A Conversation with Cherub

Based out of Nashville, Tennessee, Cherub is a duo comprised of Jason Huber and Jordan Kelley. They create music that could only be described as a mixture of disco and pop and whatever else they might have been feeling that day. Their most popular song, Doses and Mimosas, has been playing on radio stations all around the United States. They are currently on their Strip to This Tour, traveling across the nation. This duo is not afraid to be brutally honest and never pretends to be something they aren’t. With Cherub, what you see is what you get.

Jordan: The artist that has influenced me most is Jason.

Jason: Aw, thanks man!

Jordan: I wanted to start this off on a good note.

Jason: Thanks, I really do appreciate that. You know, I’m going to reciprocate that and say that you are my inspiration as well.

Jordan: Well I’m going to take it to the next level and say that birds, songbirds, inspire me. And also Prince, I like Prince. I don’t like to say Prince too much in interviews but I really do.

Jordan: We always have ideas that pop up all of the time, but nothing really gets developed until we get to the studio because that’s where we have all of the tools we need to get the ideas out of our heads and to kind of lock ourselves in and hide away from the world. The best ideas tend to happen after 2-3 days with no sleep.

Jordan: I did not expect that to be the most popular song off of our album. There always has to be a song that opens up a door for the rest of the catalog and hopefully people hear a song that does this and they take a chance to listen to the rest of your stuff. So ideally did I want it to be that song? Not really, but I am extremely grateful that we got a song out there and I think it has opened up people’s ears and made them want to check us out more. And, hopefully they can find songs that connect with them in the way Doses and Mimosas did.

Listen: “Doses and Mimosas” by Cherub:

Jason: I don’t know, we were really stoked on, Freaky Me, Freaky You, when we were recording it. It was such a departure sonically from things we had done previously and things we were doing on this record. It was really exciting to see the way people heard that piece of music and went along with it. People didn’t fight back like we almost expected. People were stoked about it and told us they would like to hear more of that sound. That was really cool for us.

Listen: “Freaky Me, Freaky You” by Cherub:

Jordan: I’m excited to go to all of the places. I think each one of them is going to be a different experience. At this point we have made friends all over the world so every place we go we seem to meet up with people that we haven’t seen in awhile and it is a really great way to connect.

Jordan: There is a splash zone at the Cherub show.

Jordan: It just kind of happened. We didn’t really plan on spraying. Jason is the one who does the spraying though. I don’t really do a good job, but Jason has an even distribution over the crowd. Sometimes I can’t even get the cork out of the bottle.

Jason: It’s all about equally applied pressure. It’s the way you use your thumb to deflect the spray that really gets the altitude going. That is the key factor to your champagne spray.

Jason: Normally. I personally might be kind of pissed if someone sprayed champagne on me, but apparently everyone is having a good enough time that it is the least of their worries.

Jordan: We definitely gage the audience though. I mean we obviously wouldn’t spray champagne in people’s faces if the weather was below freezing or something. We base it around the vibe of the front row. We use good judgment and if we spray it, we spray it.

Jordan: There was a girl who got our signatures tattooed on her ass. Like full cheek. And, Jason, I think you got a tattoo from her friend in the same basement right?

Jason: Oh yeah, I got a too in the basement.

Jordan: He’s weird. When I saw that I was like “I don’t really fucking know what this means.” I didn’t even know Laine was shooting Rick saying that and when I saw the video I asked Rick what he meant by it and I think Rick just means I probably smell really bad all of the time.

Jason: Wait; I know exactly what he means by that. He means like, dude, you at any given time have a very random collection of items that you will keep in your back pack. You know you’ll pull out a bandana at any given time, but at no point are you tied to the material objects themselves. You will just gift them away to people because it makes them happy. But, at the same time you are not a trashy hobo about it. You actually have a home and family and normal people things.

Jordan: I like to be civilized but I like to give things away. When I get drunk I give stuff away all the time. I feel like it is better to not own that much stuff because that way I’m not tied down to anything.

Jason: And you normally don’t smell that bad, dude.

Jordan: We are both really bad nose picker, but Jason has his hanky so he is more of a nose blower.

Jason: I blow my nose all the time really loudly. We were actually talking about this in the studio yesterday: about that and how Jason always smacks his lips really loudly when he is enjoying food.

Jordan: I think the key to any relationship is good communication. I just said that because it sounds corny, but we do a good job communicating with each other and once you start hanging with someone 24/7 it is just a matter of getting to know the person inside and out.

Jordan: The last song I listened to was in the shower today and it was Hayden James–Permission to Love.

Jason I listened to Strip To This over and over and over again last night in the studion while working on the live version with our producer, Nick.

Jordan: But we did also have an awesome sing along to that Vanessa Carlton song in the studio last night (they both proceeded to sing A Thousand Miles by Vanessa Carlton).

If you want to get to know Cherub even better, check out their Facebook page, or their website. Stay tuned for our take on Cherub’s live show coming soon.

Graphic by Sarah Alberstein