I’ll never forget my first Chromeo show — both because it was totally awesome and also because it was nearly impossible to get into regardless of who anyone said they were. Lead vocalist Dave 1 was standing outside the Empty Bottle wearing his typical garb: V-neck tee under a tight leather jacket, skinny jeans, Capezios (LOL) and black shades. “Uh, hi? Hey?” he said in an unsure tone to the bouncer. “Um … I’m in the band, can I get in?” If I was the lead singer with Chromeo — heralded as one of the the hipster scene’s better truimphs (someone come up with a new name!!!) — I would certainly not be asking to come inside at my own gig. But Dave is almost self-depreciatingly down to earth. He’s “a skinny jew” full of jokes, and I had a chance to ask him about his upcoming LOLLAPALOOZA gig in Chicago (among other things). Check it:

What do you think of the Lollapalooza lineup this year? Are you excited to be on the bill?

Real talk? I have no idea who else is on there. If there’s anything we haven’t done before, we’re very excited about it. It’s been a long process for us to even have been considered to play this festival. We’re just very, very grateful.

When you’re not on stage here in the Windy, what do you hope to do? Any certain spots you want to hit up?

We have a lot of friends there, so that will be cool. But if we don’t hit up Hot Doug’s, it pretty much defeats the purpose of going to Chicago. Maybe you’ll come with us. Maybe it’ll be a Hot Doug date.

I heard through mutual friends that you were really, really nervous before performing at Coachella this past April. Is that true and if so, do you think you’ll be just as nervous in Chicago?

There was like 27,000 people standing out there — that’s a lot for me, you know?. I’m just a skinny Jew. I was a little verklempt. I’m actually not usually nervous. I used to be when we started. But Coachella was one of the first concerts we did that I was shook. So we’ll see what the scene is like at Lolla. Chi’s got a mellow vibe, and in many respects it reminds me of my home town of Montreal. I don’t feel very displaced when I’m over there.

What you do you think about all the Chromeo imitators out there?

There’s a lot now, I hear. For us, though, it’s more than just a sound. P and I are characters, you know? That’s why we did the video for “Mama’s Boy” in animation because people always say (that) to us. There are other guys who have a similar sound but with us it’s also personality. It’s also a friendship. The whole thing with me and P is that it’s a story that started when we were 15. You can’t replicate that. We’re high school best buddies.

Speaking of buddies, you also have little brother A-Trak in the biz. How has your relationship changed or stayed constant since you were kids?

I’ve always worked with my brother on music. Always. My brother and I are extremely close - we talk more than five times a day. This is not an exaggeration. I help him on pretty much all his projects. If anything it’s more fun now to be working with him because we’re in the same scene. When we were in that post-electroclash bad hipster scene and he was more on the hip hop thing it was less interesting than now where our audiences really intersect.

That’s interesting you say that — it seems you recognize a point where things shot off into a whole new direction for you.

I can’t figure it out. I just know that at one point when we were playing shows, people started liking us. I don’t know what happened. And then more people started liking us. I almost don’t want to overanalyze it because I’m afraid it’s going to change.

So things weren’t always cruisin’ for Chromeo, then?

Don’t forget that when we started Chromeo, we were two hip-hop kids who were reluctant to admit that this is what we were into.We spent a couple years on the grind when it wasn’t easy. We had no experience and very few fans, and now we’re are the most grateful band on the planet.

Do you feel freer to camp it up these days?

Yeah but I don’t think we need to force anything campy. I think we are growing into our personas. I look a bit different and dress a bit different than a few years ago, and so does P, but it’s all organic — we naturally grew into our aesthetic.

What project are you working on now? Is there a follow-up album already in the works?

We are just starting now to work on demos for the next album. But we just put out the “Mama’s Boy” video on MTV yesterday and it’s in their hands exclusively for the next 10 days. We did that Pete Wentz show on Friday night and that’s their new video-premiering kind of thing. It went really well. Pink was on the video jury and she was going on and on about how she loved it. It was cool. The current record still has a bit of steam behind it so we’re gonna ride that straight into the next one.

To buy Lollapalooza tickets (IT’S THIS WEEKEND), click here.

Watch the video for “Mama’s Boy” here.