Loose Lips aren’t here to start a revolution. The Fairfax foursome channel bits and pieces of the greatest parts of pop music over the past four decades. Although the vocals (at least on the recorded material) immediately recall Interpol’s Paul Banks, their synth melodies don’t sound dark and introspective but upbeat and breezy as if injected with a dose of 1960s California pop, with a side of working class grit. But Loose Lips doesn’t sound so much like they’re retreading their influences as reimagining them. When those familiar guitar riffs are found in such a well-crafted song, like the five on the new Weighing Winter EP, the familiar sounds fresh again.

Furthermore, based on their onstage chemistry, you’d think the quartet had been playing together for at least five years. When they opened up for Middle Distance Runner earlier this month, I assumed that I hadn’t heard of them before because they weren’t local. But they are local and singer Donny Potter, drummer Daniel Floyd and bassist Jeremy Cassano (keyboard player Andrew Diego couldn’t make it) sat down at Galaxy Hut to talk about influences as disparate as European death metal and Weezer and how the imagery of winter features strongly in their new EP.

DCist: How’d you guys meet?

Donny: Me and Daniel met. A mutual friend of ours had a house in Fairfax and he had this shed in his backyard. He used to have these huge jams.

Daniel: The Sunday jams where like ten or so people would come out and all jam.

Donny: Yeah, ten to twenty people. Just, different musical backgrounds. I remember one time where this metal shredder guy came out and so it was just interesting jam sessions and three or four drummers and it would sort of just switch off. So I met Daniel over that. So we decided to start playing together. We actually started playing shows before [Andrew] joined so…we found him through a craigslist ad.