Cherub talks new album, partying on rooftops, and sailing into the sunset

The risqué electro-pop duo of Jordan Kelley and Jason Huber, aka Cherub, just announced their highly-anticipated major label debut album, Year Of The Caprese on Columbia. The dance love‐child of 80’s funk and pop from the future  are well known for wicked falsetto hooks, lush synthesizer textures, and the track "Doses and Mimosas." Highlights of the album include the aforementioned single, "Work the Middle," and "Disco Shit." And every other track on the album. Preorder it now!

Can you please choose one of your songs and take me through its creation, from its inspiration to construction, both the abstract pieces such as inspiration and the more technical.

Jordan: All our songs start out in Reason, but there’s a couple songs on the new album that started out on an old-school, really shitty keyboard.

Jason: Jordan is the one that writes all of the songs.

Jordan: The song starts off in Reason, and from there it goes into Pro-Tools, and then Jason adds some stuff in Ableton and some live guitar, some vocals, stuff like that. All the songs start with a single sound or a chord progression or drums. So I guess you could say all of our songs stem from a single piece.

What’s the craziest thing that’s ever happened to you on a rooftop?

Jordan: We shot the Doses video on a rooftop which was pretty cool.

Jason: We rented out a hotel room in Queretaro, Mexico-

Jordan: -Basically we played a show and the promoter got us a room in this historic hotel and we got the penthouse. We threw an after party and it was really shitty. Really fun, but shitty.

Jason: I gave the promoter a shot of tequila and tucked him in on the balcony and he told me I was his mom. And then apparently

the authorities came and weren’t so happy and we told them that it wasn’t that they weren’t invited, it was that everyone was invited and it was their fault they didn’t come.

Tell me about playing Red Rocks.

Jordan: It was our dream, its ranked in the top 2 venues in the United States every time, so we were stoked to get the opportunity to play. It was overwhelming for me, how about you Jason?

Jason: That was, that was amazing. We’ve always had very supportive parents and that was a moment where they got to be really proud of us and that was really cool. The guys in Sound Tribe who vouched for us and we have them to thank.

What track do you love that we might not expect?

Jordan: Do you remember the band Forest for the Trees? They have a song called “Infinite Cow.” Sophie B. Hawkins, “Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover.”

Jason: I love Katy Perry

Who do you hate the most?

Jordan: I hate Officer Stukey. He went out of his way to get a 19-year-old in trouble. I wasn’t really even doing anything, I was just drunk. He pulled me out of the back of a car on my way home. The second one is Kate Rosenbaum, if I have one regret in life it would be that that chair didn’t hit her in the face. K-a-t-e R-o-s-e-n-b-a-u-m.

What’s your dream collaboration?

Jordan: For me, The Dream or Pharrell would be sick.

Jason: Janet Jackson.

Jordan: Justin Beiber retired so I want to be on his comeback album.

Jason: Now he can retire in Florida and get a golf cart and not a car.

Is that your retirement? A golf cart in Florida?

Jason: I would rather have a boat.

Jordan: Jason wants to die on a boat.

Jason: That would be way cool. That’d be an epic way to go out, to sail off into the sunset.

Before you got further into music, what were you doing in life?

Jordan: I think me and Jason have always done music, its just in the last year its switched to being our main form of living. Now we’re making enough money to live off of it.

Jason: I worked at fast food from 18 to 22, dreaming about what I’m doing now.

How are drugs involved in your creative process?

Jason: Honestly, they’re an inspiration but as far as being proactive and actually creating the music they’re not involved at all. Same with performing.

Jordan: That’s when you get your ideas out. You can get crazy ideas but when it comes to getting them out it comes out of a clear head.

How would you want other people to describe your music?

Jordan: That one girl said sex on clouds.

Jason: Yea that’s a cool description. I like that one. I don’t want to generalize it. I don’t want to alienate people who don’t have sex.

Would you say your drive to create music comes more from wanting to have that emotional effect on others or a need to express yourself?

Jordan: Even for me. I have to make music. But I also don’t want to make music only I like, I want people to dig it.

Jason: You can hear the difference between the records. On the first record you can hear what we’re doing and after that we’re being influenced by the crowds that we’re playing for and it starts to become a dialogue.

Can you articulate what it is about your different styles that complement eachother?

