If you don’t already, you’re going to want to know electropop duo Johnny Hwin and Brodie Jenkins of Cathedrals. The San Francisco band makes it look easy to vacillate between 90’s pop, R&B, and synth-heavy electronic music. And when they played an acoustic set for us inside No Name’s Record Room, they showed their beats and vocals stand on their own even when stripped down to basics.

The Stanford grads never met in college. Brodie, who grew up in a musical family and even toured in a bluegrass family band, played in a rock band during school. Johnny was focusing on beats in a hip-hop project. When their mutual friend connected them, the unlikely pair fused to create something entirely new for the both of them.

That kind of collaboration has gotten them through their well-received self-titled debut album in 2014, and again with their recently released singles, on which they are joined by touring members Mitchell Wilcox and Jonathan Hererra in the studio. In a way, even their latest music was created with that original kind of separation of perspectives and experience. For their newest singles, including (appropriately titled) “Autumn Split” and “With You,” Brodie and Johnny took time apart and came back together in the studio to combine lyrics and production. And the method works. Check out their Flashdance-inspired music video for “Try to Fight.”

Brodie and Johnny also talked with No Name about injecting emotion into music, creative collaboration, being comfortable naked, and more on Bytes, Bars, and Bands. Catch their live performance of “Howling” and “Want My Love” inside No Name’s Record Room above.

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