According to the press release, Major Lazer is a zombie-killing commando from Jamaica with a laser for a hand and rocket-powered skateboard. According to reality, he’s not one man but two – namely, premier producers Dave ‘Switch’ Taylor and Wes ‘Diplo’ Pentz. The Vine recently spoke to the former about their new album Guns Don’t Kill People… Lazers Do, broken penises, M.I.A., Christina Aguilera and their forthcoming visit come New Year’s Eve (scoop!)

So how wasted were you when you guys came up with the idea of Major Lazer?

It definitely came from big night out. We were getting stuck into the rum at a friend’s club in New York and Major Lazer was born. We just wanted to give the project an identity and two white guys going to Jamaica to make music isn’t exactly the best one to represent the album so we invented Major Lazer to be our frontman.

When did you and Wes first meet?

We met at the back end of MIA’s first album Arular when we were working on ‘Bucky Done Gun’ and ‘Pull Up The People’. They were a little stuck on ‘Bucky’ and we all worked together to nail it. From there, we developed a pretty tight working relationship.

First impressions?

He’s a pain in the ass and useless in the studio. Nah, I’m joking, he’s a pretty inspirational dude to have around the studio – he knows his shit.

You recorded most of the Major Lazer album at Bob Marley’s Tuff Gong studios in Jamaica. What’s the attraction to that part of the world and dancehall in particular?

The album was really inspired by hanging out in the Kingston clubs. That whole culture is pretty amazing. I personally think it’s one of the best places in the world to go clubbing. Basically, everyone is so up on the music and passionate about it. Put it this way - DJs there actually have to play bad records at the end of the night to make people go home. That and they have all the latest dances to whatever the new cool rhythms are.

Who’s the best dancer out of you and Wes?

Me. He’s got nothing.

I recently read the Jamaican government have had to ban a dance called ‘daggering’ because too many guys were breaking their penises. Did you guys give it a go?

Yeah, we’re working on some broken penis rhythms right now (laughs). Have you seen it? Look up Skerrit Bwoy (check out the potentially boner-breaking. slightly NSFW video). He’s a Jamaican friend of ours who lives in New York. We were going to bring him to some shows and get him to climb the rafters and then drop on his penis and some girls.

You collaborate with a huge number of artists on the album including Santigold, Amanda Blank, Ms Thing - how did that process work?

We actually took Santigold with us as a writer to help us with hooks, because me and Wes can’t sing for shit. Then we based ourselves out of Tuff Gong studios and invited a hit list of our favourite Jamaican artists and they came to us.

Was there any one you hoped to work with that you missed out on?

We’ve got a really good record with M.I.A. and [Kingston rapper] Busy Signal which didn’t end up on the album. Busy was one of the hardest people to track down and we didn’t get to finish the track before the album deadline. We’ve finished it now so it’ll come out some time. Beenie Man was going to be on the first single ‘Hold The Line’ but we didn’t get time to redo that. There’s already a lot of new material in the pipeline.

How would you describe the M.I.A. track?

It’s super-futuristic-end-of-the-world-style-MIA-meets-Busy Signal. She’s singing the hook and it’s going to be a huge explosion. We also have her rapping and doing a new verse on a remix of our ‘Baby’ track.

Your profile as a producer has exploded since you worked on M.I.A’s second album Kala – has it been non-stop since?

Yeah, totally. There’s some real exciting projects on at the moment and it’s great that people’s tastes are changing and that mainstream artists are looking at doing something more creative or edgy that really ties in to what people like Wes and myself and [Santigold’s co-writer] John Hill are doing. It’s cool to be asked to spend a week with artists like Christina Aguilera and for them to be really open and trust us.

So you’ve been collaborating with Christina?

Yeah her and a few other people too, but I won’t say who just in case it’s not happening.

Have you got any weird requests for help?

Probably the strangest email I’ve got was from James Blunt asking for a beat. I’m not sure what he thought I could do for him.

Any plans to bring Major Lazer down under?

I think we’ve just confirmed that we’ll be out there for New Year’s Eve with MC Klash and our super-dancer-girls.

Speaking of New Year’s Eve, I heard you almost missed playing your set at Field Day this year because you were running late?

It was pretty close. I don’t think anyone actually knew I’d made it. We missed our flight from Melbourne or somewhere after playing there during the day and then had a 9pm set.

Big night before?

That could have had something to do with it. But, who know - it’s New Year’s Eve, it’s Australia, who’s not going to party?


Major Lazer's debut Guns Don't Kill People...Lazers Do is our feature album right now on TheVine!