Disco ball spinning with confusion

Since the release of their debut album Voyager, electro-pop duo Justin Sconza and Colin Yarck -” better known as Walter Meego -” are getting used to a rather common question: Why the weird band name?

Uh, it rhymes with alter ego, explains Sconza patiently when confronted with the question, no doubt for the umpteenth time that day.

We wanted to come up with a name that pokes fun at the idea of coming up with a name.
Such cleverness comes with its own set of problems: the boys are constantly asked which one of them is Walter.

Oh, all the time, Sconza sighs. I tell them, -˜No, Walter’s not here, he couldn’t make it’ … it’s just easier that way.

The duo, former college buddies who started making music together four years ago, sit somewhere between the eccentric pop of MGMT and Calvin Harris’s DIY electro. Their track Girls is like the sensitive, lovelorn cousin to Harris’s hit of the same name.

Meego have more than song titles in common with Harris: they also bite his style on their album sleeve. It seems quite a few pop stars have, in the past year or so, developed a penchant for wearing impractical sunnies on their album covers (see also: Kanye West and Sam Sparro. How have these dudes not walked under a bus by now?).

We just thought it looked cool for the album cover, Sconza says of the dangerous eyewear he and Yarck don.

I don’t think they’re gonna catch on!

Walter Meego are still something of an underground band in the US, but the duo are starting to get attention through the use of a couple of their tracks, In My Dreams and Forever, featuring on Ugly Betty, with the anthemic Forever also popping up in a Heineken ad.

Sconza admits he’s never really watched Ugly Betty and doesn’t drink Heineken, but he’s unapologetic about the use of his songs. Nobody buys albums anymore, so you have to go another way, he shrugs.

He’s equally matter-of fact about the band’s obvious musical debt to the ’80s. [The ’80s sound] is there because that’s when we were growing up.

Despite the fact that their debut album, Voyager, is a synth-heavy collection from a band seemingly bred on Human League and Gary Numan records, Sconza insists that he drew from a wide variety of styles.

I grew up playing the piano, then I started playing guitar when I was about 12 because I loved Nirvana. I wanted to play all Nirvana’s songs, he said, also listing The Beatles and jazz as major influences.

For now, the release of the aptly-named Voyager seems destined to send Walter Meego around the globe. An Australian jaunt is pencilled in for early ’09, as the duo work the summer festival circuit. Their brand of bright, sunny pop should win them a few fans Down Under.

info: Voyager is out now on Almost Gold, distributed through Sony.