"Although I didn't write this song, it spoke to me in a way that made me feel as if it was my own story,” Brandon said. “I found myself playing it over and over again in my bedroom, remembering situations that I've been through.”
Check out the video for yourself below.
What was the inspiration behind the Head Over Heels cover? And how do you think this cover sets itself apart from your previous album art?
Obviously the continuity of the legs theme that we’ve always used in our imagery, but for over ten years we had used women’s legs—whether they were serving as keyboard stands or kind of just symbolizing an erotic, Helmut Newton vibe. There was always that reference—this dichotomy between Chromeo and that female legs symbol. We wanted to abolish that on this album. We felt like the natural evolution of our imagery on this record and of our growth was to blur the lines between the muse and the artist, or the subject of the image and the object of the image. Also, in a way, to just kind of take responsibility for an image that we had used for so long. So that, and then obviously it works as a pun with the album title, Head Over Heels.
It’s our heads over our heels—as silly as that sounds, for us it meant assuming responsibility over an image that we had used for so long. People usually love our artwork—our shit is always really tasteful and slick. But with every album, I would read like one or two comments saying, “Guys, why are you fragmenting a woman’s body?” And those one or two comments bothered me. And what I would find myself saying is, “Yo, it’s a reference! Some Helmut Newton shit. It’s a reference, blah blah blah.” What I was tone deaf to is that Helmut Newton in the late 1970’s or 80’s doesn’t resonate the same in 2018. You can reference something, but when you’re referencing something you’re also putting it in a new context. Obviously if something’s in a new context, it takes on a new meaning, and it can ruffle new feathers. I didn’t want to hide behind the referentiality of this late 70’s erotic photography anymore. I wanted to make a fusion of us and our symbol.
I think, yeah, it’s a great middle ground of keeping the cover cohesive and also owning something new.
Also I wanted to add that we’ve always had a very vintage looking grain on our photography, and this time I wanted the photography to look more modern, again, so as to not just be like, “Yo, this is some vintage shit—you can get away with it when you make something look ‘retro.’” It still has a retro thing, but it doesn’t have that kind of vintage grain. Everything we had done so far was done in an analog way, and there was not much retouching or photoshopping or any of that. [This cover] feels more modern, it feels more immediate. That’s what was important to us.
How was the actual shoot for the album? I know the office editor-in-chief Simon styled it. How did that go?
Yup, that’s your boy. I sought out Simon before settling on a photographer, actually. Basically, we have an art director. She’s been our art director since Fancy Footwork in 2007. So when we were putting together this cover concept with her, she was like, because there are no props on the cover, your styling is going to have to speak a lot. The styling needs to be super important. So the first thing was choosing a stylist. I was a fan of Simon’s work, and what I liked about his work is that he does advanced fashion shit, but he’s also able to read the hip hop code when you look at what he did with Travis Scott and Gucci Mane and all that. So I thought he’d be a good person to style Patrick, too. I actually contacted him months and months ago because first I wanted to work with him on our “Juice” video, but he was getting married and all that stuff so we ended up locking him in for the album cover. And Simon told me he was open to recommending photographers, and he recommended a bunch including Jason Nocito. I know Jason from forever ago, and we’d shot with him before, but I thought that Jason was only doing point-and-shoot, snapshot photography. I hadn’t seen Jason's really slick kind of work in the studio. And when I saw that, I was like, this is perfect, this is gonna work.
The color palette we were referencing on the album cover and the texture of this shoot, it’s still 80’s but it’s like late 80’s. We were looking at a lot of photographer magazines from that era. It’s still very Jean Paul Goude, you know, but just the later works. We were looking at a lot of advertising—it’s almost those kind of Benneton Swatch years, instead of the hazy, erotic years. It’s more vibrant. We wanted primary colors that pop out, and we wanted lots of texture—shiny leathers, latex. I could convey that to both Simon and Jason, and they really understood it. Simon nailed the styling in one shot. He brought a bunch of stuff, and the hard part was going to be dressing Patrick. Whatever the gender, my dress code works either way, but with Patrick it was like, how do you make the bottom half of that feminine, you know? So we had to put the whole thing together. The shoot was super easy—it was really just about the light. And Jason really crushed it on the lighting.
It seemed to come together perfectly.
That’s our thing—with Chromeo, everything we do is always trying to be very high brow and very low brow at the same time. When you see a cover like that, obviously it’s funny and crazy, but we work with the best people. We try to collaborate with the best people. Simon and Jason are at the top of their game—they’re really renowned and respected creatives in this field, so they add a level of sophistication. And then you get that juxtaposition between an image that’s outlandish but at the same time meaningful for us and meaningful as a statement, but also really high quality photography. That’s always been our goal. It’s serious and funny at the same time, and it’s meaningful and lighthearted at the same time. If I’m able to tick those boxes, then Chromeo has fulfilled its mission.
Thank you for being so descriptive about the cover and for giving us the exclusive!
Of course. I haven't really gotten to talk about it like this, so.. Hell yeah.
