The shrieks of a 7-month-old interrupt a question about why Turner would willingly take on the extra responsibilities of managing the group. With three albums and several large sold out shows (including a main stage performance at Austin City Limits this year with an audience of 40,000) the band has become enough of a sensation to garner major label offers.
"I used to be more hardcore about it, but after doing it for three or four years, I can totally see why people go the other way," Turner said.
The other way is handing it over to a label who will promote, schedule and do any number of administrative tasks. Turner, however, places a high value on control, both creatively and on the business side of things.
"It's just really nice to be able to set up the tour, decide when you can come home. No one gets to tell you how to make your tracks, and a lot of other reasons."
Not having a label tell you how to make music is important for a band like Ghostland Observatory, whose music falls somewhere between David Bowie, Queen, and Daft Punk. The cutting vocals of Aaron Behrens overlap a hectic mix of synths, keyboards, guitar and drum machines. But if their music is hard to categorize, their live show isn't.
Promoter Heather Prunty of Synapse Presents puts it most succinctly, "It's a total dance party."
Turner agrees.
"A large part of our popularity comes from people seeing our live show," he said. "We show up and kind of take over a place."
A pig-tailed and braided Behrens, sporting sunglasses and a form-fitting outfit prowls the stage like a wild predator, then breaks into serious dance moves while belting out lyrics. Turner stands stage left behind racks of keyboards and effects gear, wearing a cape his wife made for him and equally tight pants. The whole thing is punctuated by a laser light show, programmed for each song.
Rather than any one thing, Turner thinks the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
"People love the whole experience. There are just two guys, the craziest laser show, the energy of the songs and Aaron's presence on stage."
The duo hails from San Saba and Ft. Stockton, two Texas towns whose combined population is less than 12,000. They found their voice experimenting with pop, rock and electronic music, developing a sound more suited to the barren vistas of the moon than the ones found in their home state.
"We used the small town to our advantage," Turner said. "When you're in a small town and there isn't much to do but imagine -- imagine what you could do."
Turner started the label Trashy Moped to promote the band, Behrens rocked the stage like a sex-panther and they built a base in Austin the hard way, with one frenzied dance party after the next. During our interview he was holding his 7-month-old and performing the final equipment check before a tour that will crisscross the country from Florida to Alaska.
Thursday's show at the Bear Tooth is the duo's first concert in Alaska, and Turner has some advice for the uninitiated.
"Put on your dancing shoes, be open-minded because we will take you as far as you wanna go."
But what about people who don't dance?
"I would go just to see those pants," Prunty said. "The energy, the performance, they're a total spectacle. Go and see 1,100 people dancing their butts off."
The Bear Tooth and Synapse Presents Ghostland Observatory on Thursday Bear Tooth Theatre Doors open at 8 p.m. $25 21 and older Tickets at the Bear Tooth box office and beartooththeatre.net
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