If a band can have a vehicle counterpart, Chromeo would have a very-justified claim on the famed, Robocop-silver Delorean DMC-12.
Unlike the Delorean, however, Chromeo is hardly a laughable novelty of the '80s, judging by the sold-out ballrooms and mega-fests the band frequents. Since the duo's inception in 2004, Chromeo has managed to craft a pastiche of Betamax-era dance, electro and funk that's grown to be a largely lovable animal in the eyes and ears of crowds across the world.
Jokingly dubbed "the only successful Arab/Jewish partnership since the dawn of human culture," Chromeo is Dave Macklovich (aka Dave 1) on lead vocals and guitar, and Patrick Gemayel (P-Thugg) manning the keyboards, synths and talk box, the latter a definitive element in Chromeo's retro sound.
I got a chance to talk with Gemayel as he was preparing for Chromeo's upcoming "Night Falls Tour" at his home in Montreal, and gained some insight into Chromeo's often more reserved half.
He was born in Lebanon in 1978 amid the burgeoning Lebanese Civil War. Exposure to the American Top 40 radio being virtually nonexistent in war-torn, pre-internet Lebanon, it was only after his family fled to Montreal that Gemayel launched his personal odyssey through American pop music. He entered the game a bit late, though.
"My first real American music album was Bad by Michael Jackson, that and LL Cool J, Bigger and Deffer. Those were like, my initial introductions to American music," he explained.
This was in the early '90s, long after both these albums had enjoyed their respective days in the sun. A retro-minded musical sensibility was engrained in Gemayel not so much by choice, but by mere circumstance. Soon enough, Gemayel was elbow-deep in hip-hop and funk.
"I was in high school and the drummer of my first band showed me Parliament Funkadelic. After that, I was like, this is it." Right around that time, the same drummer recruited Gemayel and Macklovich for guitar duty in the band. Gemayel laughed as he related his now-bandmate's much better skills on six-string. He switched to bass, which he still plays with Chromeo today, and the bond with Macklovich stuck regardless of the rotating cast of players around them. "I don't know, me and Dave just kind of clicked. He came from a different background, like rock, Zeppelin kind of stuff, but funk was the common ground."
Funk led Gemayel to groups like Sly and the Family Stone, Curtis Mayfield, and the man most integral to Chromeo's current sound: Roger Troutman.
Troutman fronted Zapp, the band of brothers that pioneered electro-funk in the early '80s, and was widely renowned for his use of a talk box. Troutman would mouth the words into a rubber tube attached to the box and simultaneously craft a keyboard melody to create his own distinctly robotic vocal tone — autotune before autotune. The hook in Tupac's "California Love"? That's Troutman.
"I heard Roger Troutman on 'More Bounce to Ounce' and I was like, 'This is crazy. How do I do this?'" Gemayel said.
He built his first synthesizer as a teen with some thrift store-bought schematics and help from his high school physics teacher. Over the years, he mastered the talk box, and heavily incorporates the tool in many songs throughout Chromeo's discography.
Gemayel and Macklovich worked as a hip-hop production team throughout the '90s, crafting tracks for Montreal rappers. DJ/producer Tiga, a former record store clerk who'd worked with Macklovich, was familiar with the duo's passion for vintage electro and asked them to craft a little something for his new techno label, Turbo Recordings. What resulted was "You're so Gangsta," an instrumental venture in synth stabs and stutter-stop sampling aaccentuated by a minute-plus, mid-song sax solo straight from the book of Zapp.
That track, along with "Mercury Tears" and "Needy Girl," became a live staple, and the duo released their debut LP, She's in Control, shortly thereafter in 2004. The album, an assortment of pull-my-manly-heartstring tracks laid thick on machine-drum foundations, was unapologetic '80s pop in every sense of the phrase.
"I think a lot of people saw us as a novelty act, but it was honest to us," said Gemayel. "That was just the stuff we loved."
Chromeo gained steam and developed a cult following due in large part to a barrage of DJs keen on the club-banger potential of "Needy Girl." Three years later, Chromeo broke through with their sophomore effort, Fancy Footwork, selling over 50,000 copies and peaking at No. 11 on the Billboard Electronic Albums chart.
Chromeo was now solidified as legitimate in the contemporary indie pantheon. Late-night spots with Conan and Letterman were requisite, and appearances at Lollapalooza, Coachella and Bonnaroo — where they once played with longtime inspiration and fan Daryl Hall of Hall and Oates — were now the norm.
Their latest album and first major-label release, Business Casual, is a hook-laden effort with a moody city-at-night vibe throughout. It's their slickest and, arguably, most ambitious album yet (see: all-French track ""J'ai Claqué La Porte").
After nearly 10 years and three LPs, it's probably safe to say Business Casual has sealed Chromeo's fate as a modest mainstay. Yeah, maybe they're "that one '80s-sounding band" with singles likely to never grace the airwaves beyond college radio. But hey — they play the music they've loved for a lifetime and found a global audience doing it. Not bad for two Canadian music nerds.
This article appears in Sep 15-21, 2011.