Live For Live Music had the pleasure of sitting down with Danny Cardini and Mark Potter of NYC’s own Chromatropic to talk about who they are, what they do, and their upcoming show with The New Deal and The Werks at the Brooklyn Bowl May 30th.

 

L4LM: How did the band get their start?

MP: Danny and I started the band originally in 2011. We met the usual way, Craigslist. Danny had recently moved from Florida, I was pretty new to New York as well. We were the original starters of the band, then we met Andrew and Moses. With the current lineup, it’s been about 3 years now. That’s the technical answer, but in terms of what the band started from, it was really about bringing an element of jazz back into dance music. That was our goal from the outset.

L4LM: Nice. Where’d you come up with the name? It’s a cool word.

MP: The name came from a little bit of a funny story. I was at a Phish show with some friends of mine. We were on the floor at that moment, second set. They were getting sort of Caribbean, a little bit Salsa and my friend turned me like “Man this is so tropical right now”.  And we all we all looked at him like “yea!” and it sort of became this adjective for us to mean amazing; it became this little code word. We then did a little bit of research on names and the like, and we were kind of interested in synthesia; the concept of sense lacking or replacing each other in different states. We came across the idea of the experience of when you hear music with your eyes closed, you can picture colors. So we took the word Chroma and tropic. It’s this multi-colored, multi-sensory tropical fusion thing.

 

L4LM: For each of you, what is your favorite piece of gear and why?

DC: Favorite piece of gear; not long ago I got a moog little fatty and that’s been my baby Ever since. I think it’s opened up the doors to where we are exploring with music. It gives a little bit of the electronic vibe and also that analog feel. 

MP:  I guess it has to be my snare drum, Tama starphonic aluminium. Full metal shell, its one of those snare drums you can tune down and get “Superstition” Stevie Wonder with it or you can stack it right up and get those gospel chops with it.  It’s the most versatile thing that I own. Even when you play a venue that already has a backline, it’s the thing that always goes with me.

L4LM: Sweet. In your music, there are times where it has the breakbeat, and times when it’s jamtronica house. Then you change keys, modulate, arpeggiate, you do these really crazy moves; reminiscent to me of jazz-fusion like Return to Forever. That idea of bringing jazz to dance makes me totally think Jamiroquai. What are some must-hear musical influences of yours?

MP: From a rhythm perspective, being from England, I’m a huge drum and bass music. I grew up listening to drum and bass music, would sneak out to hear drum and bass music. LTJ Bukem was this entity in England that really turned my brain to understand the sub bass on top of the double time funk beat. I would say LTJ Bukem and the Easy Rollers, who were a live drum and bass band from the UK.

DC:  Yea I always joke now that I’ll be listening to music at my job and it can be anything from the Chopin Nocturnes to Daft Punk’s “Discovery” and all over the place. I think we’re all similar in that sense that we take influence from so many different backgrounds so that it becomes this mosaic, and that’s what we go for. Being instrumental and not having a vocalist kind of pushes us to keep that music interesting and changing.

MP: We definitely have music that we listen to that influence our sound and we have also have musicians and bands that inspire us by what they’re doing currently. Snarky Puppy is huge for us because they are fearless in this pursuit of doing whatever they want to do at any moment. It’s on that level and they don’t seem to worry if it’s “popular” or people could “sell it”.

L4LM: Your music comes from so many different places; I haven’t heard a group that sounds like you guys yet. So now in my world, you are going to have the adjective, Chromatropic!

MP: That’s awesome, that’s good to hear. When we first became a band I was playing demos for people and they were like “what’s going on” I took that as “alright it’s the ingredients” as if we came back form the grocery store, we had to get the balance and the mix right. That’s been our journey as a band, the finding and combining of the influences in a more seamless way. It’s to make it less of a hodgepodge and slicker.

L4LM: While at times the sound is loose and improvised by a Quartet on stage, there is also such tightness with this group for you don’t miss a beat. Is there a songwriting process, or is it always different?

DC: Every songwriting process is definitely different for us. Typically, Andrew or myself will come in with different parts. Nothing set in stone, nothing were completely obsessed over. We being in a couple ideas and let the group have at it.  So we’ll mix and match, add stuff, remove and refine what seems like endless tweaks until we’re ready to go play it live. I don’t think it’s ever completely perfect, its never going to be perfect but it gets to a point where were happy with it. The good thing about playing live is that from night to night that can totally change.

MP: I have to say playing live the most amazing thing that we do, but the second most amazing part of being in this band is when Danny comes in to the studio very humbly saying “hey check out this little thing that I came up with.” And he plays a lick and I can hear it in a song just like, man, this is going to be so awesome. It gives us Goosebumps, it’s so exciting. But then when there’s a trickier part, we work it out and work it out, and then we play it live. We listen back a month later, and the amount it’s grown, it’s hard to ever know when to record the songs because they change so often.

L4LM: They’re not songs set in stone, their living breathing creations. You go into the studio and get your minds blown.

DC: Totally. And the absolute coolest part of songwriting for me is bringing in a snippet of something and then seeing the end result of what was a collaborative effort. It’s just completely changed into a thing that I could’ve never imagined when jamming it by myself in my room.

L4LM: Are there any central themes or philosophies that the band takes into music making?

MP: We have a song we play live that is not yet recorded in the studio called “Ruiz.”  It’s named after Don Miguel Ruiz, who wrote something called The Four Agreements. So that’s been a central theme in some sessions and our modus operandi on the road or with our audience. It’s a really good fall back, being with the four agreements.

DC: I think just living in NYC day to day and all we go through day to day. Finally getting to the studio at night is just that release for us. It doesn’t matter what kind of day we had, what subways were delayed, and what you dealt with at work. It’s the studio, and its as much therapy for us as it is an effort making art.

L4LM: This is a place that people love but drives them crazy; it’s awesome that you have found such a healthy, self-perpetuating medium.  So you excited to return to the Brooklyn Bowl May 30th? You’re playing with The New Deal and The Werks correct?

MP: Yes. That’s a dream come true, those are bands that we are happy to go on the record and say that we have so much respect for those guys. They’re the originators of the scene; they defined that sound and came up with it. They’re the architects; we’re just fortunate.

L4LM: Excellent. Thanks again for your time!