Fresh off a festival-filled summer, Chromeo’s P-Thugg (Patrick Gemayel) took some time to talk with jambands.com about how the duo first met, its diverse musical influences, and the ‘80s revival that currently seems to be sweeping the scene. Chromeo’s fresh DJ-KiCKS compilation was released this month, and the Canadian electro-funk pair is also working on some finishing touches for an upcoming full-length.
How did you guys meet and begin playing music together?
We met in high school. We were about 15, and we were all in the same high school, and I had started a band with a drummer. We were missing other musicians so we looked around the school, and Dave [Macklovitch] (aka Dave 1) was there playing guitar. He sat in with us, we started the band and we became best friends, we stuck together all these years.
What kind of music did you guys play back in high school?
It was like funk, but more ‘70s organic funk. Not like drum machines—typical funk, bass guitar.
You describe yourselves as “The only successful Arab-Jewish partnership since the dawn of human culture.” That’s a pretty unique statement; you guys are kind of a diverse combination. Can you tell me a little bit about your musical background and some of your main influences?
We are actually really different as far as musical background goes. I grew up in the Middle East in Lebanon, so until about age 8, I didn’t know about North American music. My family is Arab and Italian, so I grew up with Arabic music in Lebanon and Italian music, a bit of French music, but I didn’t know Michael Jackson. So I was kind of brought up like that until 8. Then I moved to Canada, and the first thing I did was get into Michael Jackson—I got into hip-hop at an early age. I kind of grew up with hip-hop until age 13 when I discovered funk, reggae and rock. I was really into hip-hop—that was kind of my thing. And then all of the sudden, you’re in high school, you see other kids in recess, we had a little hangout in school, and there were times to put on different music. From like noon to 1 p.m. it was hip-hop, and then it was rock—I just got opened up to reggae, Bob Marley, Led Zeppelin and I eventually started playing guitar.
So that experience exposed you to more new music without you really trying?
Yea, exactly. And I feel like it was the complete opposite for Dave. Because right around when I was 13, I started picking up the guitar and a year or two went by. Now I’m 15, and Dave is just getting into hip-hop, because he was born in Canada, exposed to different music, and was into rock and roll—Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix—he kind of grew up with it. He made the switch over to hip-hop in the early ‘90s right when I stopped listening to it. The Beastie Boys brought him in from rock to hip-hop, and for me, it was the complete opposite. I got into Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix and Bob Marley and that’s how I picked up my first instrument.
So you guys were kind of like backwards?
Yea, backwards—but when we met we were both getting really into funk and both heavily collecting records. At that age, at 15, we were going to used record stores, just to look at the covers, just buying all kinds of funk records. We would just look at the covers and love it, you know? We’d look at the cover and see like five dudes from the ‘70s, and be like, “Ah, this is amazing.”
Let’s talk about the new album, DJ-KiCKS, when did you guys start working on it?
It’s a compilation—we have one cover on there from The Eagles, but the album is a regular _DJ-KiCKS_—it’s a compilation of songs that we like. I don’t know why people think it’s a remix album. Maybe because we edited the songs, but it’s not a remix, we just changed the songs a little bit.
Can you describe the process of making this album?
We were in Australia recording in the studio, and we knew we had to submit a bunch of tracks to get cleared for DJ-KiCKS. We sat down and went to our collections to find songs that we like: “Hey do you like this song—yeah let’s put it on—no, not this one.” It took us two hours to choose like 50 songs. And then we sent them to !K7 Records for them to work on clearing the tracks. So once we had our track list that we could use of cleared tracks, we could start mixing a record. Then we chose a cover to do.
Clear up for readers, who may not be familiar, what the difference is exactly between a normal set and a DJ set.
Our live show is a live show with leg stands, instruments, a whole bunch of synthesizers, guitars, basses onstage, percussion—I play the top box, Dave sings—that’s our live show. It’s just us two playing all the instruments. A DJ set is us acting like idiots behind turntables—just putting songs on. We can’t really mix; we’re just horrible at it. I guess we’re just fun to watch. I’ll bust out a running-man here and there, if the song permits it.
What are your thoughts on the current “‘80s revival” sweeping the scene right now? Everyone’s covering ‘80s songs; it seems to be the cool thing to do.
I mean, we’re all up for it. I’m not against it. Anything that’s done well, it’s great. When it starts getting bad, bad covers, or just bad interpretations of the ‘80s, people saying, “It’s so “80s,” all the time just annoys me. “Oh my God, that’s so ‘80s!” I’ve heard that a lot. If it’s done well, it’s great. You know you’re ‘80s that when you’re so ‘70s that you’re ‘80s. That’s what we are. We’re so ‘70s, we’re ‘80s. The ‘80s are people who grew up in the ‘70s listening to ‘70s music, and in the ‘80s they became adults and that’s the ‘80s. They made the ‘80s. Don’t think we’re at home listening to Cyndi Lauper all day or Madonna, you know? We love ‘70s rock and classic rock, we’re so into it. ‘70s funk, that’s how we grew up.
You guys played Camp Bisco this year, you played Bonnaroo in 2008. What were those experiences like, exposing large audiences to your music who might not be familiar with it?
There are a lot of festivals. And last year we did all the greatest ones.
What was your favorite?
Coachella, Lollapalooza. Coachella was insane. Sasquatch was insane. The DJ set was just incredible. It’s really cool. There are pros and cons for everything. I think what’s really cool about the festivals is the number of people that are there, and you just get exposed to new fans all the time. The downside would just be how impersonal it is. Our live shows, when it’s our crowds in a smaller venue, everybody’s there, you can see the fans right in front of the stage. When there’s not like 20 security guards and photographers, and 20 seats of barrier between you and the fans that you can barely see at that distance—I mean there’s pros and cons. I like festivals—you play outdoors. Especially when the site is nice. Sasquatch was just amazing. Forget playing, just being there.
You know about Umphrey’s McGee’s cover of “Bonafied Lovin’?”
Yea, there’s also a metal band from Sweden that covered “Tendoroni.”
What are your plans for the future?
Well we want to work on the new record first. DJ-KiCKS is done. We’re going to do some DJ sets to support DJ-KiCKS, but we’re also working on a new record, a real Chromeo record, not a DJ compilation. We have our first single coming out in two months.
What can you tell us about it?
We’re still working so we don’t even know too many details. We have one single, it’s typical Chromeo. We’ll see what we’ll do with the rest. We have half of it done, but they’re all at the demo stage so we need to get together and write some more.
Do you guys produce everything yourselves or do you have a producer?
No, everything ourselves. We cringe when we have to hire somebody. Like when we need a sax solo, we’re like, “Shit none of us play sax.” And then we’re like, “Fuck, okay fine.” But most of the time, we like to play everything ourselves.
