The Daily Iowan sat down with a few members of Iowa City band Techno-Lincoln and the Technicolor Union to discuss FOON, time travel, and their soul-rocking shows.

The Daily Iowan: Tell us a little bit about your band.

Techno-Lincoln: FOON.

DI: How did you guys get started?

Raspukin: There was an asteroid.

Dr. Tesla: A disruption.

Techno-Lincoln: It was about Halloween time, I performed as Techno-Lincoln and that was a solo act.

Raspukin: Espousing on the values of pennies and circles. And the very nature of time itself.

Spider Monkey Lady: Parallel universes.

Raspukin: I was present. And then I became super present during the show.

Techno-Lincoln: Some of us here formed together before my birthday, before Thanksgiving this year. And then we started working shows, beginning at PS1. And then wrote —

Dr. Tesla: — the idea of FOON, which is not quite fun. It’s FOON.

Techno-Lincoln: It’s the knock-off brand.

Dr. Telsa: It’s the cheap, knock-off brand of fun. Not only does it guide us in terms of what we provide people throughout the universe, it’s also —

Techno-Lincoln: Justin Bieber trading cards.

Dr. Telsa: JBiebs. He’s more of a spiritual guide for us. JBiebs.

DI: What is it about Justin Bieber that —

Techno-Lincoln: No, JBiebs.

Dr. Telsa: It’s JBiebs.

DI: I’m sorry. I’m not close enough to him to call him JBiebs. We’re not on the same level, guys.

Techno-Lincoln: We’re on initial terms.

DI: Alright, what was it about JBiebs that inspired you?

Dr. Tesla: Just his aura.

Raspukin: The hair. The voice.

Dr. Tesla: The total package, what he brings to the table. FOON is also sort of a higher power that guides us.

Raspukin: Similar to automatic yo-yos.

Dr. Tesla: There’s also anti-FOON, which needs to be destroyed. It’s a corruptive force.

Techno-Lincoln: It’s always bugging us.

Dr. Tesla: Bugging us, mostly.

DI: What’s an example of something that’s anti-FOON?

Techno-Lincoln: Dark wizards.

Dr. Tesla: FOON goons.

Techno-Lincoln: FOON goons are those that interact with the audience and also villains of our shows. We have battles. Our shows are full storylines. We have costumes and characters. But then, carried by our soul-rocking power.

DI: Who comes up with the storylines?

Techno-Lincoln: All of us. It’s a collaboration.

Raspukin: It’s actually just a retelling of our early college days.

Dr. Tesla: This all happened. We travel throughout space and time. It’s getting confusing, like there’s a lot of time paradoxes we hit. It usually results in bloody noses.

Raspukin: Have you ever hit a time paradox before?

DI: I have not.

Raspukin: It’s harder than diamonds.

Lady Morgana: The last show, the major production we put on, was the final FOONtasy. The evil wizard captured the Princess of Latvia, who I played. And I was thrown into a tower and had to be in there for the whole show, which was an hour and a half.

Techno-Lincoln: Thousands of years.

Lady Morgana: Thousands of years, forgive me. The music just rocked on for thousands of years.

— by Nina Earnest