||||Mediocre Music Blog

Yesterday Chromeo brought their “Business Casual” tour to Boston. We sat down with P-Thugg to discuss the tour, the new album, and his serious fear of cats. Read on for the full interview or head here for pictures from one of the most entertaining live acts of the year.

MMB: What’s up how’s the tour going?

Good, good. This is our third US show. We just did a month in Europe.

MMB: Festivals mostly?

yup

MMB: How was that?

It was really fun, even better than we expected. We haven’t been there in a while so we didn’t really expect much, and the reaction was just like woooahhh people remember us!

MMB: What would you say is the main difference between US and Europe festivals?

US Festivals are a definitely a bit more tame, Europe festivals, really everyone doesn’t give a shit, they get dirty, it’s mad.

MMB: Speaking of which, I saw some footage from Glastonbury a few years ago and it was a torrential, muddy shitshow. Better this year?

Yeah this year was paradise compared to the first year we did it. It was really dusty though.

MMB: What was your favorite festival this year?

We were really surprised with Exit fest in Serbia. I mean, you think Serbia, you think Borat, and to a degree that’s what the country’s like, but the festival itself was mad. We also did Melt, Exit, Glastonbury, Lovebox, Montreaux Jazz Festival, which is like a 70s-style jazz fest.

MMB: So was that you guys and a bunch of jazz musicians?

Not completely, Janelle Monae and Jamie Lidell were there too. Prince was there! I stood next to him for the whole Janelle Monae set.

MMB: No way!  I hear Janelle and Of Montreal have a tour planned together.

Like a co-headline deal?

MMB: Yeah the way they’re talking about it sounds like it’s gonna be a singular production so it doesn’t even feel like two separate shows…

Cool.

MMB: So how long does your tour go for?

Until the end of August. We’re playing almost a city every day. We started in Washington then Philly, New York, Boston, Montreal, we got one day off in Montreal, we’re gonna head into the studio to record some stuff, then off to Ottawa, Toronto, gets pretty hectic.

MMB: How do you guys cope with that?

Well, you know, once you get on stage you see the results of your work every night. It’s really gratifying; you totally forget you’re tired. Then you get back on the bus, sleep for maybe another 3 hours, check into a hotel, do the same thing all over again. The hardest part of the job is the soundcheck, ‘cause you’re like “ugh I could be sleeping right now I don’t need to do this” But once you get on stage, adrenaline kicks in and you forget about all that.

MMB: So you’re heading to Montreal tomorrow, good to go home?

Yeah home town and it’s my birthday!

MMB: Wow happy birthday!

Playing on my birthday in my hometown, that’ll be nice.

MMB: Canadian music scene in general seems to be killing it @ the moment. Yourselves, crystal castles, deadmau5, mstrkrft on the dance end, then guys like Arcade Fire and Drake in other genres.

You know, Canada used to be a bit far from everything but you know in this modern day of internet and everything there are no more boundaries, we have access to the same information as anyone else. Plus our rents are cheaper so we can really afford to live like artists and just produce music all day.

MMB: Yeah I used to think of Canada and Celine Dion was the first thing that came to mind. Now it’s really producing some of the most exciting music in the world.

Yeah and Montreal in particular, I look at as kinda like the new New York, a lot of artists end up there, it’s a nice city, very European, culturally diverse. New York? You can’t live in New York if you’re an artist anymore. It’s just too expensive. So up there you can really develop yourself, it sounds simple but it’s a real factor.

MMB: Speaking of the internet, What’s your guys philosophy on file sharing / downloading. Seems to us a spectrum’s developed with Trent Reznor on the one end giving everything away for free, and then Metallica on the other basically trying to sue everyone that downloads their music.

Yeah we’re not into suing people; just get it out for free. If you come to the show and pay $30 that’s fine. We’d rather have a full room, you know? Nobody makes money of records anyway, I’ve never seen a penny off records. What really counts is the live scene. It’s still a bit sad that music is losing its value, like people just expect to have the song for free now, but at the same time they’re more keen on going out and seeing the artist than ever before.

MMB: Interesting point, yeah at some point in an artists career you go from begging people to listen to your music to charging them for the privilege.

Yeah we always tried to get it out, let the people hear it. We’re really open about this we don’t care.

MMB: So where did you end up recording the new album?

Half of it, mostly the demo stages, were in Montreal, then we moved to New York for two and a half months, I moved all my gear to a studio there, then we finished working on the album there just because of logistics, dave’s school schedule and stuff.

MMB: Oh that’s right; I read on the internet that he was getting a PhD. Is that true?

Yeah that’s true; he’s going to Columbia for a PhD in French literature. So we gotta change some logistics around that.

MMB: Serious business. Congrats to professor Dave1. How long have you been working on the new album?

Full time? A year / a year and a half. We worked in 2-3 week concentrated boosts here and there with touring in between. All in all we started a year and a half ago, right before “Night by Night” came out. We had a bunch of demos, then I started working on more and we really started putting the process together.

MMB: You happy with the results?

Yeah, I think so. You know, 2.5 years have passed since Fancy Footwork but we really spent a year straight on the road after that album. So really the last year and a half we’ve got to focus more on the recording process.

MMB: Same general direction?

