Photo by Dave Vann

The timing couldn’t be more perfect to talk with Philadelphia-based livetronica outfit Conspirator. Well, sonically speaking that is.

Two hours – and two subway trips back-and-forth from Brooklyn – after my scheduled interview time, I am face to face with gregarious and raspy-voiced Conspirator co-founder and bass player Marc Brownstein in the green room at Irving Plaza in New York City. Sporting an off-kilter baseball hat affixed with an “I Love Tour” pin, Brownstein is seething with energy and excitement – and understandably so.

Conspirator’s seamless live album Unlocked: Live from the Georgia Theatre has been well received by both headphone-wearing fans digesting the effort in all of its recorded glory and the concertgoers dancing into a tizzy at the live show, which according to Brownstein, is only going to get better.

“[The live show] is changing so fast right now,” he enthusiastically explains between the jazzy guitar riffs emanating from the opening band’s sound check just outside the door. “Up until this week, I would describe it completely differently. It was like a dance party but now it’s turning into more of a journey.”

Conspirator, which originally formed in 2004 as a side-project for Disco Biscuits bandmates Marc Brownstein and keyboardist Aron Magner, along with New York-based producer DJ Omen, now features the guitar skills of Chris Michetti (RAQ) as well as a rotating cast of superstar drummers like Lotus’ Mike Greenfield, who performed on the live album. What initially began as a way to kill time while the Biscuits were between drummers eventually became an almost scientific attempt to fully understand the art of crafting electro tunes the right way.

“Part of the idea was to learn how to make electronic music,” continues Brownstein in between sips of soda. “We were mimicking electronic music like through a jam lens, but we wanted to learn how to make it the real way.”

The ever-changing electronic genre keeps Brownstein, the band and their fans on their toes. “The style of electronic music evolves so rapidly that there is always new shit to learn,” opines the bassplayer while ordering an impressive pre-show sushi dinner. “You hear something and you’re like, ‘What is that ? How is everyone fucking doing that !’ It’s like science. Music is science. It’s just physics. If you’re synthesizing sounds, you need to know something about the physics [of them] or you’ll end up making a musical mess.”

And on Unlocked: Live from the Georgia Theatre, the resulting sound is anything but. Polished riffs, exalted synth tones, thundering bass blasts and prog-tastic jams meld together to make a cohesive whole that’s both innovatively genre defying and comfortably familiar.

While Magner and Brownstein have aesthetically separated themselves from the Disco Biscuits by infusing their sound with drum n’ bass and techno elements, Conspirator still indulges in jam-heavy moments that keep the improv-loving purists happy. It’s these Biscuit-inspired musical meanderings that helped transform the Conspirator live set from DJ-centric to a build-and-crescendo-driven aural narrative, which relies more on improvisation and live instrumentation than the traditional beats-and-synth formula.

“The truth is, as much as we love to believe that we’re an electronic band – which we are – the fans are from the jamband world, and they want us to fucking jam,” Brownstein remarks with a chuckle. “And they’re very clear about it! It’s going to get boring to us, and the fans, if we don’t mix it up.”

It’s this desire to keep the music new and spontaneous that’s deeply embedded in the ethos of the band – even down to its deceivingly sinister moniker. “The whole idea behind Conspirator was to conspire with people,” he continues about the philosophy of the band. “It started out with Joe Russo or the guys in Umphrey’s McGee – it was always somebody coming to join us that had never played with us before along the way. We’ve always wanted to change it [up], bring in other people and keep it fresh.”

During Conspirator’s two-set performance on that same balmy Saturday evening, the onstage chemistry was palpable as was the perceptible fervor of the dance floor, showing that the crowd approved of the recently tweaked live show experiment.

Watching the diverse crowd physically ebb and flow as the wave of beats and jammy guitar wails reached their inevitable peak, I am reminded of the Conspirator band mantra. “If it’s burnin’ then you’re earnin’!” Brownstein stated matter-of-factly. “That is our philosophy, like, ‘Keep it hot’! It’s gotta be always good and we can’t have off-nights. We won’t phone it in – ever.”