One guy, plus one girl, plus one guitar, plus a handful of guitar pedals and some wacky synth / drum machines is basically the formula that results in Montreal duo Handsome Furs.

While synth-i-sess (is that allowed?) Alexei Perry often has trouble pinpointing the actual sonic quality of her group with husband Dan Boeckner, she was kind enough to entertain City Weekend for a quick 8 Questions with . . . before the duo’s show, this Friday at Yuyintang.

City Weekend: So real quickly, how would you describe Handsome Furs' sound?

Alexei Perry: This is actually always my hardest question. When you're inside of something it's hard to see it without your biases and intentions. I don't really know how we actually come across sonically; however, I'm certain these things are involved: loud repetitive beats, dirgey synths, reeling guitar riffs and punk vocals.

CW: What's the origin of the band name?

AP: It started as a short story that I wrote about a woman painfully dying from lung cancer but, eventually, being trampled to a sweet and needed death by escaped neighborhood zoo animals. At the time, we were starting the band and it felt like an apt way to describe us: bitter sweet, full of morbidity, pain, rage and joy.

CW: What are you listening to these days?

AP: I love the stuff Zola Jesus does and Finland's Joensuu 1685. I like Cold Cave too. Kraftwerk, the Bug, the Nerves, Gabi Lunca, Sinead O'Connor and Ultravox to name a few things around my stereo right now.

CW: You were just in China less than a year ago. How did you end up coming back so soon?

AP: It's really important for us to return to the places we love, to try to build a fan base, to try to understand what the music and art scenes are shaped by, to try to learn. We worked with the same promoters to make this return possible.

CW: How was the first China tour experience? What are you most excited to see on your second tour?

AP: The first time round was wholly unbelieving, better than I could ever have imagined. We were both so taken back by the kindness of everyone we met and the wildness of the crowds and the awesomeness of the other bands we played with. As far as what I'm most excited about: those same things really. Seeing friends. Playing a few new tunes that we wrote with China in mind - as a thank you... for changing our lives for the better.

CW: And what have Handsome Furs been up to since your last China tour? Will you have new material this time around?

AP: We tour as heavily as possible so we played a lot of shows since the last tour but have had only some scattered shows in the very recent months because Dan has been busy writing/recording/touring with Wolf Parade's new album and I've been busy with my usual writing craziness. That said though, we've managed to work out a few new numbers for this tour. And we'll definitely be writing new stuff while we're there.

CW: It seems like you tour to some rather exotic places. How do you hook up all these random tours? Where has been your favorite city/country to tour? and Why?

AP: Well, to be honest, our tours come about rather randomly though we do work with amazing booking agents and promoters (who has BECOME family). We're lucky because we self-manage the band so if some random person in Belgrade, say, contacts me on myspace, say, we can agree to it. We're not particularly interested in doing things in the "right" commercial way. All I want is to travel wherever we can when feasible. It's probably the most important mandate of this band really. As far as favorite cities, I have a few: Beijing, Shanghai, Bucharest, Belgrade, Helsinki, Moscow, Zagreb, New York and so many more... I could try to summarize each cities' particular charm but the truth is it comes down to the people. They have made the experiences amongst the most incredible of my life.

CW: I also know you did this video project for CNN. How do you think that that project helped further the exposure of Handsome Furs?

AP: I'm not sure if it did or not to be honest or if it did, how it did! Much as I loved the experience of filming our journey I felt that the most important parts of our dispatches were not included. We filmed a lot of the bands we played with and talked to a lot of people about the various music scenes and very little of that stuff made it into the series unfortunately. However it's a nice little snapshot of us being happy on tour and, some day, we'll do our own edited version... The real story if you will.

CW: I heard you were actually in Beijing in May. Why the immediate return? How did you like it? and how was going on your own different than going with Handsome Furs?

AP: I love Beijing. With my whole heart. It is such an exasperating and exhilarating city. So much going on. I would very happily permanently move there. And hopefully, I'll spend some more time there next year too. We'd have to sort out a few kinks to make a permanent residence work but I'd really love to. I think it's fucking amazing. My time there was different than our tour there primarily because I had more time to do things and do some writing and University lecturing! I was so lucky that the friends we'd made the first time round proved to be true true friends and they welcomed me into their various worlds. I was so lucky to have that insider's experience with an outsider's perspective. It was wonderful, 100%.

If you like this interview, check out more on great duos in rock