American synth-punk duo System Exclusive to play neu waves’ second birthday celebrations at The Loft, Southsea

​And so The Guide finds itself talking on the phone with the recently married couple who are System Exclusive – Ari Blaisdell and Matt Jones – while they are in Dubrovnik, Croatia.

The Californian synth-punk-rock duo are playing at the second anniversary of the neu waves clubnight in Southsea on September 7 – one of 23 UK shows in 27 days. But they are actually on this side of the Atlantic for much of 2023.

“We're going to be on this side of the world for the rest of the year,” says Matt when we talk in July. “We're doing a two-month Europe tour after the UK tour, we're recording out in the Azores, and we're writing our album in Glasgow – we've got a lot of stuff to do out here.”

This activity comes hot on the heels of a 52-date tour of the US.

”We kind of poked around in all of the little nooks and crannies in the states that people don't usually go to,” says Ari. “We like to to places that people don't usually travel to, so they got really excited when you came into town!”

With both performers boasting a pedigree in acclaimed cult acts – vocalist/guitarist Ari was previously in Lower Self and The Beat Offs, while drummer/synths player Matt was in Male Gaze and Blasted Canyons – what brought them together?

“Can you imagine that we wanted to have a band that we could travel with?” laughs Matt.

“We both liked touring a lot but realised touring away from each other was much more difficult than if we just toured together,” explains Ari. “So we put this together so we could tour together, go see the world and play music for people all over the place.”

Even their set up plays into this idea – as they use a range of miniature synths live. And they are totally independent artists – it’s just the two of them on the road.

”Ari handles the money," says Matt. “I handle the driving – that's kind of how it goes.”

Ari adds: “We make a good team. And Matt has a lot of strong suits as far as the music industry goes,” he was co-founder of the renowned indie record label, Castle Face Records, “and I've got a lot of travel experience so we make it work together pretty well.”

The System Exclusive sound was led by Matt’s vision with the synths. “It came about as a result of these little keyboards. They're called Roland Boutiques and they're tiny – they're smaller than a breadbox, and I had this dream of putting them together and utilising them with this sequencer...”

Ari says: “It took a while to work out how we were going to put it all together. We had the year before the pandemic and then during that to really fine-tune exactly the sounds we wanted and the instruments we wanted to use to achieve that sound.”

They released a self-titled album in 2021, and have now put out an EP, Party All The Time. But they nearly missed the recording session for the EP at Page Street Studios in Portland as they were hundreds of miles away and thought it was a day later.

Matt had to drive through the night to get there in time.

"That's not too untypical when you're travelling all of the time,” says Matt, "things go wrong and you make mistakes and you book things on the wrong day. Especially when you're juggling everything yourselves!”

“We got in at noon, we played for three hours, recorded and mixed it and got it all done,” says Ari. “But we had been touring with those songs for a while, so we knew them really well. We went in and recorded them live for the most part – we just banged them out!”

The pair are looking forward to returning to play in the UK, and Portsmouth in particular.

Ari says: “The last time we came over to the UK, we had a really good time and people seemed to vibe with us – we don't get that everywhere. I'd like to say we're huge in Wyoming and stuff, but there are certain places that get what we do more than others!

"And we played neu waves last time we were here and got a really good reception. It was one of the best nights on the tour.”

They play at The Loft in Southsea for neu waves on Thursday, September 7. They are joined by Whitney K and Conor Clements. For tickets go to skiddle.com.