At Work: Cherub
“Doses and Mimosas” might not sound like the name of your average radio-friendly pop song, but the viral hit has done wonders for Cherub. Though the electro-pop duo— singer/songwriter Jordan Kelley and producer/performer Jason Huber—originally put the track out more than two years ago, the tune has only recently broken out of the electronic-dance music niche where it first found love.
“When we started out, no one really knew where to book us,” recalls Kelley. “There was the dance element, so it was kind of easy to put us with DJs, producers and people of that nature. We got our first go around and our first exposure through that scene, which was awesome. But it’s been an exciting transition for Jason and me to branch into the more alternative-pop side of things. Because at the end of the day, I feel like when people look at our songs there’s a verse and a chorus. There’s more of a pop structure than EDM or anything else.”
The pair’s pop sensibilities are on perfect display with their major label debut, Year of the Caprese. The album finds the duo creating a club-ready combination of danceable beats and infectious hooks that wouldn’t feel out of place on the dance floor or Top 40 radio, as well as a few slower tracks that feel more suited for a smoke session than a full-blown party. It’s a winning studio formula that also translates into the live arena, especially given Kelley and Huber’s aversion to simplistic button-mashing.
“The whole idea with the live show is to keep things as fun, interesting and kind of rock-and-roll as possible,” notes Huber. “We want to be able to provide the same dance party, sonically, that a DJ can, but that can get boring sometimes. For us, as performers onstage, it can get stagnant. So we really want to be sure to keep the guitars in our hands and physically connect with the crowd.”
With a new studio LP, a European tour and appearances at world-class festivals like Bonnaroo and Glastonbury behind them, 2014 has already been an exciting and self-affirming period for Cherub. Nevertheless, the pair plans to stay on the road well into the rest of the year.
“We were sitting in the hotel last night having long discussions about what we were going to name our fall tour,” says Huber. “We’d like to hit up all the places that we didn’t catch on the spring tour, and after that we can hopefully find some time to get back in the studio and work on some new music.”