Jason: When we’re in the studio I pretty much follow Jordan’s lead. He’s the songwriter in the group and the creative force behind it. We both contribute but he’s really the leader in there. When it comes to putting together a live show we’ll take everything we’ve done, split it apart and put it into Ableton Live in my computer and figure out where we’re gonna perform live parts, where we’re gonna chop things up for a sampler pad, where we’re gonna stray from the studio recording and turn the live show into something new and exciting and fun for us to perform as well.

We’ll end up taking a lot of parts we wrote in the studio that aren’t make or break and not record them so that we can play them live and make the live show something special.

What was your favorite point from the tour with Gramatik? 

Jason: That tour was awesome, all the way through. I just like being on the tour bus and being homies.

Jordan: There was one night where we had the entire tour sing along to Maria Carey’s Christmas Album. That was pretty epic.

Jason: And it was not Christmas time. Me and Mike used to blast heavy metal at 8 in the morning while everyone was asleep.

Jordan: Mike the tour manager was the most talented musician on the bus.

Can you give a shout out to a couple artists that deserve some more play?

Jordan: Night Beds. They’re fucking awesome. They’re from Nashville as well.

Jason: Probcause. One dude whose a rapper. The live show is definitely something you should catch.

Thanks guys.

Thanks for an awesome interview, much love.

Pre-order Year of Caprese here.

Get tickets here.

The Blow’d Tour Dates:

March 27 - Grand Rapids, MI; The Intersection

March 28 - Detroit, MI; St. Andrews Hall

March 29 - Chicago, IL; House of Blues

April 1 - South Burlington, VT; Higher Ground Showcase Lounge

April 2 - Boston, MA; Paradise Rock Club

April 3 - Brooklyn, NY; Music Hall of Williamsburg

April 4 - New York, NY; Highline Ballroom

April 6 - Philadelphia, PA; Theatre of the Living Arts

April 8 - Charlottesville, VA; Jefferson Theater

April 9 - Baltimore, MD; OttoBar

April 10 - Raleigh, NC; Lincoln Theatre

April 11 - Charlotte, NC; The Fillmore Charlotte

April 14 - Tampa, FL; Red Bull Sound Select Tour @ The Cuban Club

April 16 - Orlando, FL; Red Bull Sound Select Tour @ Firestone Live

April 17 - Gainesville, FL; Red Bull Sound Select Tour @ The Wooly

April 18 - Tallahassee, FL; Red Bull Sound Select Tour @ Potbelly's

April 19 - Athens, GA; Georgia Theatre

April 20 - Atlanta, GA; Terminal West @ King Plow Arts Center

April 22 - Mobile, AL; Soul Kitchen

April 23 - Jackson, MS; Hal and Mal's

April 24 - Oxford, MS; The Lyric Oxford

April 25 - New Orleans, LA; The Parish @ House of Blues

April 26 - Houston, TX; House Of Blues

April 29 - Baton Rouge, LA; Varsity Theatre

April 30 - Bryan, TX; Grand Stafford Theater

May 1 - Dallas,TX; House of Blues

May 2 - Austin, TX; Emo's

May 6 - Manchester, United Kingdom; Fallow

May 7 - London, United Kingdom; Barfly

May 8 - Brighton, United Kingdom; The Great Escape

May 9 - Newcastle, United Kingdom; Head of Steam

May 10 - High Wycombe, United Kingdom; Festiball at Bucks Students Union

May 13 - Paris, France; Le Nouveau Casino

May 14 - Lille, France; La Peniche

May 15 - Zurich, Switzerland; Mascotte

May 17 - Amsterdam, Netherlands; Paradiso

May 19 - Hamburg, Germany; Uebel & Gefahrlich

May 20 - Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Ponyhof

May 21 - Berlin, Germany; Prince Charles

May 23-25 - Chillicothe, IL; Summer Camp Festival

June 5-8 - Ozark, AR; Wakarusa

June 12-15 - Manchester, TN; Bonnaroo

June 21 - Denver, CO - Westword Music Showcase

June 19-22 - Dover, DE; Firefly Music Festival

June 26-29 - Rothbury, MI; Electric Forest Festival

August 1-3 - Montreal, Canada; Osheaga Festival

See you on the dance floor,

Jesse Wheaton