The streets of Bourbon were blessed with the electrofunky sounds of Chromeo
March was insane with different events around the country. BUKU in New Orleans was one of the stand-out music festivals that featured artists from all genres from the likes of Zedd to Baauer. Day two was blessed with the sounds of Chromeo.
After giving a strong performance to an adoring Buku crowd, Nikeisha Nelson sat down with Dave 1 & P-Thugg. They broke down the concept behind their album title White Women, how their comedic tracks are influenced by 80s hip-hop, where their name derived from and so much more. Check out what they had to say below.
Photo Credit: Nikeisha Nelson/@niki_nel & Diana Zuluaga/@dmz75
Nikeisha: How did you guys meet in Canada?
P–Thugg: I had a band & was a drummer, but was actually originally playing guitar in that band. He was in the same high school; joined the band. He was a better guitar player than me. I was demoted to bass. He became the guitar player. That’s how we met.
Dave 1: That was our first band together. Thats like 20yrs ago mind you.
N: Based on those beginnings, playing guitars in a band, how did that shape your music today?
P: We discovered music together…Funk.
D: Yea, funk music. This was also the mid 90s so it was a really great period for rap music. We were really really really into rap. We started making beats & producing hip-hop, & through doing that we discovered a lot of really old records that we would sample. This is back when every hip-hop beat had a sample. So we would just learn about music so much ’cause we were diggin’ for records all the time. That’s how we discovered all this music. And we never really sampled 80s records. When we eventually decided to create our own music; we had all these 80s records we had never touched doin’ hip-hop. We were like, “Well, we’re never goin’ to sample them, but we can make music like this.” And I still had vague memories of being a kid & going to see Prince and Hall & Oates on television & Robert Palmer and stuff. So I did have that, you know. And it was weird because we moved away from hip-hop early. I mean, the only person within hip-hop who was doin’ something eclectic at that time was Pharrell when he started N.E.R.D. The first N.E.R.D. album was like one year before Chromeo. The genres were way more segregated back then. Me & A-Trak had a hip-hop label together. We were really into making beats and at one point I was like, “Man I wanna do something else.” You know, this was when Swizz was starting to pop off. I wasn’t really into those keyboard beats. That keyboard DMX shit. So we ended up making keyboard music though. Which was ironic.
P: Yea. Thats exactly when we started playin’ keyboards. [Laughs]
D: Yea. We did something else. We went left a little bit.
I guess based on the musical sound that you guys were developing; how did you pick the name Chromeo? Because it fits perfectly with your style of music.
D: Yeah. That’s how we felt.
Who thought of it?
D: It just came to me one morning when I woke up. “Chrome..Romeo” It’s funny. It was kind of a thing like, “How come nobody thought of that yet.”
That’s what it sounds like for sure…
D: Like it always existed.
Yea. And what are some of the electronic/funk groups that influence you to propel that sound?
D: Like all the 80’s stuff; we always used as influence & then early Daft Punk…N.E.R.D.’s first album. You could count on one hand, those eclectic dance albums that had vocals and eclectic albums within hip-hop that sort of went left, like Stankonia.
Yea, seriously. Almost any Outkast album.
D: But yea, you could almost count on one hand in 2000, 2001. It was Kelis, Stankonia, N.E.R.D’s first album, Daft Punk’s Discovery, and then some like Europe or British stuff.
P: When I heard that, I was like…
D: I started playing that again in my dj set on Holy Ship.
Nice!
D: Yea, so its really us coming from that & trying to do something different.
At a glance you guys are..I don’t know. There’s a dichotomy. For example your backgrounds. Arabic…Jewish. Tall…short. You know, its great to see
P: Skinny…fat! [Laughs] C’mon, you want to say it!
[Laughs], I didn’t say it.
All: [Laugh]
But based on your differences, how do you guys find that you click?
D: It’s always been like that. My grandmother used to call us Laurel & Hardy when we were fifteen.
And what draws you together?
D: What draws Laurel & Hardy together…What draws Young Thug & Peewee Longway together?
Very nice, I like that one.
D: Young Thug & Peewee are really the next level Chromeo. Because he’s like 7′ tall & he’s skinnier than me & Peewee is like Cee-lo mixed with Bushwick Bill. [Laughs]
P & D: …and Lord Sear.
[Laughs] That’s perfect.
