Switched on Pop - Adult Contemporary, but make it cool (with CHROMEO)

Episode Date: February 20, 2024

The Canadian Electro-Funk duo CHROMEO have made consistently funky, highly danceable music for twenty years. They’ve released five studios albums, done the Coachella festival circuit and have been nominated for a Grammy for their sound that’s been compared to Prince, Zapp and Hall and Oates. Now with their latest album, Adult Contemporary, they are challenging preconceptions of adult contemporary music by redefining its whole meaning. Sign up for the Switched On Pop Newsletter Songs discussed CHROMEO - (I Don't Need A) New Girl, BTS, Coda, Fancy Footwork, Needy Girl, Replacements, Clorox Wipe, Six Feet Away Dolly Parton - Nine to Five Donna Summer - She Works Hard For The Money Gwen Guthrie - Ain't Nothin' Goin' on but the Rent Kenny G - Songbird, You're Beautiful Kenny Loggins - This Is It Kenny Rodgers - We've Got Tonight, You And I Michael Bolton - How Am I Supposed To Live Michael Bublé - Home Michael Jackson - Human Nature, Working Day and Night NWA - Straight Outta Compton Steely Dan - Black Cow, Ricky Don't Lose That Number, Time Out of Mind The Bee Gees - Staying Alive Toto - I'll be Over You Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Attention Spotify. Has arrived the new Good Girl Jasmine Absolute of Caroline Herrera. A fragrance intense with character gourmet and addictive. Imagine a jasmine emvolventy, caramelized, and tonka-tostata. A combination that seduce from the first instant and she'll away. Good Girl Jasmine Absolute, hypnotica, irresistible. Discover it now and let you embover for susentia. Welcome to Switched on Pop.

I'm songwriter Charlie Harding. Adult Contemporary. Two of the most maligned words in music. Could there be anything less cool than being adult and contemporary? It's basically in opposition to being young and present. Like, you have to claim your space and time. I swear, I'm old, but I'm still relevant. Let me explain.

Adult contemporary, originally known as easy listening, was a radio format that comes about in the 1960s as an alternative to the emergent sounds of rock and roll. It played music that was slower, love ballads, clean and conservative, basically a safe musical vibe so that parents could hear Frank Sinatra's my way. While there are teenagers on another radio station could hear The Who's My Generation. And in the 70s, as the counterculture grows up, so does rock and roll and R&B, leading to the

soft rock of Fleetwood Mac and Neil Diamond and James Taylor. alongside the quiet storm of Smokey Robinson. Turns out that music for adults on the radio is a hit. Billboard maintained an easy listening chart until 1979 when they rebranded it as adult contemporary. And a lot of artists have had huge radio success in this FM format. I'm talking Elton John, Phil Collins, Tony Braxton, Boys to Men, and of course, Celine Dion.

For all those times you stood by me, for all the... All artists I'm fond of. But when I think of the name Adult Contemporary, I've got to be honest, there are two songs that really ruffle my feathers. First is Savage Gardens' 1997 hit Truly Madly Deeply.

This Sacrin's song, full of mixed metaphors, topped the adult contemporary chart for 11 weeks and hung around for 123 weeks. And then there's the monotonous riff supporting the banal misogyny of Maroon 5's Girls Like You, one of the longest chart-topping adult contemporary songs. Maybe I'm being a bit harsh here. Listen, there's nothing wrong with music that appeals to adults and can be safely played

in department stores and CVS. It's safe middle road music. It's fine. The real problem for me, I think, is the name. I'm an adult living in contemporary times, and I don't feel like this music, which uses this label, applies to me. That is, until this week, with a new album by the band Chromio, aptly called Adult Contemporary. The Canadian electro-funk duo Chromio have made consistently funky, highly danceable music for 20 years. They've released five studio albums, done the whole festival circuit, Coachella and all, been nominated for a Grammy, all because of this great sound that's been compared to Prince, Zapp, and Holo Notes. But now, with their latest album, they're challenging all of my preconceptions of adult contemporary music by redefining its whole meaning.