Head Over Heels will be released June 15.
After hosting Saturday Night Live, Donald Glover released the music video for "This is America" The song flickers between gospel chorus singing and dead-pan, choppy, cold verses perfectly pairing with the juxtaposition of the video.
Since the release just over a day ago, the video, directed my Hiro Murai, has accumulated over 17 million views. And it isn't hard to understand why. Intermittently breaking up Glover's carefree dancing and singing, he pulls out a gun and mows down the surrounding pedestrians. The video references a number of recent flashpoints including police brutality, white supremecy, and racialized violence: the lynching of black men, "black lives matter" protests, and the Charleston shooting. "This is guerilla" he sings, fed up with the violence, the racism, and the policing in the country.
While the discussion of the state of America isn't a new topic in hip-hop by any means, Glover and Murai call for change in a new way. The music video speaks for itself and has us rewatching again and again, stunned and teary-eyed, reminding us that the nation's problem with gun violence is a uniquely American epidemic.
Harnessing their diverse range of creative backgrounds, collaborations form an integral part of all their work, from the music production to the album artwork via the hand-printed merch. Resisting stereotypes and classifications, Reservoir is a prime example of London’s youth culture, relishing in low-budget, high-energy creative output that’s as fresh as the individuals its composed of.
How did Reservoir come about? Were you friends who decided to create together or were you drawn together by your music?
Virgil Hawkins I came up with the name and then Max and I brought in our different talents; he was more on the fashion side and I was more into music with my friends from school, but we were both more motivated than everyone else so we made our own thing going into university. Just from doing events and living my life, I met Theodor at an open mic, I met Isaac at uni when he came down from Leeds. I met everyone differently but we’ve all come together as one.
Do you record all your music in the same studio?
VH Yeah, for a long time we recorded at Bill’s, but everyone’s got their own set-up at home as well now so we just go to each other’s houses.
Super DIY.
VH We’re so punk. [Laughs]
Theodor Black Have you heard of a Snowball? It’s like a little podcast recorder.
VH It looks like a little alien.
TB Like a virus with a round head.
VH Three legs tripod situation.
TB But that was a sick little investment you know. The sound quality is so good, it’s so good! I just started thinking why the fuck do people pay for studios? You can produce amazing quality music through cheaper means, and it’s easier. I prefer the comfort of my room or a friend’s house when making music. My creativity flourishes in those environments.
What have been the best parts of working all together?
TB All the people that I’ve met, we became a little family. Everyone’s got the same goal in mind, everyone’s so driven. It’s a nice little collective of ideas that blends into one.
VH When you get down, everyone brings you up. No one gets left behind. If anything ever happens there’s a thorough discussion beforehand. It’s nice to have people that are like-minded and chasing the same things as you are.
TB Equally immature and equally weird.
What are the biggest challenges?
TB Communication. It’s not even like anyone does it intentionally, it’s just that everyone’s such a unique individual. They have ideas going on in their minds constantly and it’s kind of long constantly being like, “this is what I’m thinking… but this is also what I’m thinking… but this is also what I’m thinking.” It’s a bit impossible.
VH I get the feeling that people who do music could be intelligent, or not. I think everyone’s intelligent to an extent, but at school they were probably the ones that were disorganised and for whatever reason didn’t pursue an academic career. That kind of plays into it sometimes as well.
TB I’m a tiny bit slow but I can rap bars. [Laughs]
Who are your sources of inspiration? You’re quite musically different but there’s something that ties you all together.
VH I don’t know, Andre 3000?
TB Andre 3000.
VH Even though some people we know will say, “No we’re not alternative, we’re rap.” I think the word alternative is pretty much the umbrella of what we’re doing. Just following the first thought that comes to your head, being comfortable with yourself, and putting that into your craft. That’s what we’re doing, I think.
Have there been any misconceptions about how you work or who you are?
TB That Noisey article.
VH Basically, Sha Rez and Kish did an interview with Noisey and they made it look like we take loads of drugs, but we don’t. I think it was meant to be more of a comment on mental illness and how that plays into drug-taking.
TB It was another way of them stabbing at a culture that they don’t understand. I saw that article and I thought, “Yo fam, I don’t make xanny music, nobody makes xanny music. What the fuck even is that?”
VH It’s funny, it just happened and Rez sent the interviewer my song Xan.
Do you have any questions you’ve ever really wanted to be asked about your music? Something that people miss out on that’s important to you?
TB A question that people never ask is, “How do you make your music? What are you thinking when you make your music?” I think people are more interested in the more existential side of your creativity but then again, there’s a whole process that goes into creating something. It’s not just going into the studio or sitting in the bedroom writing bars. It’s actually real shit. That’s the thing about Reservoir, nobody’s making music about a lavish lifestyle, shit that we don’t actually live or do. Everyone is talking about shit that they actually have experienced. So, when people are just looking at the surface of the music and they’re not trying to delve deeper, that kind of pisses me off. It defies the point of why you’re actually trying to create something.
VH For real. He said it all.
