DJing lifestyle a hectic one, says P-Thugg of Chromeo

There are a fair amount of complainers in the world who enjoy bashing DJs as reclusive musicians who earn easy money doing easy work.

But that insult is a fallacy when you're talking about the best DJ-producers, who have real music backgrounds and serious work ethics.

"It's a lot of work," DJ-producer P-Thugg assures me.

P-Thugg is half of the electrofunk duo Chromeo -- which launches a new DJ residency tonight at Pure nightclub at Caesars Palace.

Let him explain a few things to DJ haters.

"You play. You get on a plane. You eat room service every morning, every day, every night. You eat airport food.

"You get to the next gig. You play like a maniac. You sweat your ass off. And then you have to talk to people."

Some fans at nightclubs say to Chromeo, "You guys don't party after shows!"

"But you can't be an animal all the time," P-Thugg says with a chuckle.

P-Thugg says he obviously enjoys this hectic lifestyle.

"Yeah, man, we like it," he says. "I'm just saying that, because some people don't really understand exactly what it is to live like that."

I tell P-Thugg how one of the twins in the DJ duo Nervo jokes that she flies so often, she can sleep standing up. P-Thugg empathizes.

"I used to not be able to sleep at all on planes, but now, just give me a seat and I'm gone right away. I drop my head on the pillow, and that's it."

Chromeo's pre-tour craziness is even more demanding for P-Thugg (Patrick Gemayel) and his music partner Dave 1 (David Macklovitch).

The New York duo produce and record songs, creatively and technically; they mix and remix their music; they're involved in videos and tour visuals; they handle their own business and accounting; and they deal with media and marketing.

"It's nuts like that," P-Thugg says. "It would be a lot for one person. Even for two people, it's a lot."

It's a good thing they get along, mostly.

"We fight, but we fight like an old couple. We don't fight like we hate each other," P-Thugg, 32, says.

P-Thugg and Dave 1 have been a team since they met as teens at College Stanislas in Montreal. At that point, P-Thugg had been learning hip-hop and classic rock songs on guitar since age 13.

Dave 1 was also a guitarist. So P-Thugg switched to bass. Within a few years, they taught themselves hip-hop production and earned a record deal.

"We were like two nerds," he says. "We were really driven. We used to rehearse on Saturday morning at 9 a.m., when other 17-year-olds (were) hung over."

P-Thugg's motivation was partly to prove his dad wrong regarding his musical aspirations, "which I did."

But mostly, the duo just loved music too much not to be obsessed.

"I do this every day," P-Thugg says. "If I'm not home playing piano, I'm in the studio making demos, listening to records, talking about music, digging for records and listening to old vinyl.

"This is what we love to do."

Just to be safe, each of the Chromeo guys invested in Plan B careers.

"We both went to school. We both had a backup plan. I'm an accountant. He went to school for French literature," P-Thugg says.

Not only that, but Dave 1 became a Ph.D. candidate at Columbia University.

"If you're driven, you can do everything at the same time," P-Thugg says.

And now, P-Thugg (born in Lebanon, raised in Montreal) and Dave 1 joke that they're "the only successful Arab-Jewish partnership" in the history of the world.

"We always say, 'Find another one, and then we'll shut up,' " P-Thugg says with a laugh.

Doug Elfman's column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Email him at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.