Source: MTV Hive — February 7, 2013 | Kory Grow

Halfway into the synth-poppy title track for Ra Ra Riot‘s new album, Beta Love, frontman Wes Miles sings, “In this city of robot hearts, ours were made to be.”

No mere fantastical hiccup, that line — and the song’s programming speak title — stem from Miles’ and his bandmates’ interest in science and science fiction, namely the works of sci-fi author William Gibson and inventor-futurist Ray Kurzweil.

Both are luminaries to Miles, and he has spent a considerable amount of time with the works of both.

To understand how Ra Ra Riot’s science-fiction proclivities found their way into the group’s lyrics, we caught up with Miles, who was happy to provide us with five examples of how the authors influenced (or in the case of No. 5 didn’t influence) Beta Love. [...]