Cherub Talks About The Secret To Their Friendship In iEDM Exclusive Interview

Cherub is an electro funk duo who started their career together after meeting 8 years ago at Middle Tennessee University. Today, Jordan Kelley and Jason Huber have rocked main stages at festivals like Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, Summer Camp, Outside Lands and Electric Forest.

Bending genres like indie and electronic, their sound is unique and often contains relatable explicit lyrics. They play multiple instruments with electric guitar, always putting on an energetic show.

In 2014, their track "Doses & Mimosas" got them national recognition charting on Billboard Alternative Rock and now has over 18 million views on YouTube. Now the best friend duo together have a gold record and 5 albums.

iEDM got to catch up with the guys right after their epic sweaty set at Electric Forest weekend 2. Here's what they had to say:

iEDM: You just walked off the stage from a great set on the Sherwood Court stage at Electric Forest. You guys played both weekends, did you guys have a favorite?

Jordan: No, but the energy at the first weekend I think was a little bit better.

iEDM: What was your set time? Was it later?

Jordan: No, it was actually earlier.

iEDM: Today was so hot.

Jordan: It was just really hot. I mean I'm not complaining about the day at all, but I would say that if I had a preference, weekend 1.

Jason: It was my god damn birthday!

iEDM: That's what I was going to say, it was your birthday, right?

Jordan: It was like shit kicker of a good time.

iEDM: Yeah and you just turned 30, right?

Jason: Yeah. I'll give fucking the dirty 30 in the Forest.

Jason: That's a good birthday celebration.

Fuck yes Electric Forest! Thanks for all the birthday wishes, we’ll see you next weekend!!! 📷: @electric_forest

A post shared by Cherub (@cherublamusica) on Jun 25, 2018 at 2:47pm PDT

Jason: *Drinks Emer-Gen-C*

Jordan: You do not want to eat that much Emer-Gen-C.

iEDM: Yeah you are 30 now, so you might need it.

Jordan: Yeah tell me about it, I am 30.

Jason: Okay, okay, get your cracks in!

iEDM: So do you have any goals for the next decade of your life?

Jordan: Yeah, to keep doing whatever the fuck we want to keep doing, and as long as we're happy doing it, then we're okay, and as long as the people around us are happy then we're really okay.

Jason: More glory holes.

iEDM: Yeah?

Jason: More rim jobs, more glory holes.

Jordan: Sharing is caring.

Jason: Yeah.

iEDM: Exactly. So I liked that you guys did that dancing shoes contest. Tell me about that.

Jordan: Yeah, so it was something that we could collab with like, she's like a friend and also she does a lot of our tattoo work. She's based in Chicago.

iEDM: Cool.

Jordan: We just approached her and was like, "Hey, would you want to be, would you be into like, you know, drawing on some shoes so we can put them out as like a contest?" You know, and she was. She crushed it.

iEDM: Yeah they look sick.

Jason: She did three pairs but essentially like each shoe is completely different.

Check out these awesome shoes that our dear friend @catsgethigh made for the Dancin Shoes contest!!! Congrats to all the winners that will be getting these gems soon!!!

A post shared by Cherub (@cherublamusica) on Jun 28, 2018 at 11:20am PDT

Jordan: That's how it came about. We were friends with her and she was into it and we were into it and it's been really cool. Now that we are releasing a lot of his new music independently, it allows us to do things differently for each and every song, and it's also allowing us to work with all of our close friends that we've had over the years.

You know, for one reason or another we would get tied up with different things, and now when we have a chance to be like, “Oh, this person's really great at this, this person is really great at making videos, this person's really good at doing tattoos and art.” you know, and like being able to bring that all together it's cool. I mean we've shot the first two videos with old high school friends of mine.

iEDM: Yeah, that's awesome.

Jason: Keeping it all in the family.

iEDM: Yeah, how cool. You guys started touring without being assigned to any labels, right?

Jordan: Yeah, everything we've done has been super old school in the sense that it's all been organic.

Jason: We started kind of on an independent label.

Jordan: Once again, close friends of ours who had a record label.

iEDM: So, what advice would you give to other artists coming up?

Jordan: No, this is the corniest advice, but it's the truest advice I know to give and that is, you really believing in your self. Just do it, you know, just fucking do it, because no one's gonna believe in you until you believe in you. Just do it, just fucking do it. Just go for it, and go for it broke, and if it doesn't work out the way you thought it was going to work out, at least you did it.

Jason: It's okay to be your own biggest fan. I mean you don't have to be conceited about it, but love what you're doing, because if you love it, then hopefully other people will too.

Jordan: If you don't love it, then why? Why are you doing it?

iEDM: Right.

Jordan: You only got one life to live. You only got one shot, do not waste a chance to live, this opportunity to comes once in a lifetime.

Jason: Are you going to credit Eminem?

Jordan: Maybe not, but that's what I was going for. We are in Michigan, I mean fuck.

Jason: The best thing I heard at Bonnaroo, he started playing that song and somebody was, "He's playing Mom's Spaghetti! He's playing Mom's Spaghetti!"

iEDM: That's so great.

Jason: Oh my God. *Laughs*

iEDM: So what are your other influences besides obviously Eminem?

Jason: Mom's Spaghetti.

Jordan: Jason is my influence. Jason is my biggest influence.

Jason: Thanks dude.

Jordan: Yeah.

iEDM: That's a cute little bromance moment.

Jordan: Yeah.

iEDM: [To Jason] Do you have any influences?

