Welcome to Braidwood. A cow town in the middle of nowhere, Australia. Population 1000 + the Colonna Mafia: Chris and his kid sister, Pia. Chris makes beats, drums and remodels Australian muscle cars. Pia raps. Naturally, because where else would a brother-and-sister team come up with a hyperactive, beat-driven sound that clips everything from indie ballad to ghetto-tech and back again?

Bumblebeez dropped onto the scene six or so years ago. Eventually let go by Geffen and signed by Modular, Colonna crafts his beats from, well, Braidwood. His sister, meanwhile, is busy with her new baby, Mikah, 14 hours away in Brisbane.

So how does Chris come up with a sound that is at such a disconnect from their roots? “Music is a sacred source and has really never done any wrong. People manipulate the wave and its heart, but to me it’s all just very about release,” he mutters lazily. Hmmm. There’s a madness to the method with Chris.

So much of a madness that Bumblebeez caught the attention of Hedi Slimane, who shot Chris for Vogue. Not to mention producer extraordinaire James Ford, who when he heard Bumblebeez, flew down to Braidwood to produce their new (at least new to us) album, Prince Umberto and the Sister of Ill. When asked what it was like working with a mind like Ford’s, Chris said, “He stayed with me where I live for a month and thoroughly enjoyed it. He has a big collection of old leather shoes and doesn’t like his Afro hairdo to get wild.”

“Is he as intelligent to work with as he is to speak to?” I asked.

“He always twirls chewing gum with his fingers. He says I’m the most prolific person he’s ever met,” said Chris.

“Oh yeah,” I asked. “Why?”

“Well, I have a lot of music…”

We’ll take Ford’s word for it. If you don’t want to you, quickly get to a computer and watch the videos for “Come Ova” and “Dr Love,” directed by the Malloys (the Kooks, Wolfmother) and Tommy Kuntz (LCD Soundsytem), respectively. You will see the genius quite clearly. And you’ll laugh your ass off.

When Chris isn’t making tracks with his bubbly, rapping sister, he keeps shop by producing a new album for fellow Australians Wolf & Cub, or gets trashed in the bush. Such nights entail rolling down hills, breaking into church to play the organ, or crashing his car into a fence while fleeing the cops.

“The fence I crashed into is next door to my house, and it belongs to the saddlery guy who upholstered the chairs for the Torana I’m remodeling,” Chris added. The Holden Torana is a late ’70s Australian muscle car. “When I went over to pick up the seats, he said to me: ‘Oh by the way, do you know what happened to the fence?’ I looked out the window with the most blazed look and said, ‘No, I don’t!’”