Telefon Tel Aviv, the two-man team of Josh Eustis (left) and Charles Cooper (right), released its debut record, "Fahrenheit Farewell," on Chicago's Hefty Records last September. Friends since high school, Eustis and Cooper relocated to Chicago from New Orleans this year. The band's music doesn't fit the stereotype that encompasses Europe and Asia's intelligent dance music scene; instead of Silicon scratches and repetitive bleeps, Telefon Tel Aviv marries traditional rock elements (up to and including guitars, bass, keyboards) with very modern production technique, resulting in electronic music that emphasizes melody and accessibility, but not at the expense of swirling tempos and subtle swarms of tonal tugging. It is, in every way, the sonic product of its makers: Eustis earned a degree in musical composition from Loyola in New Orleans, Cooper played extensively in rock bands before entering the electronic milieu.

Despite the very polished sound of "Fahrenheit Farewell," the recording was not made in a technically modified room, but instead in Eustis' bedroom at his parents' house in New Orleans, about two blocks from the Mississippi River. "It's the bedroom I grew up in," he explains. "The thing is, after we signed to Hefty, we couldn't move here while we were still doing the record, with the distraction of readjusting to a new place. So we were like, 'let's finish it here,' where we were comfortable. My parents were super cool about it. My mom would peek her head in while we were working, she'd cook for us, buy groceries.

"Besides," he continues, "the room was totally tuned and completely dead; soundproof. And it's comfortable. We had the Dreamcast and Playstation over by the bed, a TV; so we had the whole video game scenario worked out, and the recording part worked out. Maybe the video games slowed the record down a little bit, but sometimes you just can't look at a computer anymore." Cooper interjects, laughing, "Yeah. Sometimes you have to look at a completely different kind of monitor."

The two played every instrument heard on the record—meaning no samples—and then proceeded to arrange, re-arrange and add new elements. Every song on the record sounds painstakingly composed. Does the sound betray the process? "Well, kind of," Eustis says. "But we plan it out ahead of time. Through the course of just hanging out in the studio or tinkering around we'll get melodic ideas, or Charles will have a specific idea about some keyboard part that he wants in a song, or I'll have a specific idea about something, and we start from there. Then we try to conceptualize the track from there—most of the melodic material gets done ahead of time. Then we start to gather little pieces of sound, gather sound design, and do a whole lot of file maintenance, little stuff that's really irritating—and time consuming. Once we've got the plan together, we lay out the vibe or a groove, determine what the tempo is going to be, what the feel is going to be. From there, we just work from left to right."

How long did it take, total? They both laugh. "Over a year," responds Cooper. "Or more like over the period of a year, but we also did a soundtrack [for "Newport South"] and a bunch of remixes [including "Where is Everybody" for Nine Inch Nails]." I mention that the track "Lotus Over Water" sounds like it took a while—both Eustis and Cooper are surprised. "That one was actually a quickie," says Eustis. "Charles came up with the idea for that one, based around five e-bow guitar tracks, like a string section. We played around with that forever, and this stuff sort of built up around it, and we ended up taking the e-bow parts out. But it really only took about five days to write and record it."

Considering that Eustis has a degree in musical composition, does the band find that it sometimes outsmarts itself during the writing process? "It's not an outsmarting thing," explain Eustis. "I wish it were. I wish I were that smart. It's just I'm trained certain ways. For example, everyone who studies theory starts by studying Bach, because he basically invented modern, functional tonality. You study and study and study this, and then when you start writing your own music, you find yourself writing four-part chorales. I'm not outsmarting myself, I just dig myself into a rut, where I'm looking for really specific things, and I fail to see the macro. That's where Charles comes in."

And hence, the teamwork that makes up Telefon Tel Aviv. " We only work together," says Cooper. "I'll never be at home while he's working on stuff, and vice versa. In fact, I don't know how this happened, but neither of us can work individually. Sometimes we both tug away from each other, but were still tugging in the same direction."

Telefon Tel Aviv plays as part of the Hefty Music Showcase, November 16 at the Empty Bottle, 1035 North Western, (773)276-3600. Slicker, Twine, Beneath Autumn Sky and Phase 04 open.