D: They’re incredible together.
You guys just had a collaboration with Toro y Moi. What are some of the collabs we can look out for?
D: Solange is on the album. Vampire Weekend’s on the album. Pat Mahoney from LCD Soundsystem’s on the album.
P: And we’ve got the original signer from Mtume.
D: There are mad 70’s cats on the album too. We just don’t flaunt it so much. But she’s on all the records, like half the songs.
That’s solid.
D: So it’s a mix of new cats & old cats, you know, and then us. But then, moving forward, we’re already making moves to collaborate with people.
Great, & who are some of those?
D: My dream collaboration is Future.
Really.
D: To me, Future, is the dopest guy in music right now. He’s the dopest. He’s so good. When he does shit like Tony Montana; its almost like he’s being ironic. He’s dumbing down. I think Future is the dopest guy in music. His sense of melody; of cadence. His sense of humor; he’s very funny. He’s a genius. I love Future. And its not even a hip-hop thing. He’s just an amazing voice in music. That would be a dream collaboration.
It’s good to put it out there. I hope to see that.
D: A-trak’s got a group with Future’s producer. It could happen any day. That’s one dream collaboration. He’s the guy.
Nice. You guys always have comedic elements to your tracks; song names, lyrics, etc. How do these tracks develop?
P: Whenever we are in the studio & come up with an idea that makes the other one laugh. Thats how we know its a keeper, if we’re hysterically laughing at something we’re doing.
Like “Bonafide Lovin'”
P: Yeah, like “Momma’s Boy”. Even musically, like little musical clips we come up with & it’s like, “Yo, remember that shit.” [imitates keyboard sound]
[Laughs]
P: [Laughs] …Let’s keep it.
D: Yeah, and again we didn’t get that from funk music. We got that from rap music. Because a lot of funk music is funny, but…
They mean it seriously.
D&P: Yeah!
D: Those were political times. George Clinton had an agenda. Sly had an agenda. They were serious times. Rick James was talking about serious things. Fucking around comes from us listening to the Chronic, Doggystyle…
P: Beastie Boys too.
D: Beatnuts. Funny shit, like jokes, you know.
Speaking of inside jokes, I’m curious about the album title, White Women.
P: That’s the title of Helmut Newton’s first book. So it was more of a visual thing that really inspired us.
D: The girl on the album cover’s not white, you can tell.
Right, right.
D: We wanted something that grabs attention of course. But also that forces people to think about us like two really opinionated dudes. In other words, you’re like, “it can’t be racial with those guys. The guys are like ethnically ambiguous.” We’re not even heteronormative in terms of our music. Even though all of our songs talk about girls; our music is not heteronormative. So there is no way our album title would have ethnic or racial implication. It has to be something more. Alright, what could it be? Oh, Helmut Newton, oh the legs, oh Chormeo. You know what I’m saying? It’s like, “Oh what does that mean?”
Yea, I like how it comes together.
P: It’s cool just to give that little spark and be like, “Wow, what do they mean actually?”
D: Yeah! ‘Cause in our music there is always a deeper meaning to what we do or nerdier levels. There’s levels to this shit. We’re four albums in the game, we can have a title that’s a bit of a mind-fuck. And its like once you look deeper in the surface, you’re gonna realize you’ll have a better understanding of Chromeo, ’cause now you know what we like musically but what we like visually too. “Ah, those guys like photography. Oh wow, maybe I’ll get into that.” The same way we took a generation of hipsters and made them like Hall & Oates.
True…and funk. And lastly, any projects or tours we should look out for?
P&D: So many tour dates.
When are you guys wrapping up your tour?
P&D: [Silence]
Never?
D: [Laughs] In 2 years.
D: Top 5 best rhymes of the month from the 90s. I could probably still remember them.
P: [Laughs]
Yeah?!
D: Yea, ’cause you opening The Source; you’re like opening up a pandora’s box.
I can tell. [Laughs]
D: In my storage unit in New York, I still have cases of them that I brought from Montreal to New York. Because I was like, “One day I’m gonna wanna go…” We should actually go one day & look. ‘Cause I have cases of them in New York & at my parents’ house. My father’s like, “Do you really need Wu-Tang 1995?”
All: [Laugh]
D: It was gold back then.
Nikeisha Nelson (@niki_nel)
