Chromeo Don't Care if You Take Them Seriously

Posted on Jan 20th 2010 3:30PM by Drew Berner
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There's usually a clear distinction between musicians who take their art seriously and those who do it for a laugh. The Lonely Island may be competing against the likes of Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake for a Grammy at the end of January, but at the end of the day there's no confusing Al Green with 'Weird' Al Yankovic.

Then along comes a band like Montreal-bred synth-pop duo Chromeo who blur the line, making it nearly impossible to tell if they're being silly or sincere. But with two albums under their belts and another on the way, frankly, they couldn't care less what you think.

"When the first album came out we were kind of mad, "singer, guitarist and keyboardist Dave Macklovitch tells Spinner. "We were like, 'How come they all think we're joking?' So every interview we did we had to defend ourselves."

"By the time the second album came out -- on the one hand people saw the commitment and the consistency in our work and doubted us less and on the other hand we didn't care if people thought we were tongue-in-cheek or not because what we had achieved by then was beyond our wildest expectations to begin with."

With their third album in the works -- Macklovitch expects it to be finished by March and on record store shelves in August -- the band can safely raise their expectations, especially if recent one-off single 'Night By Night' is any indication of their direction.

"The first album was sort of like an aesthetic statement," Macklovitch reveals. "We were still learning how to do dance music and learning how to work the keyboards. On the second album there's a degree of mastery, I think, and a certain level of success that was achieved with that. With the new one it's about keeping that same formula but pushing it a little bit further."

While the duo feel like they're expanding their own musical boundaries all the time -- adding new instruments, developing songwriting techniques, using different production methods -- in the end Macklovitch realizes the details don't undermine what defines Chromeo's sound.

"When I read in reviews that they hear 'Night By Night' and it's exactly the same thing that we did on the last album, it's true, there's no big departures," he readily admits. "There are nuances, but I think they're nuances that we see from the inside more than they would be accessible from the outside."

But Macklovitch doesn't really care whether fans appreciate those nuances or not, "as long as you have fun listening to it."