Perhaps you remember the tune "Bruises," which was used to promote the 4th generation iPod Nano last year. Maybe you've run across the cool little indie EP, Daylight Savings, at a hipster multimedia store near you. Or maybe... just maybe... some pretty interesting music caught your ear a few years back at a haunted house in Colorado. 
   At any of these turns, as diverse as they are, you would've been listening to the music of former Colorado duo, now Brooklyn-based trio, Chairlift.


Founder Aaron Pfenning gives heft to what's been a long-standing rumor about the band - that their music was indeed originally planned as soundtracks for that Halloween staple- the scary mansion accompanied by equally scary sounds.

"Caroline (Polachek; Patrick Wimberly is the third member of the band) and I started making music together for haunted houses in Colorado," Pfenning confirms, "we moved to Brooklyn, but kept all those soundscape recordings. Then, during the making of Does You Inspire You - which is primarily a pop record - we revisited those soundscape recordings and laced them into certain tracks, mostly low in the mix... but they are in there."

Does You Inspire You has been in stores since last September, but is still stacking up the favorable reviews for its '70s and '80s-inflected synth-folk-pop. 
   The wacky "Planet Health" takes a humorous look at those old grade school days with such catchy refrains as "stop drop and roll!" while "Evident Utensil" uses pencils as metaphor for relationship difficulties, and the aforementioned "Bruises" encapsulates in audio every video you've ever seen of Aqua-Net-haired folks dancing the Running Man in their neon legwarmers.

Chairlift have had plenty of opportunity of their own to dance on stage, too - some quite big stages, actually, as the band has been on the road for the past three months opening for The Killers. They've kept things interesting by peppering their live shows with covers of Snoop Dogg, Pulp, and The Killers themselves. Luckily, both bands are good sports.

"We loved touring with The Killers," Pfenning enthuses, "I think both The Killers and Chairlift share aspects of zany-ness, epic-ness and attention to detail that made it a really fun tour."
  

Their Scandinavian shows were another enjoyable element of this busy band's European trek.  "One of my favorite shows recently was in Oslo," Pfenning says, "it was our first time in Oslo and the crowd was attentive and so welcoming, and it was by a river - any show by a river is a great way to kick off the night."

But that wasn't the only highlight - Pfenning, who says his top three touring must-haves are his iPod, vitamins, and his attorney and "vibe manager" Ross Fraser - also has a short (well, make that long) list of other favorite happenings from this last tour.
   "Meeting other musicians," he reflects, "drinking coffee in Portland... spending warm evenings on boats in Stockholm.  Speaking bad German, and ice cream, and the Sunday flea market in Berlin.  And making videos with our tour manager... "

And as if all of those scrapbook moments - and their recent pop success - weren't enough for now, Chairlift are already working on their next album.

"We have a solid chunk of the next album written down in and on various notebooks, napkins, laptops, VCR tapes, and photographs," Pfenning laughs, "we just need to record it... which will happen very soon."