The epitome of party band, this electropop duo ready to let it fly at Spokane Arena tonight

Everyone knows what LMFAO means.

It means it’s time to party.

The electropop dance duo has redefined party rock, steeped in cavalier hip-hop and stadium-sized flamboyance. LMFAO’s popularity is to the point that you’d be hard pressed to find a party – whether night club, wedding reception or Super Bowl halftime show – that isn’t playing one of their anthems.

Redfoo and his nephew SkyBlu – son and grandson of music mogul Berry Gordy – revealed the savvy behind their sexy in this recent teleconference interview in advance of their international summer tour, which lands tonight at the Spokane Arena.

Q. There’s a sense of humor you bring to your shows with the choreography and the props, like the inflatable toys. What’s the story with the concept and attitude of your sound and how has that transformed since you began creating it?

Redfoo: It’s a world where anything can happen. A world with inflatable palm trees and shufflin’ zebras. Some things are random. We have a guy shufflin’ in a hot dog suit.

SkyBlu: There’s always an evolution and that has a lot to do with it. It’s the people you hang out with. It’s me and ’Foo just listening to music and watching people. We know what stimulates a new sound and concept and we take it and do it our own way. It’s the music and the experiences that are around us. They say you’ll be successful if you’re around successful people and that promotes the evolution of what you’re doing.

RedF00: It really is the company you keep and what you’re talking about. It’s club music. Our music is all about making music for the party. We don’t call it music, we call it tools … tools for the party. You don’t want to say, “Hey everybody! It’s time to start drinkin’.” That might not be the best way to say it. But you put on the song “Shots” and people say, “Hey, let’s get a shot.” We want to live in the club so we’re always involving ourselves with that sound. Like dubstep, that’s a new sound that has been introduced and that inspires everyone to play custom-made sounds. You can’t get that from a guitar or an acoustic instrument. You’re talking about something that’s strictly digital. It might be something that you hear in “Transformers.” But it’s also about the void. Where is the void? What’s the style of music that hasn’t been touched. The shuffle originates from the Charleston. Like big band and swing music. That hasn’t been touched in popular music for a while. Let’s put that in the music and more.

Q. What was it like hearing rumors that you were splitting up?

SKYBlu: We made a viral video of it, making fun of it. That was one of my first-time encounters with people saying things that are completely false. We’re family. At the end of the day it’s blood.

Redfoo: We grew up in a musical family. There are not a lot of artists trained this way. Papa Berry called it the cycle of success. When you’re high class, you have high-class problems. When you get famous you become a target for things, like lawsuits. People will take advantage of your fame. You’ll see stuff in the tabloids because people want to stir up controversy. People will see Sky doing a DJ set in South America and I might be in Vegas and they’ll see that we’re separated. Now we’re under the microscope by people who are saying, “How can we make a story … we gotta sell magazines.” We have to be smart enough to recognize that it’s a game. That’s what we focus on. We’re the kings of partyin’ and that’s a great place to be. So we can laugh stuff off and keep executing our vision of turning this world into a party planet.

Q. How did the no-lens glasses thing start?

Redfoo: How it started is … one night in the club, there were these two big girls and I sandwiched on the dance floor but I couldn’t tell what was goin’ on. I thought it was four girls and it was really two big girls. I mean like big girls. And one of them looked like a dude. I couldn’t tell at first cuz I was wearin’ sunglasses, so I popped my lenses out. Later on this hot girl came up to me and said, “I like your glasses.” And I said “I’m never taking these off.”  

SKYBlu: It was the opposite for me. I like to wear sunglasses in Miami at the club and on the beach so I can sneak an eyeful when the girls don’t wear tops. This one time I forgot I was wearin’ no-lens glasses and I got slapped up.