Here's Chromeo. I am Dave, stage name Dave One from Chromio. And I am P, full name P thug. from Chromeio. Thanks Dave and P for doing this. I appreciate it. So you've got this new album coming out called Adult Contemporary. What makes something adult contemporary? We always found that word to be really, really funny. Yeah. Because like adult contemporary music, you know, we think of Kenny G. And Michael Bubleigh. Michael Bolton. But it's also like, that's not music for adults. That's actually music that's totally safe for children to listen to.

If anything, adult music should be like first NWA album. Why are they calling Kenny G. adult? You can play Kenny G for a one-month-old child, and he'll be like, oh, my God, this is so nice. So we always thought that phrase was funny, you know, and sometimes, like, our albums for titles, we use these phrases that we always thought it was kind of. It's like business casual. That was our third album, you know? Right. But then at the same time, we felt like adult contemporary could have been the name of like an erotic magazine back in the 70s.

You know what I'm saying? For sure. Adult contemporary. And so we kind of took that imaginary thing and ran with it. And the theme is like on the one hand, adulthood maturity and on the other hand, sexiness. And how can you articulate the two? How could you be a sexy adult? How could you be a millennial with a job, but keep it a little bit?

bit funky 10 years after partying at Webster Hall, like those kinds of themes, you know, because that's kind of our trajectory, too. I feel like we hear that on the opening track, New Girl, where you talk about in the first verse, let's talk about loyalty instead of lawyer fees. There's always more to please. Yes. P, I'm curious for you, when you think of the idea of adult contemporary, is it a radio format, is it a genre, is it a sound, is it an intention? No, it's a universe. It's a universe. Say more, please. What are the sort of tropes or cliches that you associate with that term? Well, because everything you associate immediately to adult contemporaries, you know,

like soft elevator, music, jazz, something for adults to relax to. Yeah. But when we thought about the actual word separately, you have adult, the adult entertainment, and then contemporary, which would mean so many things. Contemporary arts, contemporary music, you know. And contemporary is supposed to be something that's actually on the edge that's edgy, not at the end of your life, you know, putting on slides next to the fire and listening to Kenny G. Yeah, it means a lot.

It means a lot. So we had to flip the script completely, separate those two words, and then we could start playing with it. I don't mean to suggest that this is by any means a concept album. There's not an obvious character, narrative, through line that sort of unfolds in the sort of 70s, Prague rock narrative concept album kind of way. But did it first come as this concept that led to the creation of the songs, which all do very much fall within this theme? I think there's always a dialectic there. The only time we made a concept-driven body of work was when we did our quarantine COVID-themed EP. Right, right. Quarantine Casanova. Yeah, your lockdown EP that

raised a bunch of money for COVID relief with songs like six feet away. Clarox Wipe Clarke's Wipe is a beautiful love song I gotta say Thank you We don't hear that enough But I will say that having done that It gave me the confidence

To try to tighten things up And to see if we could get away with Doing that But in a non-cometic setting Like Quarantine Casanova Obviously was a bit of a comedy thing Yeah right But it's not like there's an intention

Or a mandate that comes And after that it's followed by You know songs that trickle down It's usually kind of a dialectic where we have a title. We were already a year and a half, two years into making the album. But then it helps give cohesion to everything. And then it acts kind of as a guiding North Star principle to everything else. And then all of a sudden, all the pieces have to make sense around that hole.

So we had certain song ideas. We had Coda. I'm codependent. We had wards with you. But then. And once the title coalesced, then it was easy. You know, a song like Ballad of the Insomniacs was something we had written 10, 12 years ago, at least started. And I remember telling P, like, look, we could bring this one back.

And it would make sense within what we're doing. We'll just change the production. But it kind of fits into this cohesive collection of meditations on mature relationships. The Ballad of the Insomniacs. is like it conjures in my mind this image of someone sitting at home watching television at 2 o'clock in the morning being advertised some kind of sleep aid or horoscope reading or yeah and they go out and they go out when they party yeah or it's like they party as a way of actually coping with this this real this real melody that afflicts a lot of people yeah malady

yeah you turn the malady into melody because because i was because i was thinking i was thinking like When we wrote the hook, it's like, if you're in insomniac, where's the party at? And I was even thinking of a video with like a bunch of different people in different New York City apartments, all being like insomniac at the same place. And we all have something in common. Like, yo, who's up? It's 2 a.m. Who's up?

