Trends, tech provide the Limousines' creative drive

In 1979, a musical duo called the Buggles told the world that "Video Killed the Radio Star."

In 2010, another musical duo updated the story. According to the Limousines, "Internet Killed the Video Star."

Ironically enough, it was the Internet that brought singer and lyricist Eric Victorino and producer/multi-instrumentalist Giovanni Giusti together in the first place. After hearing a Jay-Z remix disc produced by Giusti, Victorino emailed him, and a collaboration was born.

"It was interesting, because at the time, I was only doing hip-hop type beat work," Giusti said during a phone interview to promote the band's appearance at DeLuna Fest today. "I made a lot of glitchy hip-hop and was just making a change into more electronic stuff. He got ahold of my Jay-Z remix album and loved it and contacted me. He was in another rock band, and things were dying down with that and he wanted to do something new. It was weird, because we both wanted to make a change to new music, but we were already on our way on our own towards those styles.

"I just sent him some beats and said 'Here, check out what I'm working on.' I knew I couldn't do hip-hop stuff with him, I had to change up my style. So I would send him kind of down-tempo, electronic stuff, really soft, minimalistic stuff, and he would sing over it with his phone and send it back to me. Then he would take it to a studio and record over it and send it back to me, and we never met. The third song, we met in a studio in Oakland, Calif., and that's where I got to know him."

Giusti wasn't sure what the project would become. It took two live performances before he realized the Limousines were a band.

"The second time I was on stage, it was in front of 4,000 people," he said. "It was amazing to see it go from (fooling) around on MySpace to what it's become. I got tossed into it, but I love it."

Giusti said technology, pop culture and a healthy dose of irony are driving forces behind the band's songs.

"I think the way Eric writes (lyrics) is full of irony," Giusti said. "He has a really good view on society and current trends and new technology. I'm a total tech geek, and so is Eric. We're Apple fanboys, we're on our iPhones constantly, we've got iPads. We're all about technology, and making music with it."

Songs such as "Very Busy People," one of the popular tracks from the band's debut album, 2010's "Get Sharp," really bring those forces together.

"The song is about pretending to be doing something when in actuality you're not doing anything," Giusti said. "We are comfortable with being lazy, and relaxing at times, and enjoying art at the same time. I think it's an important thing about us, that we don't take things too seriously and deal with it as it comes."

Adding to the irony, it was technology that brought word of at least one member of the Buggles approving of the Limousines' sequel to his famous song, by way of a News Journal interview with Geoff Downes.

"It was amazing to hear that we paid homage to a classic song, and to hear that the originators like it is pretty cool," Giusti said. "I was blown away when I read it. I had no idea he'd heard the song."