Chromeo

By only

Friday November 5, 2004

Me, pee, and a drummer

An Arab and a Jew walk into a bar with a Flying V under one arm and a talk box under the other. This is no joke though, Pee Thug and Dave One play smooth as all hell funk lines, and write these goddamn danceable but subtly tragic party tunes. Picture Rick James kicking the crap out of Hall and Oats while New Edition watches in horror.

ONLY: Chromeo started by request?
Dave 1: The Chromeo sound per say, but in terms of me doing something other than Hip Hop, I’ve been doing Hip Hop for the longest time, like the idea of me just going and doing something different. Turbo offered me a deal so I just, ya know…
ONLY: Yeah.
D1: I didn’t think too much of dance music and from what I knew about it, I just associated it with fruitcakes and raves, and you know, a bunch of negative things when you’re in Hip Hop. This was before it was cool to be eclectic so my world really revolved around the Wu Tang Army and the No Limit Soldiers. I didn’t see much further than that. So Tiga was like ‘Do you want to do a record? It could be beats, it could be anything.’
Only: Just do anything?
D1: He just wanted to do something. He liked my Hip Hop beats and he was really feeling the records I was putting out on Audio Research, and we used to work in the same record store. And then I started with Pee, he was my best friend since I was in high school anyway and we always did music together since we were kids. In fact he was the guy who taught me how to use the equipment to make beats, he was always in the cut.
ONLY: So you just messed around?
D1: Yeah, we didn’t really know what we were going to do, we didn’t have any ideas and first, we just thought of it as a side project. For us, that kind of music was always really corny. To me it kind of still is, most of it.
ONLY: And there is that aspect to the music, the whole 80s thing.
D1: Well, we were talking to Turbo before that whole thing was going, we didn’t think we were going to do an 80s sounding album, but we were like okay, there’s just two of us, let’s just come up with some songs and keep kind of a continuation of what we were doing when we were in our high school funk band. Except we were just two people and Pee’s into all these keyboards now, that’s just how it came out. I mean, there is a certain Hip Hop esthetic to what we do, and our attitudes are definitely in Hip Hop, I mean you know.
ONLY: And you got a different thing out of all of that.
D1: Yeah, actually for the Vancouver show it’s me, Pee and a drummer, I mean we’re playing more of a live venue, it’s kind of cool to like have a dude drumming behind you.
ONLY: It’s good to be able to change up like that.
D1: Yeah. [Laughs] We’re going to be a three-piece rock band.
ONLY: Are you guys still pursuingother projects than Chromeo?
D1: Man, we don’t have time for anything else right now. We’re doing all these remixes now; we’re just wrapping up a remix for that Twista and R. Kelly song.
ONLY: R Kelly?
D1: It’s off So Sexy, that Twista album.
ONLY: What did you think of that double record?
D1: With the Happy People?
ONLY: It’s a huge record.
D1: It’s incredible, I mean that gospel record isn’t as good, but the first joint when he was having the three-way conversation and he was confessing,
ONLY: It made me shit myself.
D1: He’s a genius. He’s the new Rick James. We love him, we’re huge fans. He was just in that huge beef with Jay Z on that Best of Both Worlds tour.
ONLY: Yeah?
D1: Jay was always complaining that R Kelly was showing up late, being flaky, and all that. Then in New York, they were playing in Madison Square Garden a few nights this week and the first night of the show R Kelly stopped his set right in the middle and said; “I cant keep playing, there’s people in the audience pointing guns at me,” and then he left.
ONLY: Yikes.
D1: He just freaked out and left. And Jay Z was like ‘you’re a mental case’, and he finished the show by himself. And then as a punishment or whatever, one of Jay Z’s entourage maced R Kelly in the face, then Jay Z went on the radio talking shit about him and all this.
ONLY: Poor R Kelly just wants the snatch.
D1: Yeah, he’s into like extravagance; he’s over the top. He fucks little girls, he’s crazy.

Chromeo play with No No Spots, The Freeze Pops, and Bakelike at the Brickyard, Saturday November 6.