Okay. Let's take a quick break and come back with more adult contemporary. Maria, you have a podcast now and you need to start acting like it. What's the first step as a podcaster? Well, you have to ask lots of questions. I'm Maria Sharpova, and I'm hosting a new podcast called Pretty tough. Every week, I'm sitting down with trailblazing women at the top of their game to discuss ambition, work ethic, and the ups and downs that come on the path to achieving greatness.

I have a few pretty tough questions for you. Okay. Ready? Ready. Do not sugarcoat something for me. No, no, no. We'll dive into their stories and get valuable insights from top executives, actors, entrepreneurs, and other individuals who have inspired me so much in my own journey. Pretty tough is your front row seat to the women who have demonstrated the power in being unapologetic in their pursuits. I hope you'll join us. New episodes drop Wednesdays on YouTube or in your favorite podcast app. So you wanted to explore themes of adultness, contemporary living. I feel like I'm catching lyrics throughout here that are maybe under-explored but also quite intimate, if you will.

Yes. I think about like the song, B.T.S. which I'm assuming is short for behind the scenes. Would you just describe the setting of BT? Well, wait, wait, it's a short for behind the scenes, but when you listen to the song, it's not for behind the scenes. Say more.

It's better than sex. So when we come home down, we don't need to speak. Better than sex. Oh, that's the chorus, right? Because the chorus, right? It's also something that's behind the scenes because we don't talk about it. Right, right, right?

But that's the whole thing. It's a play on that. There's a lot of songs that I feel like are about Netflix and Chill. And this song is about Netflix and Rest. You talk about the burdens and detriments of hustle culture. Yes. You literally talk about the challenges of surviving late stage capitalism. Yes.

I still got a couple more concerns. I'm against a different verse. I swear to God, late stage cap. You literally talk about your tax forms. Yes. But they don't come across as too cheeky. they actually feel quite sincere. So I'm curious about how you went about trying to thread this needle

of talking about adult themes, which might otherwise seem quite banal, but give them space and song. Those lyrics, because it's very borderline, and that's the challenge that we purposely seek, my sort of impetus for that song was, you've got this classic disco trope. Working, working, working day and night.

I'm working nine to five. Right? What's Saturday Night Fever about? It's a bunch of working class Italians in Brooklyn, working hard all week, blue collar, go out and party on a Saturday, right? But the late stage capitalist equivalent of that is you still make a disco song, but you're working so much, you're assailed so much societally by this consumer culture that, like, you're not going out.

You're falling asleep and you're telling your loved one, like, you know what? I'm tapping out peace. and it's okay. So that was the idea. And that's why it's also the most disco-sounding song on the album. It's got all the strings. And it's really the most disco thing because it meant to harken back

to those kind of 80s working day and night disco songs. And there's a whole bunch. That's like a real, it's a troll. It's a genre, yeah. You got to have a J-O-B. You've got to be with me. Yeah, that's a big one. Yeah, nothing going on but the rent.

You got to have a J-O-B. If you want to be, no romance without finance. You work hard for your money. All of that. That's a big 80s thing. Reganomics dance music. So we took it to like the 2020 recession. Well, maybe we could talk about some of the sounds that we're hearing

because you point out this is one of the more disco songs. How would you describe the chromio sound and how did you have to mold it and fit it into this concept to encapsulate this idea of adult contemporary. If the music becomes as mature as the texts, there's no interesting contrast anymore. So basically, we kind of went back to the energy and the hunger of the first two albums. And now, I think, going back to the most rudimentary form of Cromio,

but we've added what we've learned in production in arrangement, like vocal harmonies. We added all of this, but with the same sort of primate energy we had on the first two records. The rawness. Yeah, the rawness. I remember P&I sitting there and being like, dude, remember those vice parties in 2004?

You know, a song like, I don't need a new girl or even Lost and Found. Like, let's get, let's, I miss Electro. Like, let's do something more electoral because we came up from that. Okay, yeah. So disco, funk, electro. And yet there's also, there are a few moments where I feel like I hear some allusion to more obvious adult contemporary. Like this one tiny moment that is at the end of your song, Coda, where it almost feels like it flips to like a 97.8 FM. Yeah, it's like it's an easy listening vibe.

