Features
music
Chromeo
Gangster Loverboys
"P-THUGG ON MODERN ROMANCE “GUYS DON’T KNOW HOW TO ACT WITH GIRLS ANYMORE. THESE NEW KIDS, THEY’RE SAD, THEY’RE DEPRESSED, THEY WANT TO KILL THEMSELVES, THEY DON’T KNOW HOW TO DO IT. THEY DON’T KNOW HOW TO APPROACH GIRLS AND THAT SHIT DOESN’T FLY WHEN YOU’RE PAST 16 YEARS OLD (LAUGHS).”" Chromeo
DAVE 1 AND P-THUGG ARE MONTREAL DUO CHROMEO. TOGETHER THEY ARE BRINGING BACK SLICK ‘80S SYNTH AND SAVAGE GUITAR SOLOS IN A BIG WAY AND IN THE PROCESS MAKING THE SEXIEST MUSIC YOU WILL EVER HEAR, JUST DON’T CALL THEM IRONIC.
Fancy Footwork seems to have a smoother more mature sound than She’s in Control. More like your best friend’s older brother vibe, than boy-next-door. Was this an intentional direction you took for your second album or was this just a natural progression from She’s in Control?
It’s really a natural progression. Throughout the whole album we tried to match the first album. So we were super stressed. Like "does it sound like the first album" or "are people gonna like it". We were doing it thinking about the first album. But it sort of evolved and we became much more in touch with like you know, the writing and on my part you know, the synthesisers, then the melodies, the lyrics, and without knowing it we just put more effort into everything but still trying to keep the spontaneity of the first album.
One thing I enjoy about your music is that it has this real sense of authenticity. Your love for the 80’s synth era of music really comes across in the sound yet you don’t appear to feel the need to be post-modern about it. Do you think this is lost on some of the public? Does it feel to you like musicians can’t reference something anymore without having to be ironic about it?
We’ve fought really hard for people not to portray us as you know, a retro band, or a fun, ironic band. I mean we’re fun and we understand the references and we understand the cheese, and all the cheesiness of our references sometimes but there’s a second level where we’re just like, this stuff was really good. Why turn your eyes from ten years of music. There was some great stuff done in the eighties. People tend to make the seventies a bit too smart for me you know. I think people turn and look at the seventies and go ‘oh that was smart music, or that was deep music or social music but in the eighties it was just as much. You know I don’t see how ten years changed the music. That’s really how I feel. I’ve been collecting records for a long time and I know all the 70’s records, all the collector’s records and collectors music, all that special stuff, that high brow stuff, I’m like why is everyone making fun of the eighties or shitting on the eighties, that stuff is just as good to me.
Sure. A lot of kids my age have a soft spot for a genre I call Dad-rock. As in all the types of music our dads listened to when we were kids. Like Phil Collins, Hall & Oates, Paul Simon.
Yeah of course dad rock or yacht rock, you know the expression?
No I don’t
You know like yacht, expensive boat.
Ohhhh (laughs). I’m going to use that, that’s hot. Yacht rock.
It’s the type of music you listen to on a yacht.
Like Lionel Richie.
(laughs) Yeah exactly, so you call it Dad-rock…
Yacht rock’s a bit more exotic huh (laughs). You’ve referenced these types of artists as inspiration. For me the appeal is as much about nostalgia as it is the music. It reminds me of when I was a kid. Is this the same for your affection for the era or is it mainly technical for you? Like the sound itself?
To tell you the truth, I’m not nostalgic. I never lived that period. I’m from Lebanon and I went to Canada when I was like…8 years old, that makes it like…let’s see…1984…no, 1985. So half of the eighties I don’t know. I never had ‘Thriller’, my first Michael Jackson album was Bad. The first music I got into when I moved to Canada was hip-hop. I never really lived the eighties, I never really watched MTV, we didn’t have cable TV when I was a kid until much later in the nineties, ‘til I became like twelve. Then I grew up and we moved houses and we had cable TV but my first years I didn’t have cable TV, I didn’t watch MTV.
My parents listened to French radio because we lived in Montreal, so yeah I’m not nostalgic because I don’t really know all that stuff. I discovered that stuff because of hip-hop. Because I grew up listening to hip-hop, hearing all these samples, I became curious. I started listening to the seventies funk and then I gradually started listening to the eighties, the more obscure stuff that was happening and then that opened me up to Hall & Oates and all the more mainstream stuff, the pop. Like Aha, Hall & Oates, the Eagles etc. So basically that’s how it happened, so I’m not nostalgic I just genuinely love the music.
