They met in an online forum when they were pre-teens; now they’re packing festivals with technicoloured dance music – even if they’d rather be on a farm

As the distant echoes of an LCD Soundsystem performance bleed through the walls of their trailer, Porter Robinson and Hugo Leclercq, better known by his nom de disque Madeon, are currently relaxing on a couch after playing for a couple thousand people during the last day of the Austin City Limits music festival.

“This is a very surreal way of living, but overall pretty pleasant I think,” explains Robinson, 24, a grey knit cap over his flowing hair. “When you’re on tour you usually wake up in a bunk on a bus, barely manage to get yourself clean by midday, eat something, and then are suddenly you’re standing in front of 6,000 people. Then you do all of that over again the next day. It’s a kind of hypnotic ritual.”

The hypnotic tour Robinson is currently experiencing is a joint one with his friend Madeon. Named after their latest single, Shelter, it’s an expansive jaunt that takes them from festivals like this one to monster venues – they’re doing two nights at both the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York and the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. It’s also a victory lap for the duo who can now command the crowds to pack both venues, a testament to their growing popularity since they first broke out onto the electronic scene, albeit separately, in 2011. “It’s funny because we’ve been working about six years professionally, but we met when were pretty much children,” says Robinson. “I was 12 and he was 14.”

“To me, it doesn’t feel that long at all,” says Madeon, now 22 but seeming years younger in a varsity jacket and a blue baseball cap pulled over his scruffy face. “We’ve been close peers well before either of us had a hint of ever having a music career, and when we did eventually find success it was through completely different avenues.” Robinson and Madeon first met on an online music production forum. The faraway friends (Robinson in his hometown of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and Madeon in Nantes, France), hit it off, albeit digitally, and began sending tracks back and forth.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Mad(eon) for it: Porter Robinson and Madeon in action. Photograph: Julian Bajsel

Besides sharing creative tastes, the two also bonded thanks to a shared desire to hone their craft meticulously. Even tonight they are painstakingly tweaking minor mix changes for an upcoming song just a few minutes after playing the night’s set.

“For a lot of kids who are starting today, there’s this goal of being a DJ headliner you can aspire to, whereas back in 2010 or 2011 when, oh my god, I got $500 for a song,” says Robinson. “That was basically the limit of my aspirations at the time. We weren’t trying to become headliners or reach the top because that career path didn’t exist.”

Despite being currently near the top of the hedonistic EDM scene, the two pride themselves on preserving simple lives. They both currently still live with their parents (Robinson’s have tagged along for tonight’s show along with his three younger brothers), and each avoid the excesses of fame. “I’ve been having really late nights and I’m not a night owl or party dude at all,” Robinson says. “Ideally, I’d be waking up at 7am on my farm.”

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Robinson doesn’t really live on a farm, but the reality isn’t far off. He enjoys the comfort of being with his family, dogs, and studio in the quiet North Carolina house he grew up in, though he thinks he’ll move eventually. “Touring is so encompassing and overwhelming, it feels really good to come back to something you are familiar with.”

Madeon echoes the sentiments. “I like coming home to my parents and forgetting about the more glamorous aspects about it.”

For now though, all focus is on Shelter Live, a rollicking show that encapsulates both of their music careers and features the duo interpreting each other’s songs, busting out both brand new tracks and fan favorites. Of course there are plenty of flaming pyrotechnics, intricate lighting cues, and eye-candy graphics, some of which include the Japanese anime they both enjoy.

“Preparing a show of this magnitude just on the audio side and coming up with ideas of what the show could consist of can be difficult,” ponders Robinson. “We’re not going up just playing our originals, which would be easy. Combining that with the visual show, there’s not a single look in there that we didn’t make significant changes too. The visuals alone took a week of nonstop work. There’s not a big secret to it; it’s just very hard.”

As the duo preps to depart the festival grounds at City Limits (their crew only has an hour window to pack up their gear and leave), they’re spending the night in a nearby hotel room; a luxury compared to the tourbus they’ve become accustomed too. Then tomorrow, they leave Texas and do it all again and again, something they’re just fine with. “I don’t take vacations or any time off, all I do is make music,” says Madeon. “There’s nothing else I’d rather be doing. I really, really like making music ... a lot.”