Tell me about Coda, the song about being codependent and the sort of the blending of these sounds. that you have here. It's kind of funny that Koda has a musical Koda. Yeah, yeah. There's like quadruple entendre. Coda is codependent. You use the word quota. This song has a Kota. Yes. Wow. This is the best interview we've ever had. If everybody else could give us that respect, we would have Grammys by now. The hell.

You wrote the ultimate quota. We did. It's the blending of form and function. And I know it's a 12-step program, too. So I thought that was extra. funny to kind of give it a shout out to the codependence and honest it's a 12 step oh i didn't realize see there's another layer to it yeah yeah it goes deep in this coda we have the the more direct nod to the more sort of easy listening side of adult contemporary which you were maybe keen to not not cite too directly because if you wrote an album called adult contemporary and it just sounded like a FM radio adult contemporary easy listening record it might be a bit too much sweet on

sweet, if you will. Sweet on sweet. Don't want to have sweet on sweet. No, no. I'm curious, though, P, is there a adult contemporary recording that you consider a modern classic that ought to be revisited maybe is actually subtly an influence to all your production? Yeah, there's so many, Pee, you always name drop those.

Didn't you say like, you love Kenny Rogers? We've got tonight, babe. So, yeah, Kenny Rogers, of course. You know, he wrote a lot of stuff for the Bee Gees. Oh my God, right. The BGs wrote one of Kenny Rogers' most popular songs, you and I. Well, because there's another Kenny, Kenny Loggins. Of course.

He's also a big. He's a big adult contemporaries. But he's also a funk king, right? He's just funky as hell. And there was this one performance of him and Michael McDonald doing, there's a time in my life. Right? And for YouTube, you have to find it.

It looks like they're performing it in an outdoor festival. It's like Pendleton prints everywhere, like real Pendleton Prince, real kind of like, you know that brand Philson, big Philson energy. This is it. It's like the era of like when the saxophones went straight. Like I know it's a different kind of sack, but when you were seeing a lot of the straight sacks, whatever. The soprano and like a lot of like percussion guys with like soul patches and like chimes. And you have like Michael McDonald and like Kenny Loggins. They're so funky.

And I remember that was a big thing for P and I for years. We used to watch that on repeat. What about this do you admire other than, I mean, obviously it's somewhat comical? Other than the textiles? Pee, you tell us, you have all these musical reasons. So on the less comical side, yes. Something during this album, as soon as we came up with the name, I immediately went back to Steely Dan, which is one of the most iconic, very much adult contemporary.

Steely Dan always, apart from the layers of humor and everything, they always had this juxtaposition of really, really classy, well done, super jazzy, super smooth. And then either really funny lyrics or really rough lyrics, where the guys talking about, you know, shooting heroin and, you know, it's like, so Steely Dan for me is like, it's an amazing high, low combination. And for us, it was the contrary. Them, it's always really intelligent music with lyrics that are completely just not on the same wavelength. Us, it was the contrary. It was the lyrics were mature and sophisticated, but we took the musical bed and made it. Fun, danceable. A little rough, like went back to the first two records, album, drum sounds, very textured.

If there were a Steeley Dan record that you had to really deeply study. as you wanted to pick apart it for production and just like things to learn from? Is there a song that would stand out for you as a place that requires deep study? Black cow. Black cow. How come?

Because that one's easy. That's another thing about that one is that the main riff is really simple. That's probably the best song because it's like rudimentary and then it goes into the jazz, right? But it's also very rich. And then the guy is talking about being depressed

It's just insane, you know. When P brought up the Steely Dan thing, and we're thinking about the artwork, this reference is a Steely Dan photo. The two of you... In front of the mixing desk. In front of a mixing desk. Even my style is referencing Jeff Skunk Baxter,

who's like one of their main guitar players through the years. He's my stylistic idol, by the way, and best guitar players. Something that I feel like is often much forgotten is that the world of adult contemporary pop in disco at one moment kind of were all interwoven. There may be no better example, I think, than off of Thriller, Human Nature, which is written and performed by Toto, Toto, who are kings of easy listening, adult contemporary kind of music. And there it is on the biggest selling record of all time.

You get Adult Contemporary on Thriller, a lot. alongside, you know, post-disco. And so it makes sense that your group, so known for your sound that draws as heavily influence from this era, would also go in that direction. Yeah, I mean, this is not like really our adult contemporary album. In a way, like P said, like production-wise, it's a return to youth.

