“We have a thirst for reconnection with Montreal. We just want to do interviews in French,” says David Macklovitch, aka Dave 1.
He and his friend Patrick Gemayel, aka P-Thugg, have formed Chromeo since 2002. They met in high school, at Stanislas College. “If I remember correctly, we didn’t really like each other at first because Pat was jealous that I was a better guitar player than him,” Dave says with a laugh. What was the driving force behind our friendship was the discovery of the same style of music, funk, which we became aware of together. Culturally, we also had a lot of similarities. Her parents are immigrants from the Middle East, my mother is from North Africa. We quickly became very close as a family. Our sense of humor was also very compatible. We acted stupid together at school. »
At 15, they started a funk band and later moved into hip-hop production with Dave’s little brother, A-Track. Chromeo is somewhat of a fusion of the two genres with the addition of various instruments. “Pat joined the talk box, which he had wanted since we were teenagers, and also convinced me to learn to sing. »
Although their artistic identity was far from being defined, the duo was offered a contract by the Montreal record company Turbo Recordings, operated by Tiga, a friend of Dave. Chromeo recorded She’s in Control, which was launched in 2004. Propelled by the song Needy Girl, the group performed everywhere.
In the meantime, Dave moves to New York. He settled there thanks to a doctoral scholarship at Columbia University in French literature. Its new address is also beneficial for Chromeo, who regularly performs on small New York stages. The singer estimates that half of Fancy Footwork (2007) was recorded in New York, as was much of Business Casual (2010).
Pat finally joined Dave in 2012. The latter, exhausted after four years of touring, in addition to teaching and his doctoral thesis, put his studies aside in order to devote himself fully to music. The duo recorded White Women, which proved a success thanks, among other things, to the song Jealous. Building on the success of their fourth opus, which was released in 2014, the pair built a studio in Los Angeles. “Instead of lining our pockets, something we never do, we put everything back into the album. We went to find lots of collaborators to do something truly plural. We also wanted a Grammy nomination, and we got it! »
The Head of Heels tour had just ended when the coronavirus hit. “It feels like the isolation of the pandemic has forced us to reconnect with our friendship in a really essential way,” says Dave. Furthermore, a reflection began on what Chromeo is in adulthood. »
Thus, the album which will be released on February 16 is called Adult Contemporary. This sums up Dave and Pat’s state of mind in relation to their status as forty-somethings and the “fun electro-funk” that they have been offering for over 20 years. “It’s a completely crazy paradox,” says Dave. On the one hand, we wanted to rediscover the atmosphere of Pat’s mother’s basement in Brossard. We return to these first sounds on songs like Replacements or (I Don’t Need A) New Girl. At the same time, elsewhere on the album, there are brass instruments, a string orchestra and acoustic guitar which give a more mature, more polished and more sophisticated side. As for the texts, the themes concern love life in adulthood,” explains Dave.
Last April, Chromeo participated in the Coachella festival – his fifth. Rolling Stone magazine praised the group’s new stage proposal. However, he has something else in store for the Montreal public on Thursday.
“We work as much on the scenography as on the music. For us, it’s really part of the experience, like the bands that formed us: Daft Punk, Wu-Tang, Beastie Boys, Dave points out. We realized that what we did at Coachella didn’t translate well to the theater. We put together another thing for Montreal with lots of new songs. It’s a long show, more than an hour and a half, with a scenography that has the same chrome language, the same play of light, but other colors, other tones. »
“Pat and I went out to Metropolis when we were 15. We were handing out flyers out front. To come back there is almost absurd, it’s crazy! I hope it goes well,” wishes David Macklovitch.
“We were doing anything, but by some kind of magical coincidence, the song Needy Girl became very successful in the underground scenes. Especially with the help of Tiga, the music spread internationally in the world of DJs. That’s really what got us started. It was still very modest beginnings because we did shows in front of seven people in Pittsburgh. »
“We did this one between Montreal, New York and Paris. We were a little more comfortable with our sound and our sensitivity. The release coincided with the big electro wave of 2006, 2007, 2008, when Daft Punk toured North America. It was from that moment that we started to sell out to full houses. »
“We started Business Casual very quickly after, and the idea was for it to be a complement to Fancy Footwork, which is festive and happy. We wanted the sequel to be a little more sophisticated, dark and melancholic. We have a ballad in French, then Night by Night and Don’t Turn the Lights On which are more disco and nocturnal. »
“On this album, there’s Ezra Koenig, Solange, Toro Y Moi, and we worked with co-producers to grow the sound and polish it more. We had our first radio success with Jealous. In Canada it’s double platinum and in the US it’s a top 40 song. A completely unexpected commercial success for us. »
“This time we wanted lots of collaborations, as if Chromeo was doing something like Gorillaz. After four albums just Pat and I completely isolated, we wanted other voices, other sounds. Afterwards, we did lots of shows and festivals. We finished our tour just before the pandemic. »
