Chromeo April 2005 Written by Gail McClelland

Chromeo is one of those bands that no matter who I play their tracks for, the listeners are guaranteed to crack a smile and (depending on their levels of drunkenness at the time) get on their feet for a bit of serious dancing. I have yet to play their tracks for anyone who didn’t totally love them. But the main single that I am referring to, the one that whips friends into a frenzy of excitement is Needy Girl (from their highly acclaimed first album She’s in Control). Needy Girl is a true funk classic if I ever heard one.

The two characters behind this music are the Monteal-born duo, Dave and Pee. These two met in school in Canada, where they bonded over their love for all things funky. And, as they easily admit, theirs is a surprisingly successful Jew-Arab collaboration, a collaboration which has produced some really enjoyable pieces of disco-funk.

Chromeo’s first album She’s In Control (featuring my all-time favorite track Needy Girl) was a huge hit with those in the know when it was released back in 2004. Although they have since attracted an ever-growing fan base , I can¹t
help feel they have been some what over-looked, especially here in the UK where such feel-good-funk is generally so well received. Perhaps a bit of a re-release or even the dreaded Remix of one of their classics might properly launch them back into the public eye for a second and more successful time.

It would be hard to classify Chromeo under one specific musical style or heading, electro funk might sum it up. That is funk with a light-hearted almost hip-hop angle and mixed with some dangerously catchy guitar licks that almost make me think of Stevie Wonder or some other soulster. Their videos scream the eighties, and the slightly kitschy angle that emits from both the musical and video tracks is surprisingly enjoyable. Having recently been to a packed-out gig of theirs in East London’s The Old Blue Last (a bar owned by Vice magazine), I think the best way to classify their sound, after an evening of much movin’ and merriment, would be just seriously funky fun.

Being lost for an accurate way to describe Chromeo and desperate to do them justice, I enlisted help from the man himself, Mr. Dave.

Gail: The Needy Girl video, and dare I say the use of keybard/voice synth is a pretty eighties style (obviously intentional). Can you explain how and why Chromeo adopted this sound?

Dave: Well, two things. The keyboard/voice synth is Pee’s talkbox and he’s been playing around with that instrument since we were fifteen years old. So that’s nothing new to us. A lot of West Coast rappers like Snoop, Dre and Dj Quik were already bringing that back in the mid-90s and we were really into their music. So it was a given that when we started this Chromeo project, the talkbox was going to have a part to play in it. It’s not even kitsch to us, it’s what we’ve been into all along.

As far as the video and its imagery, a lot of it has to do with the directors, Tomorrow’s Brightest Minds. Call it kitsch or 80s or whatever, but it actually really stays true to who and how Pee and I are. You know Gail, you’ve seen us!

Gail: What are your plans for any forth coming single or videos. Is there any possible involvement of any Rubik’s Cubes?

Dave: Well, we’ve got the Rage single coming out in May. We’re shooting the video for it this weekend. The Rubik’s Cube idea fell through, but I hope the video will still be nice. It’ll be a lot of Pee and me playing a bunch of different instruments. Hopefully it’ll make for a nice complement to Needy Girl...

Gail: How did you develop a relationship with Bloc Party? How have they been to tour with? (Any funny anecdotes are welcome!)

Dave: Well they’re distributed by the same label as us in Europe, V2. And they’re also on the same label as us in America, Vice. And we heard that they liked our music, wanted us to remix them. Then they wanted to take us on tour with them and we were honored. Great guys.

Gail: So what’s the deal with Pee’s Talkbox? I take it is an actual instrument?

Dave: Yup, totally. That’s the talkbox that Roger Troutman and Peter Frampton popularized it in the 70’s. Pee’s obsessed with the thing. It takes forever to learn how to really play it. Pee’s actually developing a website
dedicated to that instrument: www.talkbox.org .

Gail: How did you two meet? What are your musical backgrounds?

Dave: We met in high school, in grade ten. We had high school band together and stayed best friends ever since. In our early 90’s high school days, I was more into 70’s rock and Pee was into hip hop. Then when we met, we both got
into funk and collecting records. Then I got more into hip hop production and he got more into collecting analog synths. When Tiga asked us to do a project for his label, we hadn’t done this kind of music in years. For me, a
lot of it was about going back to the stuff I listened to as a kid, right in the early MTV era: Prince, New Edition, even some heavy metal stuff.

Gail: Will the keyboard ever lose its charm?

Dave: Not as long as there are bands doing cool stuff with it. And I don’t necessarily mean us.

Gail: Do you consider yourself famous? If so, how do you know when you’re famous and how has fame treated you so far?

Dave: We don’t consider ourselves famous at all. We’re still amazed when people tell us they actually appreciate our music. Pee answers all our fan’s emails, one by one. And I’m still in school like nothing ever happened.

Gail: You’re studying for a PHD in French Lit, is this going to be your next career path? How will this tie in with your music?

Dave: It’s always been my main career path. This Chromeo stuff is just a really fun hobby. A hobby that comes with lots of free plane tickets, that’s all. We’ll see how it develops though. I’m in school every day, that’s really what I do. But in the shower in the morning, or in bed when I get home at night, I write Chromeo songs.

Gail: Who are your musical heroes?

Dave: I know mine are really different than Pee’s. He'll say Roger Troutman, the inventor of the talkbox, and leave it at that. For me, I’ll say: Hendrix, John Bonham, Stevie Wonder, Prince, Steely Dan, Michael Jackson, Quincy
Jones, Rick James, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Dr Dre... The obvious.

Gail: Your unique music style has been described in many different ways, sincere funk being one. How would you describe Chromeo’s musical style?

Dave: How about romantic electrofunk. Sincere, yes.

Gail: Do you think you’ll ever write another track as cool as Needy Girl?

Dave: I wish. That’s a really stressful issue... Man, I really hope so... We’ll see. Our next album will be called Cupid Took His Arrow Back and we’re starting to work on it this summer.

Gail: And finally, my sister and I are in New York for the summer so you’ll need to show us somewhere to get a decent NY pint! (Ha, I’m such a chancer!)

Dave: You got it.

For more information: www.chromeo.net