Globe-trotting indie, synth-punk, dance-rock duo, Handsome Furs, consists of a rather handsome pair of lovebirds – Dan Boeckner of Wolf Parade fame (on guitar and vocals) and wife/drum machinist/synth operator/short-story writer, Alexei Perry. Their Yuyintang show last year was one of Shanghai’s best in 2009, so prior to their highly anticipated return to the city this month, TALK caught up with Boeckner to have a chat about the couple’s pure, rambunctious energy and growing population of fans.

Your band name comes from a short story Alexei wrote. What was the Handsome Furs story about?

It was about this woman with terminal cancer living in a suburb. The backdrop of the story is these animals all escape from the zoo. At the end, they all run through her house in a tidal wave of zoo animals and trample her to death.

How do you make your marriage/work relationship work?

Our marriage is great. It’s my favourite working relationship. We work hard at it. It works. We can be together because with anyone else, we’d probably drive them crazy.

What are your backstage essentials?

Well usually the most important thing is booze. [Alexei laughs in the background.] To be totally honest, if there’s a bottle of vodka backstage, that’s great. And water too.

What’s the most fascinating city you’ve toured?

Top four would be Bucharest, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing for totally different reasons. We didn’t get to spend a lot of time in Shanghai last time walking around, but the show was great. Beijing was fascinating. It was the centre of the world, this amazing giant city that you could just explore for days and days.

Where do you draw your musical influences from?

When we first started playing the band was really a mix. I’d never done electro music before. It’s free but serious with dancehall, reggae stuff and especially stuff in the Caribbean. I love mid to late ‘70s power-pop, punk music and early electronic stuff like Suicide.

Has this changed over time?

Meeting people has become the main influence on songwriting for this band, especially in the past couple of years. The visual stimulus of travelling in a new place, then talking to people, making friends with them, hearing their stories of growing up from places all over the world, whether in China or Serbia or Romania.