They might not have been all the rage in eighth grade, but in 2018, it's revenge of the nerds -- Pegboard Nerds, to be specific. The Danish-Norwegian duo returns to the dance floor with a five-track shot of adrenaline called the Full Hearts EP. It's dynamic, shimmering, vibrant, energetic and bossy as all hell. It's also out now on Monstercat Records.

The Full Hearts EP features bass bosses Knife Party doing some truly special '90s psytrance-like vibes. Yes, that is Rob Swire's voice, but crazy pitched-up. The occasion also marks Knife Party's debut release on the independent label. There's a wild throwback to your childhood in the middle of the EP, and it finishes with another feature from fresh-faced bass up-and-comer Dion Timmer.

It's a cool bunch of sounds that gets ever-more exciting. Billboard Dance had the pleasure of hearing all about the making of this five-track fun explosion. Get the full story behind the music from Pegboard Nerds in the track-by-track breakdown below.

"Harpoon" feat. Knife Party

"Harpoon" has in many ways been in the making for years, but this isn’t uncommon for a lot of songs. Sometimes you “plant a seed” in the form of a melody or a beat, leave it and revisit it (much) later. The breakdown lead melody for "Harpoon" was written in 2014. Fast forward to 2018, we’re having a dialogue with Knife Party about a potential collab. Rob did these amazing vocals and, shortly after, we traveled to London, worked with them in the studio for four days finishing the song together (admittedly after spending most of the time listening to '90s samples and music, sharing a passion for classic eurodance).

"Steel"

[We were] bored and just playing around with sounds trying to find inspiration. This started out as a messy, chopped-up resample of another famous artist whose name shall remain unknown, and wasn’t even supposed to be a song. Suddenly, it starting taking shape though, and evolved into a full track with some (a lot of) imagination. The intro also kind of reminds us of the Fraggle Rock intro, might have to do a VIP/mashup.

"Purple People Eater"

We were watching Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, and in one of the episodes of season 2, the original song by Sheb Wooley from 1958 was being used. We had never heard it before, but immediately loved it. The original melody is so happy, so it was interesting to try to do this darker minor key section with it, before returning to (kind of) the original, leading into the drop. Initially, this cover/bootleg remix was made just for fun and for our shows, but then when we were assembling this EP, we realized it could potentially be on it. Luckily, it all worked out and we were able to put it out. There is also a little Easter egg in this song, by the way.

"OSCar"

OSCar probably embodies what a lot of people associate with Pegboard Nerds; melodic, upbeat and “fun” music, but also hopefully with a certain “depth” that we try to implement in our songs. This track started with the main melody and theme, and grew from there. The name/spelling “OSCar” has a special meaning to us.

"Escape" Feat. Dion Timmer

After Dion Timmer did a great job remixing "Deep in the Night," we stayed in touch, talking about working on something together. To us, this is another track that has several elements reminiscent of eurodance music, so it was fun to work on and trying to bridge that with a modern dance music sound.