Chromeo is guitarist-singer Dave 1 and synthman/talkbox master Pee-Thugg, two hardworking musicians formerly on the floor of Tiga’s DNA record store. Their sound makes you want to grow back that mullet, put on your Boy George makeup and hit the dance-floor with a pair of your old roller skates. Their beat are funky and it’s great to see all the innocence and joie de vivre of 80s music incorporated into Chromeo’s style. Their energy at a live show is contagious, and they had everybody boogying and screaming (including the sorority girls) on The Main last Thursday night during the fourth annual POP Montreal festival (www.popmontreal.com).
Pee and Dave 1 have been best friends since highschool. ”I started a live funk band in 93-94. I was the guitar player, one of my friends was the drummer. Dave was also a guitar player and he was better than me!” said Pee. “So I started playing bass and he was the new guitar player in the band. We were doing our production separately, but were always together helping each other. A few years later we got into hip hop.”
Chromeo put out their first LP, She’s in Control, in 2004. Pee-Thugg described how the album was put together, saying, ” Tiga needed some variety from all the Techno on his DNA/Turbo label. He asked Dave 1 if he wanted to do a hip-hop project on the side for Turbo, and he called me. We put some demos together and got signed right away.”
Chromeo’s unique sound makes them hard to categorise. They like to describe their sound as “slick ass lover’s funk.”
”I mean it’s not really fully Electro. It’s a mix of everything. Overall it’s updated funk. We just touched on different music genres that nobody wanted to f#@k with. Nobody wanted to touch the black 80s, the Cameos or Prince, ’cause nobody was really into it. But that’s what we know,” Pee said.
Their next album will be out in 2006. They have already recorded tracks with well known artists such as Nate Dog. ” We are looking to make music with artists who really want to work with us,” stated Pee, ” No big labels talking to each other, we make music organically from the bottom up.”