First Look Friday: Chargaux Reinvent String Theory
Chargaux may sound like an obscure European estate--perhaps a particularly posty varietal of white wine?--but if you have seen two strikingly beautiful black girls with color-clashing braids playing a moving string arrangement on the streets (or perhaps in the galleries) of Brooklyn, you have already tasted this vintage. In fact, if you have waxed melodic and turned up your car radio to let the extended string reverie of Kendrick Lamar's "B**tch, Don't Kill My Vibe" waft out over the street, you've experienced Chargaux as well.
Because Chargaux is simply the confluence of Charly and Margaux--friends and collaborators Jasmin Charles and Margaux Whitney to be specific--two classically trained string players who are busy reinventing the idea of a string ensemble with their effortlessly original approach to their instruments. Besides the occasional TDE cameo, they have already turned heads with their live shows, their cover of The Gap Band's "Burn Rubber" and self-produced tracks like "I'm So Pretty" and insider buzz is already coalescing around a forthcoming EP. Okayplayer caught up with Charly and Margaux to find out how they met (in the streets, naturally), how they developed their signature sound and what's next for Chargaux. Listen to "I'm so Pretty" below, and read on to watch a performance of "Lone Ranger" from their Gallerina Suites series, hear some more key tracks and engage with the serious business of getting to know Chargaux.
OKP: You play violin and viola, respectively —can you each tell us at which point you picked up the instrument? Was the choice supported by parents, school, peers?
Margaux: I started playing violin in 2nd grade at Bates Academy, my public school in Detroit. My teacher showed the class wind instruments and string instruments and told us we could play whatever we wanted. He demonstrated how each instrument was played and I remember him playing the trumpet and shooting spit out of the valve. I was so grossed out I chose the violin by default. Corny as it sounds, at 8 I pretty much chose my life path. I loved playing and kept doing it from that day until now and have always been supported by my family and friends.
Charly: I was 9. I took our little book home and played through it. Reading words was like that for me too; I was 3 and I just remember looking at the first page of this children's dictionary and saying oh, that says apple. Reading words is memorizing sounds denoted by lines and circles. Reading music is even more direct; after the first day of class I took our music book back to the teacher and played him all the songs in the book transposed to other strings. he told the folks at home I needed extra lessons. They listened, I had fun with it.
OKP: Who plays the drums?
Charly: We both arrange electronic drums. Tim Smith and Justin Tyson play our sessions and record with us. Softglas does his own thing in the studio with us; he plays electric drum pads and also uses MPCs. We were just at the Red Bull Studios with him to create a new composition for their live installation, Music for Plants. He's an extremely conceptual guy so we decided to go digital with him, and it's cool because he's super classical too.
OKP: How important are classical sting arrangements to the sound of Chargaux, as opposed to other genres/moments? Do you write on/for violin and viola?
Margaux: Just because a melody is played on the violin doesn't make it classical: it's all about context. A string arrangement of ours played acapella may sound classical but as soon as you pair it with a crazy synth part and beat, it become electronic. Music is amazing in that way: genres can bend and change however you want them to. String arrangements are definitely a foundational part of our music but we love to incorporate vocals and other instruments. Personally I am dying to incorporate brass arrangements into a few songs.
Charly: Classical music is a science that had its own supremely long era, and as a result we are taught a lot of the repertoire when learning any new instrument. Older composers used intense math to write things out, so in addition to perfecting muscular technique while learning violin, we are also learning about what makes a song good, mathematically. Calculating helps a lot during creation process and it's so natural to what we do, that we don't even think about it. It's like a rare bottled essence, to be able to feel Margaux's idea before she tells it to me. Improvisation is our favorite thing.
OKP: We understand you met while playing on the streetcorner—can you tell us the story?
Margaux: I was working a summer corporate job in Boston and was on my lunch break in Copley square. I walked by this bank on the corner and saw this girl playing the violin. She had this blond fro-hawk and like some crazy thigh-highs and red cowboy boots. She was playing so beautifully so I stopped her and was like, Hey, I play viola, would you like to jam sometime? She obliged and the next day we went out to the exact street corner where we met and jammed. It was my first time busking and Charly and I's first time playing together. The energy we created was crazy. People immediately started taking pictures and videos of us, asking us if we were a band...if we were sisters...if we had performances coming up. After that day we knew we had to work together and we have been ever since.
OKP: Have either or both of you worked as buskers/street musicians otherwise? If so what was your craziest experience?
Margaux: We've been playing together off and on in both the subways of Boston and New York for years so there are a myriad of crazy experiences. We've had people just walk up to us crying because they were touched by our music, homeless people walk up to our basket and ask for our dollars, rowdy kids dance and clap to our music...just all kind of stuff. One time we got a $20 tip and the wind from the train blew it in the air. This lady caught it and like half walked, half ran away. I was like, Hey that's ours! She replied "Well, it's not in your basket." Typical New York shit.
Charly: Busking in the subway is a real hustle just like any other street hustle. We only did it together, although sometimes we'd go explore different subways alone. Oneeeee time...this guy decided to play his sax over me. A spot within earshot is a spot and there are unspoken rules to this shit: Don't play over anybody if they were there first. I go over and tell the guy to chill and he ran past me to yank my violin out of its case. He threatened to throw it onto the train tracks but I got super silent and stared him down 'til he put it back. That's the only thing that works with crazy new yorkers.
OKP: You're noted for contributing strings to Kendrick Lamar's "B%4ch Don't Kill My Vibe"--can you tell us how that came about and what the experience was like?
Margaux: We loved one of Kendrick's earlier projects, Section 80. There was a song he released "Rigamortis" that we ended up covering in a video and posting on youtube. One of his producers Sounwave saw the cover and hit us up to work on the album. He sent us the track with no hook, just guitar and some drums. We wrote the string arrangement in a couple hours at a Boston studio. When we heard the final song we literally jumped up and down because the whole arrangement we wrote was kept perfectly in tact and featured. Since then we also wrote on several tracks for Schoolboy Q's Oxymoron.
Charly: Rap was fun! I always thoroughly enjoy working with rap. I'm from the south, we run that stuff. However, people would be surprised to find how much classical and folk Margaux and I secretly hold on to.
OKP: When you combined the names Charly and Margaux into your group name, were you consciously modeling yourselves on Jodeci, Zhané and other classic name-binations?
Charly: It's just way better than getting people to remember Charly and Margaux.
OKP: What's next for Chargaux?
Margaux: We're creatives so there always something coming. We're focused on releasing our full EP, performing live in the fall, dabbling in fashion, and scoring a short film amongst other things. We're young artists and we live in New York. We're just enjoying everything that comes our way.
Charly: Charles will always show art.
