It started with a drum machine. Two grocery store employees at Smith's Food and Drug in Las Vegas found each other somewhere between the perimeter of milk and bulk items that Ken Jordan kept stocked and racks of VHS tapes in the video department that Scott Kirkland managed.
"Remember when you could rent VHS tapes at the grocery store?" asked Jordan over the phone.
Well, he does. It was the late '80s. He remembers the day Scott waltzed through the door with that drum machine too. Up until then the two had been working independently on electronic music. That day they became fast friends.
The two, better known as The Crystal Method, would go on to two gold records, one platinum, hundreds of shows and a collaboration now spanning 20-plus years and counting.
Their passion for the rave scene led them to experimenting with electronic, but the ah-ha moment for career choices was less pronounced.
"I dunno, it was slow in coming," said Jordan, "We were trying to develop our sound. I remember the first time our second single, "Keep Hope Alive," when it just, by some luck, ended up in the hands of an afternoon drive DJ."
The DJ was Jed the Fish and the station was modern rock KROQ in Los Angeles. The single was a hit. The album, their first, titled "Vegas," would go on to platinum success. It was 1996 and the first time they heard their music on a major station.
"Hearing it that day," he trails off for a second, "that was a big thing."
Jordan and Kirkland had moved to Los Angeles. They bought a house and built a studio that they named the Bomb Shelter. Electronic music was starting to be embraced, said Jordan, from the Prodigy to the Chemical Brothers. The late '90s were a different time, especially the music market.
"It's totally different now. We came in under the record company system. Now the promotion is social networking and getting your music in video games. It may be better, but I don't know," said Jordan.
The band is no stranger to diversifying its workload. "Keep Hope Alive" was on the "Replacement Killers" soundtrack and the theme song for "Third Watch," a popular NBC drama.
In fact, much of their work is featured in movies and movie trailers, said Jordan. High-energy music works for how short such trailers run. According to IMDb they have been featured on no fewer than 20 movies, most notably "Tropic Thunder," "Gone in 60 Seconds" and "Zoolander."
Movie soundtracks have been very important for the duo, Jordan said. "It kind of legitimizes our sound."
The market has changed in several ways over the years. While in the late '90s electronic was riding a wave of success, it is now undoubtedly mainstream, which isn't something that Jordan thinks is always good. He described the top 40 genre songs we hear now as "poppy."
"The Lady Gaga dance stuff is in right now, but there will always be underground electronic," said Jordan.
Anchorage club DJ and promoter Alex Ede was a fan from the first album.
"I think I bought 'Vegas' like four times," he said. "Everyone jacked it, and it always ended up in someone else's car or house."
Ede, who DJs as Alex the Lion, recounts The Crystal Method albums and how each pushed the envelope. But he still calls "Vegas" his favorite for craftsmanship as well as for its impact on the American electronic scene.
That album helped take break beats -- a style of music found in the club rave scene -- into the mainstream, in Ede's opinion.
"I don't remember how many synthesizers they used on that album, but there was nothing like it," he said. "You can tell those guys worked hard on every sound on that album."
The genre is getting a big boost this summer from the IDENTITY tour, an all-electronic traveling tour hitting 20 cities in the next few months. From The Crystal Method and Kaskade to DJ Shadow and Skrillex, the tour bills itself as one of a kind.
"We are excited about that. We are doing every show," said Jordan.
While the duo's DJ sets at Chilkoot Charlie's this weekend won't be part of IDENTITY, it will be the first time they have played in Alaska. Jordan boasts they are only nine states away from having played every state.
That's what a passion for the rave scene and a drum machine can lead to.
By Paul Flahive
Daily News correspondent