Chromeo are the double whammy Montreal born and bred bad-ass duo that is P-Thugg and Dave 1, men who love their facial hair (and how). They are a self proclaimed culture mash of Arabic and Jewish roots. They are the success of opposites attracting and making beautiful music together and their new album, Business Casual, is damn fine too… as you’ll find out when they hit Summadayze this January.
How would you describe your sound? It’s electro funk. It has a strong ’80s influence. We do all our music with vintage analogue equipment, whether it be synthesisers or drum machines. And contrary to a lot of the electro music, our music places a lot of importance on the lyrics. Lyrics are very important to us and they’re usually about girls and relationships and they’re usually very cheeky and quirky.
What’s a horror festival story you can share with our readers? Glastonbury 2007 and we’re in this tiny miniscule tent and there was so much mud everywhere and we had to haul all of our equipment back to our van, which took like 45 minutes back through the whole festival mud bath. We had mud everywhere. The equipment was filled with mud. It took us four days to clean all our equipment.
What are three things punters should bring when they come to see you this summer? Dancing shoes. A dancing partner. And dance moves.
So Chromeo is all about the dancing? Yeah, but we’re also about the sing-a-longs. It’s not a rave atmosphere at all. It’s a big sing-a-long party. So singing and dancing.
What’s your opinion of the music industry at current? I think it’s very healthy right now. I mean record sales aren’t that healthy, but I think it’s in a healthy place because it’s not stagnant. There are so many music platforms out there now for bands. We’re moving toward this model where music is going to be free or where music is going to be so much more widespread and circulating rapidly. And it’s so easy for a band to make a video, put that video online and the next thing you know it has the capacity to become an internet phenomenon.
Chromeo appear at Summadayze on January 8. www.futureentertainment.com.au/summadayze
Scott-Patrick Mitchell
