  I also love our pedal board. Its almost all Electro Harmonix.  Pedals like the Zipper, Microsynth, and MemoryMan are used daily.  We also have a Moog RingMod, and a bunch of custom ZVex pedals.  I also love to run things thru my 1978 Octave Cat synthesizer - as an effect.   Almost everything we do makes its way through analog in some way.  The easiest way to get inspired: write a simple cheesy sounding melody with a Casio keyboard - then spend an hour running it through different things...

3. Do you have a particular recording style that you aim for? What techniques do you employ to recreate it?
I like to record vocalists when they don't know I am.  We don't use any fancy mic's or anything - just an SM58 or a Sennheiser MD421 studio mic.  
Or the same with a music part.  A lot of times one of us will be messing around on a keyboard, and I'll just hit record....Then 5-10 mins later I'll stop it and save.  And then sift through it for the good stuff.  
We hardly ever try to recreate anything - unless there was a technical problem.  Or technique revolves aorund capturing the moments when they happen...

4. Who determines the direction and style of your recordings?
Both of us.  We both work our input on every song from the beginning to the final mix.  So even though this is something we really don't even think about - we're both directing it the whole time.

5. Is there a person outside the band that's been important in perfecting your recorded or live sound?
Us.

6. Would you say that your live show informs your recording process or that your recording process informs your live show?  Both?  Neither?
Our recording process informs our live show.  We take the studio techniques we use in the studio and bring them out with us to play with live.  So essentially when you are seeing us live, there is an element of "live" remixing going on - in addition to the live performance of drums and bass and vocals. We try to create a space where the song exists in the pseudo-live-electronic fashion, and can be modified altered on the spot.

7. With bands doing more of everything themselves these days (recording, performing, self-promoting, etc.) and the evermore multimedia nature of the world, how much effort do you put into the visual component of your band - fashion, styling, photography, graphic/web design, etc.?  Do you do these things yourself or is there someone that the band works with? 
We do most of these things ourselves.That's not to say we  wouldnt be interested in working with someone else.  But I also like for everything to pass by my eyes. 

8. What DAW do you use to record/mix and why do you prefer it over others?
Ableton Live - its our main recording tool. As soon as I started using it years ago, I knew i'd never go back to traditional programs like Pro tools or Cubase.  We prefer it because of its ability to record and arrange a song 'live'.  As simple as that sounds...when you are working on the layout of a song, its much easier to feel the flow when you are punching in your ideas, rather than copying/pasting and then re-hitting play.

9. Do you use a mastering engineer or you also deal with that yourselves?
I do self-mastering, and then also bounce a mix to get professionally mastered.  We then take whichever one sounds better!