We’re fans of PHASES…For Life. It’s as simple as that. And if you have yet to give PHASES a listen, we guarantee that their pulsating celebratory allure will pull you in and never let you go.

Since the release of their 2015 album For Life, Z Berg (The Like), Jason Boesel (Rilo Kiley/The Elected/Bright Eyes), Alex Greenwald (Phantom Planet), and Michael Runion, have been extremely busy promoting the album, touring, releasing their 2016 EP Afterparty, running a contest that invites fans to remix the second single from For Life, “Cooler,” and (of course) hanging with us down in Gulf Shores, AL, at this year’s Hangout Music Festival.

VM: Your album has been out for a little bit and it has been very well-received. Can you go into the contest details?

Jason: It’s kind of just putting the stems, putting the tracks out there for anyone who wants to remix it can do so, and it’s been a wide range. I feel like there are some people that kind of barely understand music in any way, and there are people that I’m sure do it professionally. It’s been very interesting, we will get all the submissions in next week, so we’ll choose a winner then.

VM: How did the idea come about?

Alex: Our record label helped us with the idea but in the beginning we wanted remixes of all the songs. We’re very eager to get remixes done. And we’re just really happy with the way every single end track of the songs came out, so we’re really confident in saying anybody can do a remix. And other artists also have have other ideas to make the tracks better.

Z: Also, remixes are a really cool thing. But to see what your music sounds like in someone else’s head. Because everyone has their own totally distinct take on it. Take the raw materials and turn it into their own vision, it’s a pretty interesting thing to do.

VM: Do you have any artist in particular that you would love to hear what they do with your music in a remix?

Z: I really want, and this is a possibility, we just have to pin him down, my friend Oliver. Also Skrillex. I LOVE Skrillex. I didn’t even realize for a long time that I loved Skrillex until I figured out that every time it comes on, I’m like “FUCK YEAH!”

Alex: Disclosure would be a fun one, love Disclosure. And if we’re talking about dreams here mine would be Daft Punk. They’ve been a huge influence on us.

VM: So with For Life, what kind of meaning did the album have for you guys, individually?

Michael: A celebration. It’s about slithering out of our exoskeleton and emerging new.

Alex: I think one of the things that we enjoyed experimenting with on the record was starting from a different place than we’re used to because we all just write songs traditionally on an acoustic guitar, and this one came more from what groove makes us feel with our bodies.

VM: It makes you want to dance.

PHASES: That was the whole point.

VM: You know, you turn it on and you just can’t help but dance.

Z: One of my snap chat bros sent me a snap earlier today saying “I should be studying, but I just keep listening to “New Illusion.” And I was like you could do both and the same time, and she was like “But it makes me want to dance!”

VM: You guys are busy traveling, playing at Hangout and you’re on tour now, what do you guys do personally to keep you balanced and be in love with your life?

Z: Alex meditates every morning.

Alex: Runion and I have dogs that we love to come home too, but we don’t bring our dogs on tour. Not yet.

Z: Exercise, for me is really the thing.

VM: Since we are at Hangout, will you guys get a chance to just hangout and enjoy the festival?

Z: I think so. We’re here tonight.

Jason: We’re out rocking, with our friend BORNS. We just got off tour with him.

Alex: It’s interesting, at a lot of festivals, including this one, we play right before him as if we’re still on tour.

VM: You guys have some tour dates coming up, any cities in particular you’re looking forward to playing?

Z: We fucking love Boise.

Jason: Portland. Every stop…Eugene, Oregon.

Z: I haven’t played Vancouver in a really long time but I played there when I was 16 with my old band and two of the girls from the L word came to the show.

VM: We are still celebrating your last album, anything in the works for this year?

Z: We have an EP, Afterparty. And then we are music machines. I feel like as much music as possible we can put out we would like to. We wrote about 50 songs for this record so any time anyone will let us put out music we’ve got it.