WALK THE MOON comes back to Denver on March 25 at the Fillmore Auditorium with The Griswolds!

Backing vocalist/guitarist Eli Maiman and bassist Kevin Ray say the ‘80s and ‘90s are a part of their musical DNA, and the rapid climb to national success wasn’t so rapid at all.

The indie-pop phenomenon WALK THE MOON has shot up an artistic incline as fast as any band can in the industry over the past few years. From the release of its self-titled album “Walk The Moon” — the first on its current RCA Records label — the outfit has managed to solidify plenty of addictive radio hits and are now on a headlining tour supporting the newest collection in “TALKING IS HARD,” which is also the band’s largest tour to date with most appearances sold out already.

Show Deets:

Who: WALK THE MOON w/ The Griswolds
When: Wednesday, Mar 25, 2015 – 7:00 pm
Where: The Fillmore Auditorium – 1510 Clarkson Street, Denver, CO 80218
How Much: $25+ (All Ages)

Walk the Moon seems like it came up fairly quickly to outsiders; did it seem that way to you guys?

Eli Maiman: You know, it feels like it’s been a really long time, because all of us are lifelong musicians. We’ve all been working at it for a long time; it’s hard for us to feel like it’s overnight. Certainly things are happening more quickly now than they have in the past.

And it all begins to snowball after a big break or a big song too, yeah?

EM: Oh yeah, to everybody else it might seem like it happens very quickly, because that’s the moment people really start to pay attention, is when you explode.

With the success, we imagine you get sidetracked and don’t have as much creative time. Because of that, has your songwriting process changed?

EM: Automatically you’re almost forced to change the way you write music: on the road, on computers, in headphones, in hotel rooms. We realized this was happening though and made sure to schedule time to get away from that and focus. A couple summers ago, we rented out a masonic lodge — “the Mason Jar” as we like to call it — in Kentucky. We spent about six weeks there writing and locking ourselves away in a creative space. It was definitely worth saying no to everything else and getting really creative. The songs we felt best about were the ones we wrote together in that room. Just live human beings reacting to each other.

The music and videos that came out of it are really motivated by late ‘80s and ‘90s pop cultural references. What were some things from that era that you really look back on now as big time inspirations?

EM: Wow … wow, I think the list is pretty massive. We reference “Hook” a whole lot, the movie, which was a pretty serious influence for the video “Anna Sun.” I usually, in live shows, like to take a moment for an interlude and play the Mario theme song to give everyone an extra breath and glass of water. The ‘80s/‘90s influence is a part of who we are; it’s hard to pinpoint exactly where that stuff ends and we begin because it’s a part of our DNA.

Kevin Ray: We gravitate towards stuff — especially in music and videos — anything that embraces the weird. I can remember being a kid in the ‘90s and thinking things like “Saved By the Bell” — it’s such a weird show, but I loved it all so much and I’m nostalgic about that stuff. Why not infuse that into the music? We love having that sense of nostalgia …

Hopefully kids now embrace what we do as adults and take something out of it …

EM: Oh, yeah, and the advice I’d give to a high school kid: If you’re not cool now just wait seven years. Keep doing what you’re doing and you’re going to be awesome. You’ll be the coolest kid … just give it seven years.

Seven years seems to be the perfect wait time …

EM: Which is a long time to wait to get laid, if that’s what you’re going for …

But it’s worth it.

EM: Absolutely worth it.

Speaking of seven, is there another “7 in 7” campaign planned (where the band filmed seven music videos on tour with a handheld camera and released one a day for a week)?

EM: We’d really love to; visuals are a big part of what we do. When we’re writing, we often describe something that’s very visual. We’d love to make a lot of music videos, but it’s all about timing. Right now it’s all about focusing on the tour.

But getting serious with our last few moments here: What’s your perspective as an artist of the streaming and copyright debacles going on in the industry?

EM: Whoaaa …

KR: … getting too serious.

EM: Well, all I can really say is we exist because of the availability of free music. It’s hard to go back on those kinds of things and say they should be different. The industry just changes; we’re up for dealing with those changes.

KR: Yeah, it’s here; it’s happening. To fight it, it’s not a worthwhile use of our time. It is important for streaming services to find a way to be good to artists and for everybody to co-exist. I think that’s where we have work to do, is to make sure artists are compensated properly for their souls. There’s work to do, but I think we have to do it together.

Surprisingly a lot of the copyright laws we have were written in the 1800s; that’s absolutely nuts!

KR: Right! You know what though? We just got back from doing a week of shows in England and we did one headline show while we were over there and all the kids knew all the words to all the new songs, which is really interesting because the record is not out over there. So it was a very powerful image of how influential the Internet is. If people want it, they’re gonna get it.

At least it’s an interesting time to be alive … thank you guys, and travel safe!

EM: Thank you! See you in Denver!