On day two of Voodoo, I got to sit down with Meg Roussel and Blandon Helgason of Big History for a quick Q&A. The soulful electropop band from New Orleans played the La Carnivale stage on Friday.

TDR: So your set was yesterday. How do you think it went?

Helgason: I had fun. I think it was a good time.

Roussel: We weren’t sure about the slot, because I had never been on a Friday that sort of early. We played at two, but we kind of lucked out by being the only band playing then, so the crowd was actually really good. And lot of people were from out of town, which I also didn’t expect, I don’t know why. So that’s cool, because that’s not something you usually get at a show at One Eyed Jack’s or Spanish Moon, you know? But yeah, it went really well. I had a great time. We had a few little sound issues, but that got worked out.

Helgason: Yeah, I mean mostly we’re just really excited because this is our first major festival, and we couldn’t ask for a better crew or a better place to do it than our own hometown.

TDR: Since you guys are from New Orleans, when you found out that you were going to get to do Voodoo, was that a big deal for you?

Roussel: It was.

Helgason: It was a huge deal for us, I mean, because they contacted us so long ago, and we didn’t think that we were enough in the spotlight for this, but they came to us. So it was really a big deal.

Roussel: And we tried last year and didn’t get it. And so this year we didn’t even apply but they approached us, which was awesome. That’s one of the coolest things that’s ever happened.

TDR: Coming out of your first major festival, how do you think playing a festival compares to performing at different venues? Do you think it’s a different kind of experience?

Roussel: Definitely. And it’s daytime too, which is very different. And we’ve done that a few times.

Helgason: Yeah, we’ve done some festivals like at Tulane’s campus and stuff.

Roussel: It’s just a different atmosphere completely. Like, our music, to me anyway, is very dark.

TDR: Nighttime music.

Roussel: Nighttime, you might be a little drunk, you’re ready to dance, get a little nasty. And here, it’s different, but I still feel like people are here to see weird music. They’re still into it. It’s definitely, you know, I’m normally wearing my heels and a big dress so it’s kind of like, this doesn’t really make sense here.

Helgason: We went a little more casual for this since it was daytime.

Roussel: But it was fun. But yeah, it was definitely different than most of our other shows have ever been.

Helgason: Definitely the biggest stage we’ve been on ever, so that was fun.

TDR: So you do a lot of shows around New Orleans. What are some of your favorite venues in New Orleans to perform at?

Roussel: Ooh, that’s a good question. It’s hard to say. I love One Eyed Jack’s. It’s just, again, that atmosphere. That wallpaper that is fuzzy, you know? I just love it there. And they’re good to you.

Helgason: I have to agree. One Eyed Jack’s is awesome. They’ve always been good to us. I guess if I had to pick another I’d say Maison. We’ve had a lot of good shows at Maison. They have a really killer sound system there and it’s a great location. Frenchmen Street’s always packed every time we’ve played there.

Roussel: And it’s cool too that almost all of their shows are free.

Helgason: Yeah. This Wednesday we’ll be there, actually, Halloween night, so that’s going to be great, with some bounce DJs. DJ Jubilee and few other bands. But yeah, those are probably two of my favorite venues in the city.

TDR: You’ve opened for some really cool bands, Clap Your Hands, Portugal. the Man. What are some of your favorite bands that you’ve shared the stage with?

Roussel: For me, you named it. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is like, that is one of my favorite bands of all time, that’s all I listened to in college. So when we got that — and I feel like we had tried to play with them before, and it didn’t go through. I might be making that up, I can’t remember.

Helgason: I don’t remember, but I believe you.

Roussel: [laughs] But so for me, that was really, really cool. And meeting them? Oh my God, they’re so nice, it was unbelievable. You just feel like somebody like that who, you know, touches your life in that way, whatever, is surely gonna be an asshole. Surely is gonna be way too famous to ever want to talk to you. But he came by and introduced himself, instead of us being like, “Oh, hi, I’m Meg! It’s so nice to meet you!” He came up and introduced himself and said he couldn’t wait to see our show.

TDR: That’s awesome.

Roussel: It really was. That was my favorite.

TDR: So how did that get set up? Did you approach them or did they approach you, or was it through the venue?

Roussel: It was through One Eyed Jack’s.

Helgason: I think our booking agent suggested it to One Eyed Jack’s, and we actually found out the week of. He came to us and was like, “Hey, do you guys want to open for Clap Your Hands Say Yeah this Friday?” And we were like, “Of course we do!”

Roussel: That’s another thing with One Eyed Jack’s, where like, the people there had seen us play before, and I think they were okay with it. It was like, “Oh, okay, we know them, we like them.” And so that’s the kind of thing where when you build that relationship with a venue it can really work out for both of you, ideally. That time it did.

TDR: I want to talk about the music for a little while. You’ve been trying some different things. How would you describe your sound right now?

Roussel: [points to Helgason] That’s more this guy.

