Synth pop duo MGMT is slated to perform Thursday at Pipeline Café.

One half of the two-man team, Andrew VanWyngarden, spoke to us over the phone from Brooklyn about stumbling into stardom, making stupid music and a little-known band called The Beatles.

MGMT, which got its start when founding members VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser were freshmen at Wesleyan University who'd experiment with electronically altering other people's music, is now making its own music — and making it big.

After playing the music fest circuit last year and opening for British super group Radiohead, MGMT is now its own main act. Next month, they'll play Fenway Park with Paul McCartney — at McCartney's request.

But first, they'll play Honolulu.

TGIF: So, the latest news is that you're playing with Paul McCartney in Boston in August. That's pretty cool, right?

Yeah, it's really exciting — the Beatles were pretty popular. It's crazy! We're happy, but nervous to play in a baseball stadium, but we'll just do it, and it'll be done.

TGIF: How is the band name pronounced? I read somewhere that it's MGMT, but Rolling Stone magazine insists it's "Management." Which is it?

It's M-G-M-T.

TGIF: Is it true that when you guys first started making music, your goal was to make the most annoying music you possibly could?

We wanted to make annoying sounds. But it wasn't so much about sounding annoying, it was more about being stupid-sounding.

TGIF: But that kind of backfired on you because no one's annoyed and your music is a big hit all over the world.

You could make the argument that some of our music is still stupid-sounding. But yeah, we eventually started making pop songs.

TGIF: Did the two of you always sort of envision yourselves as famous pop stars?

Only in our own little world. That was kind of the joke of the band when we first started. We acted like pop stars on our campus of 3,000 people. We would play little living room parties and act like we were playing stadiums. It was all part of the joke.

TGIF: So, you're sort of accidental stars. Which of course means that every struggling musician out there wants you dead. You know that, right?

Yeah, we know that for sure. But being famous was never the goal.

TGIF: What are you listening to right now?

Tangerine Dream, the Rolling Stones. I'm sort of really out of touch with new music. It's like I'm living in the '70s!