Jason: Oh Man, now I'm put on the spot because you said me, and I want to immediately say you, but I would feel corny in doing it. So, I'm going to say a Richard Simmons.

iEDM: That's a good one.

Jason: Because nobody knows where he is right now, and he's the nicest man alive.

iEDM: Yeah, where is he? Do you know?

Jason: No that's the whole thing, nobody knows where he is right now.

Jordan: Nobody knows.

Jason: Where's Richard Simmons?

iEDM: So, you guys are from Nashville. I'm sure that had a big influence as well.

Jason: We both aren't originally, but we came up in Nashville in our career with music. We've been there like 13 years or something like that.

Jordan: Yeah it did have a big influence in our music because this is a big singer, songwriter place, and we like writing songs, you know, like with hooks and bridges and, yeah.

So, it's cool to be in a music town where you can be like, "This song would sound cool with horns on it," and you call all of your friend's band, and they have a full horn section that can write and arrange, and their amazing studio musicians that just come in, in an hour they're laying down amazing stuff.

That's one of the magical things about living in Nashville, and those guys played today right before us LUTHI, they were on the observatory stage.

iEDM: Okay, cool.

Jason: Oh damn, I missed them fuck.

Jordan: I missed them too. I saw them on stage.

Jason: Fuck.

Jordan: But they crush it and I'm sure they did.

iEDM: So you guys have collaborated with a lot of other artists, who have been some of your favorite to work with?

Jordan: It's honestly we've never, I've never, I can't speak for Jason, but I feel like he's on the same tip as I am, we've never collaborated with someone and it's been unpleasant. Everybody we've collaborated with has been so much fun, really sincere and awesome. I've come out of the experience really grateful that we are doing it with them. So, I don't have a favorite, I've had really amazing, and really different experiences with everybody we've collaborated with.

Jason: So typically most of our collaborations happen really organically. We don't end up doing a lot of the whole like management facilitated writing sessions and stuff like that. It more happens over some conversation, some drunken conversation half the time. We're like, “Man, we need to get in the studio together.” Then we'll actually take out our calendars and look at dates and be like, “Oh, this might work.”

Jordan: DJ Paul hit us up on twitter. Just like very serendipitous collaborations that they happen because they feel right as opposed to being forced, and we're big fans of that.

iEDM: Totally.

Jordan: Yes.

iEDM: Some of them I would say makes sense, like Griz that makes sense that you would collaborate with him.

Jordan: Yeah, well I mean that really came up because we were, we ended up hanging out so much all the time and Djing all these random campsite parties and stuff like that. So enough people had asked us, why don't you guys have a song together? So it made sense at that point.

He was writing for a new album, and he had a tune that really vibed with our style, and so it's cool to get into the studio in separate parts of the country and then eventually get into the same room together to record the vocals for it. It was a cool process.

iEDM: Yeah, I love that song. So who are you guys listening to right now? What's on your playlist?

Jason: Dude, I've been listening to so much Suicide Boys.

iEDM: Really?

Jason: Like a lot, and I did really like the new Drake album, DJ Paul had a track on there as well, a big one. Umphrey's put out a lot of new music this year, and I've been listening to a lot of.

Jordan: Chick Chick Chick is another one I've been recently diving back into, I grew up on their music and so getting that re-inspiration and diving back into their catalog and finding new songs has been really cool.

iEDM: That's awesome, so you guys tour all the time and have a big tour ahead of you. What stops are you most excited for?

Jordan: I'm just excited to get back out on the road and do our thing. We're going to have new songs, we're going to have a new light setup.

iEDM: Cool.

Jordan: We have a whole bunch of friends coming on the road that says like, I'm just excited for all, but I don't have a specific place because, like with those too, it's like the most random places are the most rowdy.

iEDM: Yeah, so how do you guys not kill each other on the road? Do you get sick of each other?

Jordan: There's days, when we're on the road sometimes there's like, you know, you won't notice it, but there'll be like a week where we don't talk to each other. But that's not intentional it's just we are around each other so much.

Jason: We're not mad at each other.

Jordan: Yeah what's up dude? I'm like five feet away all the time.

Jason: We've always made a point to just, if there's any, I guess beef is such a hot word now, if there's any beef we just air it out immediately because what's the point in keeping in your pocket, man?

Jordan: Yeah, for sure, what he said.

Jason: Yeah. I mean if there's ever a tip, we air it out. We've lived together, work together, hanging out together and had the same friends. So yeah, it would suck if we are pissed at each other all the time.

Jordan: Yeah. It's no good to stay mad at each other.

Jason: He smells pretty good, he took me to this smell store in New York we got some new smells, so I've been getting a lot of compliments in the Forest on how I smell. *Holds wrist up for smell*

iEDM: Yeah that does smell good actually, after the show, jumping around, I'm surprised.

Jordan: I know right?

Jason: So really that's the secret to keeping things good between us. It's as long as we both smell good.

iEDM: You can tolerate each other.

Jason: Yeah we can tolerate each other.

iEDM: Sounds good. So what are you guys working on now?

Jordan: More music. I mean yeah, we're just going to be constantly working on music and we're getting everything ready for the next tour, our upcoming tour. So, the next couple of months it's going to be busy.

It's got to be new. It'll be like new, new, like something we'd never done before, and a new video so watch out for that.

Thanks Cherub for taking the time to chat with us! We'll be counting down for the Free Form tour to hit our cities!

Check out more iEDM Exclusive Interviews HERE.