You mentioned hip-hop, just on that, I read somewhere that you’re not really a big fan of modern hip-hop, like post 90’s. What is it about hip-hop music that you don’t really like at the moment?
Um, well don’t get me wrong, I like it but I like it in small amounts and I’m not the guy that will say “this is not real hip-hop”. There are people who say that and I’m not one of those, because I do think it’s real hip-hop. If you don’t like what hip-hop is right now, you don’t like hip-hop. Because it is, it’s how hip-hop evolved. It’s just not my favourite kind you know. To me it’s a bit repetitive. The real thing I’m nostalgic about is the old school hip-hop. You know like A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Big Daddy Kane. That’s my era, that’s what I’m nostalgic about. I’m not nostalgic about the eighties, because I don’t know the eighties, I’m nostalgic about that stuff. And you know, apart from Kanye West, what’s happening in hip-hop right now, it makes me nostalgic. It used to be more fun. It used to be more diverse.
Ok. One of my favourite tracks off the new album is ‘Bonafide Lovin’. Do you feel like there’s a lack of romance in today’s world?
Oh yeah, (laughs) God yeah. Guys don’t know how to act with girls anymore. These new kids, they’re sad, they’re depressed, they want to kill themselves, they don’t know how to do it. They don’t know how to approach girls and that shit doesn’t fly when your past 16 years old (laughs).
Well I’ve visited the Chromeo myspace page and you guys seem to get quite a lot of attention from women (laughs). Do you find most of your fans are females?
Our fans? No (laughs) no. What’s really fun about Chromeo shows and Chromeo fans, is that beautiful girls like us and geeky guys like us. So our show is a perfect occasion for a geek to encounter good looking females and mingle and have something in common. This is something I’m really proud of (laughs).
That’s beautiful, bringing people together. I’ve heard that the song ‘Momma’s Boy’ is autobiographical about Dave, is this true?
Yeahhh, but you know we’re all like that. I’m like that too. I relate to that song too. So it fits both of us.
Oh. Maybe it’s a Canadian thing.
Oh I think it’s meant however you take it. (laughs)
Patrick, yourself and Dave have been friends for a long time now. Do you ever have any clashes of opinion over the direction of Chromeo?
Ah, not the direction of Chromeo. We do argue and bicker like old farts, like the old guys in The Muppets about other stuff, but you know the music is at the point where we have the same picture in mind. It’s very rare that we’ll fight about stuff like lyrics or how it’s sounding. You know most of the time, I trust him and he trusts me enough musically, that when the other one says, “I don’t like this, we shouldn’t use it” we don’t use it. We trust each other.
Which do you prefer, recording or touring?
Recording. But touring in good conditions can be amazing. It depends, it’s never the same exactly. The live shows are more fun in a sense because they’re more interactive and funny.
What can we expect from a Chromeo show?
A theatrical version of the album (laughs).
Back
It’s really a natural progression. Throughout the whole album we tried to match the first album. So we were super stressed. Like "does it sound like the first album" or "are people gonna like it". We were doing it thinking about the first album. But it sort of evolved and we became much more in touch with like you know, the writing and on my part you know, the synthesisers, then the melodies, the lyrics, and without knowing it we just put more effort into everything but still trying to keep the spontaneity of the first album.
One thing I enjoy about your music is that it has this real sense of authenticity. Your love for the 80’s synth era of music really comes across in the sound yet you don’t appear to feel the need to be post-modern about it. Do you think this is lost on some of the public? Does it feel to you like musicians can’t reference something anymore without having to be ironic about it?
We’ve fought really hard for people not to portray us as you know, a retro band, or a fun, ironic band. I mean we’re fun and we understand the references and we understand the cheese, and all the cheesiness of our references sometimes but there’s a second level where we’re just like, this stuff was really good. Why turn your eyes from ten years of music. There was some great stuff done in the eighties. People tend to make the seventies a bit too smart for me you know. I think people turn and look at the seventies and go ‘oh that was smart music, or that was deep music or social music but in the eighties it was just as much. You know I don’t see how ten years changed the music. That’s really how I feel. I’ve been collecting records for a long time and I know all the 70’s records, all the collector’s records and collectors music, all that special stuff, that high brow stuff, I’m like why is everyone making fun of the eighties or shitting on the eighties, that stuff is just as good to me.
Sure. A lot of kids my age have a soft spot for a genre I call Dad-rock. As in all the types of music our dads listened to when we were kids. Like Phil Collins, Hall & Oates, Paul Simon.
Yeah of course dad rock or yacht rock, you know the expression?
