Chromeo Are Fired Up Over Their Fancy Footwork

Chromeo singer Dave 1 is in a great mood. With their Fancy Footwork sophomore album just released, the Montreal pop-funk duo (also featuring P-Thugg) are anxious to play in support of it.

"This is the first time we're touring this record in Canada, with Europe in May, and then back to U.S. and Canada in July," Dave 1 says.

The new offering presents slicker production and a much greater emphasis on lyrics and vocals. Dave is clearly excited about it.

"The first album was created mostly on the midi player on my laptop. This time we consciously wanted a more song-based approach. The production's cleaner, the whole thing's sexier, and it's not without its quirks. And that opening! Rocky should be training to that opening."

That opening boasts an intense keyboard crescendo and a choir chanting "Chro-me-o-oh-oh!" But the record still retains all the '80s pop influences of Chromeo's 2004 debut, She's In Control. If you look at the gig photos on Chromeo's MySpace page, you won't find a still, bored body in the crowd.

"Our music is danceable, but that doesn't make it 'dance,'" explains Dave. "We don't know much about it, actually, because what we do is song-based.

"It's three minutes of pop, more like Prince. Our friends, like Tiga, that's real dance music — tracks that loop for five minutes."

And the DJ sets at their after-parties?

"Oh, we can rave it up there, but in the live shows we're more like a band," Dave clarifies.

Following an opening slot on Bloc Party's U.K. tour, the guys are still getting their head around the peculiar relationship they have with fans at home and across the pond. "How the music relates to kids on both sides [of the Atlantic] is a little weird," Dave says.

"In the U.K., the crowd is mainly hipster kids who stand and sing along with us. If I was to reference someone like Lil' Wayne or Tupac, it probably wouldn't register. I can get away with that sort of thing here."