Amongst all the Lady Gagas, Young Thugs, Miley Cyruses, Kanye rants, 50 Cent’s 800 songs and/or mixtapes, and the general markings that appear yearly in music. Every now and then the groundhogs public come up and see other acts. When this happens most are flabbergasted by the immense pool of talent that is bestowed to them. If you happen to be one of these people then Chromeo is an act you dare not sleep on. The Canadian duo has been serving up eletrofunk hits since their first album She’s In Control, and a personal favorite “Night By Night” off Business Casual. Fast forward to 2014, they now possess one of the standout albums of the year, with hits like “Jealous” and “Come Alive.” The group has songs featured on television ads and performed on Jimmy Kimmel, now, they’re gearing up to become an even more household name.
Last Thursday (June 19), we had the pleasure of chatting with the lead singer Dave Macklovitch — a.k.a. Dave 1 — before the group performs at The World’s Tallest Ice Luge event sponsored by Johnny Appleseed Hard Cider held at Seaport World Trade Center in Boston. The event was met with a ton of fans and a huge ice sculpture of a Johnny Appleseed Hard Cider bottle. Something worth noting is when the World’s Largest Ice Luge melts, the up to 1,800 gallons of water used to assemble it will be donated to the Johnny Appleseed Trail Association to water the trees and flowers along the trail.
Def Pen Radio: First things first, have you been following the World Cup?
Dave 1: I’m following it but, like, secondhand following it. Like, I’ve seen the updates on Twitter, but I only watched part of the first game.
Do you have any favorites?
Nah, I like Brazil as a country a lot. I go there quite a bit. But I feel like if they won, then it was rigged, you know? (laughs)
Yeah, a little bit of home-cooking.
Yeah, I mean it that first game was rigged, had to be rigged.
With the Fred flop?
Exactly. I’m more into the conspiracies about the World Cup, then about the World Cup.
What other theories do have about the World Cup?
I think that they rig the games. I mean you know how corrupt it is, you know the whole thing about the next World Cup being in Qatar. It’s crazy. It’s super corrupt over there. That’s what I read about, I don’t read about who’s winning. I just want to know the dirt.
Because of the whole thing in Qatar, now they’re about to open it up for the U.S. to host.
That’d be fun though.
Ok, so the show you guys had a show in Boston, how’d that go?
It was amazing. We did House Of Blues, and we’ve done House Of Blues quite a few times, but this was like the biggest one we’ve ever done. It was like the most attendance we’ve ever had, it was the biggest state show we’ve ever had, so, I could it was our best show in Boston. It was great.
How did the whole collaboration with Chromeo and Johnny Appleseed come about?
They used our song in their ad. So, usually what we do when we affiliate ourselves with a brand we try to make more than a one-shot thing, so that it feels a little more organic. You know? So we were like, alright you guys can use the song like in a TV spot, but we should do one kind of event — especially kind of an RSVP event where people can come see us and interact with the band a little bit more, so it feels more organic that way, so that’s when they came up with idea of doing this event in Boston today.
I got that email about it and was wondering if you guys were going to bring that same show to New York City?
Nah, nah (laughs). It’s a DJ set and then we’re performing “Jealous,” but there’s going be some fun stuff happening over there anyways, there’s a giant ice luge and all that, so it’s going to be spectacle regardless.
I do have the album and I’ve been listening since it first came out. “White Women,” what was the idea behind that?
It’s funny because the title, obviously, got a bit of shock value to it, but really it’s the name of a photography book by a photographer from the 70s and 80s named Helmut Newton. And he was always like a huge influence on us, if you look at all our album covers it got that 70s erotic feel about them and he’s kind of like the photographer who pioneered that. White Women is title of his first book so it was kind of like a tribute or homage to him, but at the same time we knew people would be like “what the hell does that mean, like why?” And when you’re at your fourth album you want to have that kind of dialogue with your audience. So we knew it was kind of a provocative gesture, but at the same time there’s also a really honest and heartfelt tribute behind it.
So this is the first time you guys teamed with Toro y Moi, right?
Yup, absolutely. Actually, this is the first time he’s teamed up with an outside artist to sing on a song as well.
Right, because on some of his other albums there’s rarely, if any, other features. Actually, there aren’t any.
Yeah, he flies solo, usually. I was a fan of him, not just me, but most girls I was hanging out with were really fans of his. I got a little jealous and I was like if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. I was like this guy could be really cool to collaborate with, but we didn’t expect it to come out like that. And his vocals sounded so amazing we were just like we have to make this a single.
How did you guys even link up for this?
Emailing him as a fan and then he came back was like “dude I love what you guys are doing.” And next you know, we’re in the studio in L.A.
So you guys have any shows coming up soon?
We’re on tour all summer. We just did Bonnaroo, we got EDC over in Vegas over the weekend. And we got a whole bunch of festivals in July. In August we are doing a huge festival run were we do Osheaga in Montreal, Lollapalooza (Chicago), Red Rocks (Colorado), Outside Lands (San Francisco), Made In America (Philly). So we’ll be doing every major American festival this summer.
You guys got a load going on now. (laughs)
We’re going in, we’re going in.
That’s good because you guys have been out for awhile, putting in work.
Yeah, and it feels like now it’s sort of reaching a bigger audience, so it’s really fulfilling, it’s paying off. And it actually gives us the motivation to work harder.
Rewards go to the ones that push harder, you know. So it’s good to see you guys shine.
Thanks you so much. I appreciate it!
Anything else you’d like to promote?
I want to shout everyone that’s gonna come hang with us in Boston today, it’s always good to do RSVP events because the kids that are really eager are gonna find a way to get there and just come hang with us. Today’s one of the things were like we’ll probably be taking more photos with fans and interacting with them more than when we do a live show, cause when we do a live show it’s like we’re done playing, back on the bus, and we’re out. We’ll be here all night, so, it will be fun. It’s a nice change. And you can catch us all summer and we’ll be back out in the fall too.
Alright, well have a great time in Boston.
Thanks so much, man.