Yeah more or less. We did a bit more work on song structures, chord progressions, pushed Dave to sing more vocals. We tried to make it a bit more musical and a bit less jammy, without exaggerating of course ‘cause then you end up with a fruity jazz record that no one wants to listen to. We tried to keep it simple, light headed funk, but at the same time to more work with the harmonies, some more complex chords etc. I spent a lot of time studying piano and theory, harmonization and stuff like that. So we tried to make it more musical, a bit more advanced but at the same time not lose the guts. So probably half the record is still funk, a la Fancy Footwork. There are darker tracks, like “Don’t Turn the Lights On” stuff like that. We put a string section on a couple of songs, we worked with Larry Gold out of Philly, which to us was really special. So you know we try and progress musically every record. Dave didn’t start out as a singer, on Needy Girl that was kinda a demo but he liked it we kept making him sing basically all the songs on Fancy Footwork, every album is like a progress. For me too, I’m working a lot more on theory, harmony, reading music, practice.

MMB: Still a lot of talk box?

Of course.

MMB: So you mentioned working with the string sections, for this tour it’s just the two of you on stage?

Yeah, yesterday we had three backup singers, “The Chromettes” we have them for select shows, mostly festivals. They were dressed as the Robert Palmer girls, from the “Simply Irresistible” Video.

Sounds awesome, Is this something you guys are considering making a permanent fixture?

Maybe, we’ll see how it goes this summer. We’re just trying out new things for the show. We’re playing new songs off the album tonight. We have a new set of legs that light up different colors, just trying to step up the production a little bit. Slowly though, because everything at once is a lot of work. For example I added 4 synthesizers to my setup. Everybody has to get used to the new setup.

MMB: Have you ever tried performing with a live band?

We’ve tried, we actually used to play with a live band. We used to have a full five-piece, all guys from Boston actually, from Berklee. We just felt it took away from the duo-dynamic. It just felt weird, people didn’t know who the guys were, it didn’t sound like the record. Plus we like to throw in a little comedy in between songs, and that’s something we couldn’t do with the band because we were too busy making sure the band were on cues. This way we know exactly what we’re doing, and people get more of us instead of us and 5 other dudes.

MMB: Solange Knowles (Beyonce’s sister) is on the new record, how’d that come about?

Yeah! She actually came to the show last night. She’s a friend of Dave’s brother, A-Trak, and after we wrote the song “when the night falls” we needed a female singer on it. A-Trak sent a demo her way, and asked if she wanted to do it and she was on board immediately. Every collaboration we’ve done has been really organic, it’s never like a manager talking to a manager, it’s always artist to artist. We’re friends, we have mutual respect, we talk as friends and agree to do it. So it’s never arranged by the record companies, we actually see each other and talk to each other, exchange ideas and stuff, it’s cool.

MMB: Is that how the Daryl Hall thing came together?

Yeah, for the first show we did, his webshow “Live at Daryl’s house” he just contacted us. He said basically, you guys are the next Hall and Oates, we should do a show. So we started talking to Daryl, and he was like “Man I totally understand you guys, we had the same routes, the same problems and stuff.” So the webshow was a good success, and then the guys at Bonnaroo really wanted us to take it on the road and do a live show at Bonnaroo so we just did it. It was really fun.

MMB: Any chance of that going beyond Bonnaroo for more shows?

Maybe, yeah.  Daryl was really excited after the Bonnaroo show he was like “Guys that was so much fun we have to do this again.” so yeah maybe we’ll do another show. We both have our careers obviously but hopefully if our schedules line up we can do it again.

MMB: What’s John Oates been up to?

I don’t know. Daryl keeps making fun of him; he keeps cracking jokes about John Oates, its funny. I’ve seen YouTubes of him in smaller poetry / songwriters clubs were he just brings his guitar and jams out. There are other songwriters there and they just play together. He’s a lot less “superstar” than Daryl. Daryl, you know is very intense.

MMB: In what way?

I mean, you can see that he lived through the 80’s. He has big ideas.

MMB: I hope you guys work together again, I’d love to see it.

Yeah I hope so too.

MMB: So, any strange phobias?

I hate animals.

MMB: All kinds?

All kinds, can’t stand them.

MMB: Dogs, monkeys?

Ah, fuck, the worst. Dogs? Actually the worst animal to me is the cat. I fuckin’ hate cats man.

MMB: What? They’re so innocent!

Ah NO! Yeah that’s what they want you to think. Dude a cat is so fuckin’ conniving man. They come see you, he wants food, then he goes away but leaves the hair, ah fuck man.

MMB: What was the first thing you’d do with a unicorn?

Send it away man.

MMB: We’re having disco party in a couple of weeks. What is the one song we gotta play?

Either Chic-Everybody Dance or Change- A Lover’s Holliday

MMB: How was the DJ Kicks project?

That was fun, we really got to switch the concept to make it ours. We played different stuff than every other DJ kicks done before. We put some soul in there, a lot of French stuff, and instead of a remix we did a cover of the Eagles. That was really fun to work with. Just to have a CD with all your best musical inspiration in one place.

MMB: Turkey or Ham?

Turkey

MMB: Well thanks for your time, good luck with the show we’re really looking forward to it.

** “Business Casual” is out September 14th to preorder in a variety of fresh formats head over here.**