http://www.cirruscirrus.com/

Let's begin with a little story about that thing your elders commonly refer to as "the pot." It's always fun to rehash those oh-so "deep" moments between tokes. Aaron Carter, Steve Barry, Jim Chaney and Laura Derby are Cirrus, a name spawned from one such moment. Barry was lying on the beach with one of his buddies, smoking a joint, looking up at the clouds. Steve asked what kind of clouds they were and his friend thought they were cirrus clouds, the highest in the upper atmosphere. Choke, cough, gasp … ahhh, the boundless stupefaction of mar-uh-jew-wana.

Cirrus ignited at a Huntington Beach community college when a conversation sparked between co-founders Carter and Barry. They were enrolled in the same two-year Recording Engineer program, sat in the same classroom for an entire year but never said a single word to each other. During their second year, Carter overheard Barry talking to the instructor about a sampler and immediately jumped in to answer his questions. Everything slid into place after that. The duo bagged the last two members like a "buy one, get one free" special... they met drummer Chaney at a Sam Ash superstore who turned around and introduced them to vocalist Derby.

Driven by the intention of putting a new face on American electronic music, Cirrus confronted the currently lame techno scene with hopes of revival. Between 1989 and 1992, the shows were so intense. They were a go-all-out production back when promoters would do anything to impress the kids -- spiked acid punch, moonbounces, crazily-painted people jumping out of the walls. Now it's all about the DJ line-up. All you see is DJ Jazzy Jeff up on a platform with one hand on a headset and the other turning a knob.

Cirrus succeeded in bringing live shows, well, back to life. Crowds were jumping all over the place in their sparkly platforms, shouting through their pacifiers, "Holy shit, I've never seen anything like this!" Their strategy? Cirrus crept away from the standard "a few lights here, throw in a strobe light, we'll get these DJs and this many people and make this much money." Unlike the monotonous profit-driven tech-dull shows, each member of Cirrus actually plays instruments. Carter does a little scratching or plays bass while Barry strums on guitar, Chaney bangs on the drums and Derby sings.

Cirrus want their music to be "the bastard love child of electronic music." It's all about experimentation -- keeping things new and interesting. They never hesitate to purposely do something the wrong way just to see what happens. Their entire foundation rides on hip-hop and influences like the Beastie Boys, James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone, Public Enemy, Run DMC, Willie Nelson, Charlie Daniels Band, John Lee Hooker and Miles Davis.

Cirrus landed their big break in '97 when they scored a spot in the Billboard Top Ten for Superstar DJ off their debut album Drop the Break. This propelled the band into non-stop touring that succeeded with a staunch following. 1998's Back On A Mission proved an even bigger success and drove them into music licensing for video games, TV and movies. They supplied music for Zoolander, The Real World, Road Rules, Mortal Combat II, Gran Turismo 2, Snatch and Big Trouble. In 2002, Counterfeit was released and described as "electronic music with large personality - memorable, danceable, hummable and undeniable."

Cirrus' combination of hip-hop, funk and electronic music produces a unique sound that steers them into consistent progression and enables them to maintain that cutting edge status every band works so hard to get. They turned a pipe dream into reality, became the token electronic act and forged a new frontier in music. As they say, the sky's the limit and Cirrus took it to the highest level, the highest in the upper atmosphere.

-Amy Schaefer