No I don’t
You know like yacht, expensive boat.
Ohhhh (laughs). I’m going to use that, that’s hot. Yacht rock.
It’s the type of music you listen to on a yacht.
Like Lionel Richie.
(laughs) Yeah exactly, so you call it Dad-rock…
Yacht rock’s a bit more exotic huh (laughs). You’ve referenced these types of artists as inspiration. For me the appeal is as much about nostalgia as it is the music. It reminds me of when I was a kid. Is this the same for your affection for the era or is it mainly technical for you? Like the sound itself?
To tell you the truth, I’m not nostalgic. I never lived that period. I’m from Lebanon and I went to Canada when I was like…8 years old, that makes it like…let’s see…1984…no, 1985. So half of the eighties I don’t know. I never had ‘Thriller’, my first Michael Jackson album was Bad. The first music I got into when I moved to Canada was hip-hop. I never really lived the eighties, I never really watched MTV, we didn’t have cable TV when I was a kid until much later in the nineties, ‘til I became like twelve. Then I grew up and we moved houses and we had cable TV but my first years I didn’t have cable TV, I didn’t watch MTV.
My parents listened to French radio because we lived in Montreal, so yeah I’m not nostalgic because I don’t really know all that stuff. I discovered that stuff because of hip-hop. Because I grew up listening to hip-hop, hearing all these samples, I became curious. I started listening to the seventies funk and then I gradually started listening to the eighties, the more obscure stuff that was happening and then that opened me up to Hall & Oates and all the more mainstream stuff, the pop. Like Aha, Hall & Oates, the Eagles etc. So basically that’s how it happened, so I’m not nostalgic I just genuinely love the music.
You mentioned hip-hop, just on that, I read somewhere that you’re not really a big fan of modern hip-hop, like post 90’s. What is it about hip-hop music that you don’t really like at the moment?
Um, well don’t get me wrong, I like it but I like it in small amounts and I’m not the guy that will say “this is not real hip-hop”. There are people who say that and I’m not one of those, because I do think it’s real hip-hop. If you don’t like what hip-hop is right now, you don’t like hip-hop. Because it is, it’s how hip-hop evolved. It’s just not my favourite kind you know. To me it’s a bit repetitive. The real thing I’m nostalgic about is the old school hip-hop. You know like A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Big Daddy Kane. That’s my era, that’s what I’m nostalgic about. I’m not nostalgic about the eighties, because I don’t know the eighties, I’m nostalgic about that stuff. And you know, apart from Kanye West, what’s happening in hip-hop right now, it makes me nostalgic. It used to be more fun. It used to be more diverse.
Ok. One of my favourite tracks off the new album is ‘Bonafide Lovin’. Do you feel like there’s a lack of romance in today’s world?
Oh yeah, (laughs) God yeah. Guys don’t know how to act with girls anymore. These new kids, they’re sad, they’re depressed, they want to kill themselves, they don’t know how to do it. They don’t know how to approach girls and that shit doesn’t fly when your past 16 years old (laughs).
Well I’ve visited the Chromeo myspace page and you guys seem to get quite a lot of attention from women (laughs). Do you find most of your fans are females?
Our fans? No (laughs) no. What’s really fun about Chromeo shows and Chromeo fans, is that beautiful girls like us and geeky guys like us. So our show is a perfect occasion for a geek to encounter good looking females and mingle and have something in common. This is something I’m really proud of (laughs).
That’s beautiful, bringing people together. I’ve heard that the song ‘Momma’s Boy’ is autobiographical about Dave, is this true?
Yeahhh, but you know we’re all like that. I’m like that too. I relate to that song too. So it fits both of us.
Oh. Maybe it’s a Canadian thing.
Oh I think it’s meant however you take it. (laughs)
Patrick, yourself and Dave have been friends for a long time now. Do you ever have any clashes of opinion over the direction of Chromeo?
Ah, not the direction of Chromeo. We do argue and bicker like old farts, like the old guys in The Muppets about other stuff, but you know the music is at the point where we have the same picture in mind. It’s very rare that we’ll fight about stuff like lyrics or how it’s sounding. You know most of the time, I trust him and he trusts me enough musically, that when the other one says, “I don’t like this, we shouldn’t use it” we don’t use it. We trust each other.
Which do you prefer, recording or touring?
Recording. But touring in good conditions can be amazing. It depends, it’s never the same exactly. The live shows are more fun in a sense because they’re more interactive and funny.
What can we expect from a Chromeo show?
A theatrical version of the album (laughs).
Back
Fancy Footwork By Chromeo is available now
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