Chromeo: Funkin' Fancy
SF: Following on from our tips for 2008, we deliver our promised interview with the funkin' good Chromeo<br/><br/>PQ: ""Spins, dips and electric slides!"" - P-Thugg
| 05 Feb 2008
Late last year the electrofunk phenomenon Chromeo shone some light on the Scottish winter when they tore up Glasgow with their dancefloor-ready beats and let us all know how they do it in Montreal. Amidst their "jet setting, globetrotting sensual conquest of planet Earth", the Skinny managed to catch up with allegedly the only successful Arab-Jewish collaboration in history, Dave 1 (David Macklovitch), who plays guitar and sings lead vocals, and P-Thugg (Patrick Gemayel), displaying a slightly more gangsterish edge, who handles the keyboard, synthesizers and talk box.
Influenced heavily by hip-hop and funk, the Québécois former school companions started Chromeo (a fusing of the words Chrome and Romeo) as an attempt to combine two genres which they otherwise considered to be fading from the contemporary music scene. Dave 1 admits that their adolescence was a time of "geek without the chic" but after hits such as You're So Gangsta, Needy Girl and Fancy Footwork (also the title of last year's album) under their belts, their status has rocketed them into the limelight. In the beginning, acidic electro maestro and fellow Canadian Tiga discovered them and immediately signed the duo to Turbo Recordings. Their feet are still firmly planted on the ground despite accreditations from Spin, Rolling Stone and NME, and Dave 1 is even studying his Phd in French Literature at Columbia University (and teaching French to undergraduates as if that wasn't enough!).
Their affiliation with Scotland is perhaps closer than you'd expect. P-Thugg's grandfather is an alumni of Edinburgh University where he studied engineering, and they have an impressive familiarity with British politics. Chromeo's take on Gordon Brown? "He's a bit of a schmuck isn't he, that guy," says Dave 1. "Him and Tony were kind of enemies weren't they? But after him it's going to be David Cameron and I'm scared of him a little." They also admit to a fondness for British culture in the not-so-ghetto form of Marks and Spencers' Simply Food, but explain: "It's always the same. We come to England and the first couple of days we have English breakfasts with brown sauce and everything, and we love them, then after a couple of days we feel sick and get Pret-A-Manger instead."
I daringly put it to them that my introduction of their material to a female friend didn't hit any notes with her, and Dave 1 brushes it off, assuring me that "if she met me she'd change her mind... sometimes people just don't get it". Negative opinions like this have done little to sway the unfaltering support of their families in their choice of career, despite admitting they don't seem to understand what it is they do exactly. Dave 1's grandma unsurprisingly seems to be one of Chromeo's biggest fans: "My grandma thinks it's great. She called me after she heard Mama's Boy and she said 'How come you didn't write Grandma's Boy?'"
They explain their plans for 2008 are the standard-issue for artists looking to break into different continents: "We'll be touring a lot again, pushing this album. And we still have to make videos for Mama's Boy and Fancy Footwork." When we ask them how they've changed since the success of their first album, She's In Control, a collection of demanding women in their lives, Dave 1 just says, "I hope we got better!" As far as their own tips for fancy footwork are concerned, P-Thugg tells us that it's about the "spins, dips and electric slides" and Dave 1 says it's all about the 'techtonic': "It's this new dance craze in France. Look it up on Youtube, there's like thousands of videos!" (Uh... that's how I already dance, you mean those were laughs of admiration and not extreme mirth?! - Ed)
And a final piece of advice from the Canadian allstars? "Stay in school. Get good grades. Don't be bums," says Dave. You heard the man: get educated, then get funky!
Influenced heavily by hip-hop and funk, the Québécois former school companions started Chromeo (a fusing of the words Chrome and Romeo) as an attempt to combine two genres which they otherwise considered to be fading from the contemporary music scene. Dave 1 admits that their adolescence was a time of "geek without the chic" but after hits such as You're So Gangsta, Needy Girl and Fancy Footwork (also the title of last year's album) under their belts, their status has rocketed them into the limelight. In the beginning, acidic electro maestro and fellow Canadian Tiga discovered them and immediately signed the duo to Turbo Recordings. Their feet are still firmly planted on the ground despite accreditations from Spin, Rolling Stone and NME, and Dave 1 is even studying his Phd in French Literature at Columbia University (and teaching French to undergraduates as if that wasn't enough!).
Their affiliation with Scotland is perhaps closer than you'd expect. P-Thugg's grandfather is an alumni of Edinburgh University where he studied engineering, and they have an impressive familiarity with British politics. Chromeo's take on Gordon Brown? "He's a bit of a schmuck isn't he, that guy," says Dave 1. "Him and Tony were kind of enemies weren't they? But after him it's going to be David Cameron and I'm scared of him a little." They also admit to a fondness for British culture in the not-so-ghetto form of Marks and Spencers' Simply Food, but explain: "It's always the same. We come to England and the first couple of days we have English breakfasts with brown sauce and everything, and we love them, then after a couple of days we feel sick and get Pret-A-Manger instead."
I daringly put it to them that my introduction of their material to a female friend didn't hit any notes with her, and Dave 1 brushes it off, assuring me that "if she met me she'd change her mind... sometimes people just don't get it". Negative opinions like this have done little to sway the unfaltering support of their families in their choice of career, despite admitting they don't seem to understand what it is they do exactly. Dave 1's grandma unsurprisingly seems to be one of Chromeo's biggest fans: "My grandma thinks it's great. She called me after she heard Mama's Boy and she said 'How come you didn't write Grandma's Boy?'"
They explain their plans for 2008 are the standard-issue for artists looking to break into different continents: "We'll be touring a lot again, pushing this album. And we still have to make videos for Mama's Boy and Fancy Footwork." When we ask them how they've changed since the success of their first album, She's In Control, a collection of demanding women in their lives, Dave 1 just says, "I hope we got better!" As far as their own tips for fancy footwork are concerned, P-Thugg tells us that it's about the "spins, dips and electric slides" and Dave 1 says it's all about the 'techtonic': "It's this new dance craze in France. Look it up on Youtube, there's like thousands of videos!" (Uh... that's how I already dance, you mean those were laughs of admiration and not extreme mirth?! - Ed)
And a final piece of advice from the Canadian allstars? "Stay in school. Get good grades. Don't be bums," says Dave. You heard the man: get educated, then get funky!