Helgason: I guess a lot of it, we keep getting classified as electropop, or dreampop is another one that gets tossed around a lot. I guess it’s kind of a thing that’s in right now with bands like Twin Shadow or Jessie Ware, a lot of electronic things. I guess I still classify us somewhat as a rock band, though, because we’re not fully on computers and everything like that. We do incorporate that, but one of our biggest things is we like to try to do electronic stuff that we write in the studio but be able to bring it to the stage and still use the instruments. We’re slowly knocking down the amount of laptops that we have on stage. We’re trying to just be a band with instruments and that’s it.

Roussel: We still get compared to Adele and Florence + the Machine, bands that are totally — not that Adele’s a band, but you know what I mean — totally different. I like that people don’t know how to classify us. I think that’s great.

TDR: I think I read on your Facebook that you were compared to bands like Beach House. I thought that was a pretty good comparison.

Roussel: Thank you. My other favorite band.

TDR: I saw them at Tipitina’s recently, they put on a great show. I feel like they’re one of those bands that gain a lot live. They’re great recorded, but live they’re even better. Do you feel like you guys fit into that too?

Roussel: I think we’re working on it.

Helgason: Yeah, I’ve been told, a lot of people definitely say that our live show is better in some ways than our album.

Roussel: It’s truer.

Helgason: It’s that, it’s bigger, I think that the drums are a little wilder live. A lot of our album is a lot of electronic drums and stuff like that and sampled beats and things like that. I just think bringing it to the stage and being more organic is what really gets people into it. I have always been a fan of saying your live shows shouldn’t exactly mimic your record. I like to make it a little different.

Roussel: Because otherwise you could just listen to it in your car.

Helgason: It gives people something to look forward to and not just come there and hear the record the way they could have just listened to it on the way there.

Roussel: I still have the worst nerves ever. I have been nervous since Wednesday for this show, just like, “Oh my God, oh my God, what am I gonna do?” And so I know that I’m still trying to get used to being up there. When it’s daytime and you haven’t had five shots of whiskey it’s really, really scary still. But that’s part of the fun, and then it’s over before you know it, and you’re going, “Man, I want to be back up there.” You know? “Shoot, what was I scared of, that was so fun.”

TDR: So what’s next for you? What are you working on right now that’s coming up soon?

Helgason: You can look forward to some singles coming out pretty soon. We haven’t really done any releases since the EP last year, so definitely a couple of singles in the next few months. We’re shooting a video next month coming up for a new tune called “Wreckage” that you’ve heard at our live shows. We’ve played it a few times, but we’re going to actually make an officially released recording. We’re working on a full-length album right now. We have a lot of new music in the works. We just rolled out a few new tunes yesterday here. So I’m hoping some time early next year we can actually really start getting the recording done and looking forward to releasing something as early as possible in 2013.

Roussel: We’re gonna take a big break too after Halloween for a few months. We did that before, and I think that was really good for us, because it’s easy to kind of get distracted when you have a show every week or when you feel like you have to have a new song but you don’t have time to do it. So I’m kind of excited about that, because you really get to focus back on writing and trying new things and not feeling rushed to do it. So I think that’ll be good too.

Helgason: I guess that and also I’ll mention, we’re going to start playing a little more out of town, trying to do a few short tours. Even just hitting the cities like Baton Rouge and Lafayette, maybe going out as far as Atlanta, east coast. Nothing too crazy or too far away but just something to get us out of town and start circulating a little more just to build a fanbase outside of New Orleans, because I feel like we’ve done that really well here by playing so much. So want to start making it bigger than New Orleans and maybe someday hopefully globally. We’ll see.

TDR: You should come to Spanish Moon.

Roussel: We’ve been there twice and it’s super fun. It’s one of those where you have to kind of find somebody who knows who you are and is willing to put you on their bill. It was fun, though. And easy to get to.

TDR: It’s a great venue. So, y’all are just hanging out now. Are you going to go see any of the other bands performing today?

Helgason: Yeah, what’s on my agenda today?

Roussel: I saw Debauche this morning. It was hilarious. We just saw Fleur de Tease, which was also really awesome.

Helgason: They were great. Prince covers and burlesque.

Roussel: And boots. What more could you ask for?

Helgason: I’m definitely going to have to see Metallica tonight. They’re a huge band, and I’ve never seen them before. What else is going on today that I might see?

Roussel: I like seeing things like Feufollet. I love French stuff. I love Cajun stuff. I’ve never seen them before, but I’m excited to see that.

Helgason: I think probably our must anticipated show was Die Antwoord yesterday. We all love Die Antwoord. So we caught that yesterday too, and they were bizarre and awesome as always. I caught them in 2010 when they were here so I kind of knew what to expect, and I’ve been a big fan ever since.

TDR: Yeah, they are something.

Roussel: That’s one way to put it.

TDR: Well, I think that’s all I wanted to cover. Thanks for sitting down with me, this has been great.

Roussel: Thank you so much for having us.

TDR: Maybe I’ll see you around the shows later.

Helgason: Yeah, we’ll see you around!

For more about Big History, visit their website or Facebook page.