When JT Donaldson worked at Bill’s Records & Tapes in Dallas during the mid 1990s, he had a specific nickname for Lance DeSardi and his group of friends. Donaldson called the high schoolers “the homework kids” because they seemed to have done research about the best new electronic music.

“[DeSardi] and all his friends knew what they were looking for,” Donaldson says. “I could see he was enthusiastic about the music.”

Eventually, after spending more time together at DJ parties thrown by a Dallas crew called Hazy Daze Collective, the two worked together to produce electronic music for Texas labels like Fairpark and Choice Cuts.

By the late ‘90s, the two left Texas. DeSardi headed off to San Francisco, while Donaldson made Chicago his home. Later, the duo joined forces while living in Los Angeles and Chicago.

While living in Los Angeles, the pair had their first real interaction with the venerable San Francisco electronic music label, Om Records. Donaldson says that label flew him and DeSardi to the city on the bay to perform at an Om Records party with DJs Derrick Carter and Mark Farina. “That was like the icebreaker,” Donaldson says of the gig.

Later, when both Donaldson and DeSardi took up residence in San Francisco, the two went into negotiations with Om about releasing an album. The fruit of those negotiations is their 2004 double album, the fifth installment of the record label’s San Francisco Sessions series.

On their San Francisco Sessions release, both Donaldson and DeSardi have their own mix CD. Though Donaldson sees the albums as a consistent package, he admits that there is a difference between DeSardi’s music and his own. “I would say that mine is the party and his is the after-party,” Donaldson says.

After their tour for Om Records—which brings them to Club Octane as part of the Mint dance music series—both DeSardi and Donaldson will be busy creating new music, but they might not be producing much together.

Donaldson will be working on new music for his label Gallery and starting on a solo project, while DeSardi is putting together a band that performs electronic music.

JT Donaldson and Lance DeSardi play Club Octane, 321 Alvarado St., Monterey, this Friday at 9pm. $10/advance at www.ticketweb.com, $15/at the door. 646-9244.