Reptar is a band with big plans. After performing extensively in Athens this summer, the band hopes to release their first EP during the winter. This December, the band plans to tour Florida.

“I think we have a cruise line lined up where we’re gonna play,” said keyboardist William Kennedy.

After conquering the Southeast, what could be next for this backbeat-infused sex-pop foursome?

“We were thinking about Mars,” drummer Andrew McFarland said. “We’d like to just take that over, and devote the entire planet to synthpop.”

Reptar played its first show at the Farm 255 in May, but traces its origins to well before that. Kennedy, an undeclared University student, guitarist Graham Ulicny and bassist Ryan Engelberger played together in high school in Atlanta, but the beginning of their collegiate careers put an end to their high school band. At the same time, the three hoped to continue playing together when possible.

“Anytime we’re home, we all love playing music,” Engelberger said.

Kennedy met McFarland, an English major, last year as McFarland returned to the United States after living in Brazil for several years.

“That’s where I started playing drums,” said McFarland. “They do all the crazy street fest drumming, so I saw that and I was like, ‘That’s awesome.’”

The band practiced when the members were home on breaks from school, and played house shows in Atlanta. This summer, in addition to the Farm 255 show, the band played several house shows in Athens and played at Tasty World.

“If we had it our way we’d be playing five times a week still,” said Ulicny.

However, the band has slowed their live schedule with the return of the school year.

“This summer we were living here and nobody had jobs, so the only thing left to do was just play music all the time,” McFarland said.

As they work on recording their EP, Reptar faces the difficulty of translating the energy of their live shows onto the record.

“The way that I look at it is, we try to get the essence of the actual song itself,” Ulicny said. “Apart from being really crazy on stage we put a lot into the music.”

McFarland and Kennedy have a different idea.

“We’ve actually hired an extensive army of people and whenever you listen to our music, they just surround you and start dancing around you, and as soon as the songs are over they start trashing your house,” McFarland said.

“It’s kinda like a mini Reptar house show,” Kennedy said.

The members of Reptar also deal with the challenge of geographic disparity, as only Kennedy and McFarland live in Athens. While Ulicny, who attends UNC-Asheville, can perform live with the band, Engelberger, who attends Dartmouth, must record his bass parts before the concert. Because part of their show is prerecorded, the band members, especially McFarland, must pay careful attention and keep a strict sense of rhythm.

“Playing drums to that stuff is really, really difficult,” said Ulicny. “Everyone has to be creative on stage but also you have to be listening really carefully to see what’s going on.”

The band hopes that the advent of technology such as Skype and iChat will eventually allow Engelberger to project his performance from New Hampshire to Athens.

“What could be more unifying than bringing two different points on the Eastern Seaboard [together]?” said Engelberger. “That’s really what the music’s all about, bringing together Athens frat stars and New Hampshire lumberjacks.”