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Canada's Chromeo: Tiga Protege's Prepare for The Big Time

Author: Benedetta Ferraro
Monday, August 19, 2002
When Sunglasses At Night producer DJ Tiga played in Fabric earlier this year, the last track of his set (cleverly held back for the shouts of 'One more') was a fantastically catchy electro track that got literally everybody onto the floor for one last dance. You're So Gangsta', the track in question, had both an instantly hummable tune and a ridiculously cheeky lyric, and, like Tiga's Sunglasses At Night, captivated the electro friendly crowd.


Dave 1 and P-Thugg (Pee) are the Canadian duo responsible for the track, and in true fairytale electroclash fashion, previously made their living producing and selling hip hop (Gangsta marking their very first foray into electro). Even more unusually, both harbour bizarre ambitions including having kids (Pee) and becoming a teacher (Dave) though depending on fate and fortune, they might have to put such dreams on hold.

Both previously belonged to Bran Van 3000's ever fluid collective and Gangsta has the accessibility to match Bran Van's worldwide smash Drinking In LA. Skrufff's Benedetta Ferraro traced the pair down to their Canadian studio this week, where they seemed somewhat bemused by the interest and attention in their debut C hromeo track.


Skrufff (Benedetta Ferraro): What's been the reaction to Gangsta so far-

Chromeo (Dave 1): "Half of the people absolutely loved it, the other half were slightly confused about it, since it's not house, it's not electro, it's too slow, too weird, too sarcastic… some people didn't really get it at all."

Chromeo (Pee): "We realise it may not be everyone's taste, but we'll see…"

Skrufff: Are you ready for screaming girls mobbing you in the street-

Chromeo (Pee): "Sure,that's why we're doing it in the first place."

Skrufff: You're presently best known in the hip hop community, what's prompted this switch towards dance music-

Chromeo (Dave 1): "We haven't exactly left hip hop behind, in fact I still work on my own my record label Audio Research Records, and Pee still helps me with everything. It was Tiga who approached me 18 months ago, saying he was a fan of our hip hop stuff and encouraging us to record something for his Turbo label. We loved the idea of doing some more funky stuff, but it still took us all this time to deliver."

Skrufff: It sounds like the opportunity was handed to you on a plate…

Chromeo (Dave 1): "Well, we're in our mid twenties now and we've been making music since we were like 16, so we've been around for quite a while. It's been hard, we're still nobodies, until we'll get to work with Madonna, of course…"

Skrufff: I understand you're both trained musicians…

Chromeo (Pee): "I play bass, keyboards, harmonica, guitar but not as good as Dave."

Chromeo (Dave 1): "and I play guitar, a bit of drums and write all the lyrics."

Skrufff: How important is it to play real instruments, in an age where many young musicians play and compose purely on computers-

Chromeo (Dave 1): "It's very important to us. We come from the funk school, our idols were not techno artists, but rather characters like Quincy Jones, Jerry Lewis, Jimi Hendrix, Roger Troutman, Prince… it's just that right now we're marketed for the dance floor market, but in our minds we're still in 1976, early '80's and so on. Those were years were musicianship was very important."

Skrufff: Is that, in your opinion, what dance music lacks these days-

Chromeo (Pee): "It depends. It's not that music totally done on a computer cannot be up to the standard. I think some stuff is actually really good."

Chromeo (Dave 1): "I have been exposed to a lot of dance music, mainly through Tiga, and in my opinion it lacks sincerity sometimes. Too much of it depends on fashion and trends. We take our music very seriously, we don't care if we're in or out of fashion, some people think we're not serious because our lyrics are quite off the wall."

Skrufff: Your biog mentions that your lyrics are for open-minded people…

Chromeo (Dave 1)
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