Yeah. But we just feel like, we also felt like general speaking, like, I don't know, we had this inclination that, like, by the time this album would come out, adults would be trending. And I think we're right. Yeah. I think we're right.

Yeah. I think adults are trending. Because when we came up with the title, the only thing that was like, like this is like a year and a half ago, we came up with the title. And like the only thing that pointed to like a millennial resurgence was like the little indie, the Indies thing. But now it's even more because like, you know, everybody's calling everybody mother. Like all the adults are mother now.

Right. And then look at the Grammys. Grammys were the most adult contemporary Grammys ever. Basically. And it was a coronation of. adults. Killer Mike, Tracy Chapman, Annie Lennox, Celine Dion. It was Adult Land. Victoria Monet, who has worked for 15 years to become the best new artist in his under mid-30s. Killer Mike. It was the adult Grammys. And like, you know, even like Billy Elish and Olivia,

like when they were performing, you could see they were like cosplaying adults. Even Miley Cyrus was cosplaying adult. She went on full Dolly Parton, whatever, like. And Tina Turner as well. Yeah, a lot of references. Straight up. I'm telling you, it's a thing. Adults are trending now. Probably because there's a lot of deep anxiety about what it means to grow into adulthood as millennials, not wanting to maybe mirror their boomer parents, trying to find and navigate what adulthood ought to look like and looking for role models that are contemporaneous in songs that might make sense to them. And also there's, I think we're slowly realizing we can't sustain on youth culture for too long without, you know, having other things included.

I mean, everything has been pointing to that for, from companies targeting younger and younger children, the music being so focused on the concept of youth instead of music. When we were kids, we idolized adults. And we always had these figures like the mother or whatever. That was like for us, that was like Rizza. You know, like my hashtag mother was Rizza or the Beastie Boys or, you know, these guys, Nas, like these guys were just like five, six or sometimes 10 years older than us.

And they were our guiding lights through not only music, but also ethics. Which you, and you bring this into the album. You talk about the, I think it was a certain degree the ethics of relationship. You talk about moving beyond a situation ship. You talk about in the same song in Got It Good, you basically talk about what right do our friends have to watch us, bicker when they don't realize, you know, part of basically working out conflict as a way of creating deeper intimacy. Why didn't you write our bio, Charlie?

So, Cromio is currently celebrating your 20th anniversary working together, which is amazing. Congratulations. I'm currently 10 years into a creative partnership in making this podcast. And honestly, I got to say, I feel like it couldn't be better. It's the easiest it's ever been. We have our own language to navigate making the things we make. It's very rewarding. There's no conflict that we can't navigate.

I'm curious, what happens in a creative partnership in its second decade? And do you have any words of wisdom to offer? The crucial period has already passed. I have a theory that in any relationship, there's a crucial period at two years. And then there's a crucial period at eight years. Once you pass that, you already have the concept of trust, no, I'm sure you and your partner are able to openly discuss about everything without having crazy egotistical arguments or, you know, nonsensical fights.

And that's more important. Then on your second step, you try to go a little bit harder and try to spend a little more time planning the rest of your 10 years. And this is where it becomes interesting because you have the trust, you have the history of your first 10 years, and you're like, okay, we know this works. Now, how do we keep this going for a much longer time? All you need by now, your combination is already great. All you need by now is solid planning and stay hungry.

Stay hungry. If you're both hungry, you're still going to sort of feed off of each other. I appreciate the wisdom. Dave, B, thank you for joining me on Switched on Pop. I really appreciate it. Thanks for having us. This episode of Switched on Pop was produced by me, Charlie Harding, Our producer is Rihanna Cruz, engineering by Brandon McFarlane, editing by Art Chung,

illustrations by our West Ghalib, community management by Abby Barr. Our executive producer is Nishak-Kruat and a member of the Vox Media Podcasts network and a production of Vulture, which is part of New York Magazine, which you can subscribe to at New Yorkmag.com slash pod. You can find more of our work at Switched on Pop on all the social platforms, switchedonpop.com. And of course, we have our free newsletter where we go deeper into the stories that you hear on the show. You can subscribe to that at our website, Switchedon Pop.

or find the subscription link in our show notes. We'll be back again next Tuesday. And until then, thanks for listening.