Q&A with upcoming Freaky Deaky act, Porn and Chicken

Porn and Chicken at North Coast Music Festival in Chicago. Photo by Kelly Pyzik.

"Porn and Chicken" have become a Chicago staple as multi-talented arists, throwing the craziest Monday night parties the city has seen every week at the evilOlive in Wicker Park. Yet another hot act in a rather impressive lineup, Porn and Chicken will be bringing their 'show for the senses' to the Freaky Deaky Halloween festival next weekend at Toyota Park. Up to Tempo's Kelly Pyzik had a chance to sit down with them after their performance at North Coast Music Festival in September to talk about their rocky start, ultimate success and bright future.

U2T: What would you say are some of the differences between performing at a festival, a one-off show, and your Monday nights?

Dom: For us, there is no difference. We approach everything the same exact way. We have our formula, which is where we exist, we bring a show for the senses on our Mondays, when we tour, when we do one-offs … We approach it always the same way. We're consistent, and that's the best thing you can do.

Orville: When we do, say, a set at a festival, we try to pack everything that we would pack into a Monday night party that lasts six hours, but we condense it into one hour. That's the only difference, is that it's more condensed at a festival setting.

U2T: Can you tell me a little bit more about what that formula is?

Fei: It's appealing to all of your senses. It leaves a lasting memory when all of your senses are appealed to. Normally on Mondays we have chicken, the smell of the chicken, the feel, the touch of all the hot, sweaty bodies, the sound and then also, obviously, the visual aspect of everything. We really try to combine all that and condense it and just spit it out to everyone, especially with a 45-minute to an hour set.

Dom: We're just trying to elevate the performance, you know? There are so many people that just DJ. We don't just DJ – we make music, we throw parties, we're trying to perform. He plays guitar live. We do so many different things. ... It's a major production. It's what we're going for, and I think that's where we're trying to carve out our niche, in that realm.

U2T: What was it about the Evil Olive that made it the right venue for your performances?

Dom: They were the first people to give us a chance.

Orville: And they let us get away with murder.

Fei: I was working there at the time, too, so it was an easy bridge.

Dom: The guy there, Eric Bollard, was the only one who gave us a chance. We had spent $7,000 to build a door between two bars because we were being fined for capacity. So, we spent seven grand to get this door built, and then two weeks later we got shut down again. We were getting too large and it was like, “We have to move this party.” The guy that owned it was like, “I can't get any more fines, you guys have to move.” And it was time to get serious or let it go. The one person that was like, “Yeah, let's do it,” was Eric Bollard, and Evil Olive has been crucial to our success.

Orville: Five years later and we're still there.

U2T: Do you like the Wicker Park location?

Dom: I do. I mean, it's a destination.

Fei: It's like a little hidden gem, hidden amongst all that stuff.

Dom: I mean, if you're anywhere downtown, people will be saying you sold out. It's a good location. We're not really competing with anyone.

Fei: It's like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. …

Dom: Yeah, we stand alone. We don't really have to compete with traffic. If you're going to Evil Olive, you're going to Evil Olive. Or Wendy's.

U2T: Porn and Chicken events are expanding to other cities now. How do you get those teams up and running?

Orville: Every city is a little bit different. A lot of times we've had friends that we met and they come out to our party on a Monday but they live in a different city and they're like, “Man, we could do this back in my hometown.” We've been doing parties in Honolulu for like three years now. … We've had other friends in other cities like Denver, Vegas, L.A. and New York, just people wanting to bring the parties. It's really just friends. We're working on getting a tour set up now and we're gonna be hitting a lot of cities we haven't done yet, so we're excited for that.

U2T: Is there some consistency among the brand or does it look really different in every city?

Dom: It's the same party, you know what I mean? We know what works and we're just following behind that. It's been a long road to come to the point where we're at, where we realize that we actually have to take a step back because our brand is larger than the artists. We have Porn and Chicken the dance party, and then we're Porn and Chicken, and Porn and Chicken the party supercedes us. With this tour we've realized that we have to take a step back and utilize what we have to propel our career as artists. That's what this tour is all about. We're doing Porn and Chicken Dance Party Presents... a major headliner, and then we're in direct support. We have a lot of new music to expose. It's kind of like a Life in Color formula. I guess it's taken five years to get to this point but this is really where we can exist and I think we're going to kill the market.

U2T: You've played both Spring Awakening and North Coast at this point. What differences do you see in the vibes between these two festivals?

Orville: They're pretty different festivals.

Dom: Yeah, I think they try to stay away from EDM. As far as local DJs, it was us, Zebo and really no one else, and typically we play the larger stage. … We fall into the EDM genre. We played for 7,000 people at Spring Awakening.

Fei: I feel like at this point we're considered performance EDM, too. We really bring a lot of different elements and artistic direction.

Dom: But it's definitely solidified in EDM.

Fei: Right, of course, but it's not just us pushing buttons. We've got a chicken, we've got a guy in a giant, blow-up dildo costume. We like to keep it interesting.

Dom: He's been waiting all his life for that.

U2T: Your music is very hard. Like, big and hard. What drew you to develop that sound?

Dom: Our music is a direct reflection of the experience of Porn and Chicken. It is a progression. When you come into Porn and Chicken, we're not playing bangers, we're doing this natural progression, and then it peaks. And when it peaks, it hits hard. When “Take Your Shirt Off” happens, shit is going off. That's what we try to replicate in our music – we try to do a great building, a great progression, and then we drop it off in a banger. People expect bangers from us. What would we do if we were doing electro or deep house? We've committed to the name Porn and Chicken.

Fei: You can't listen to smooth jazz with Porn and Chicken.

Dom: We've committed to it, whether good or bad. We're stuck with it, so get behind it.

Fei: It happens that we really, really enjoy it and we really enjoy our fans. We love doing it, honestly, it's so much fun.

Dom: We enjoy it and that's why it's working. I get to party with my best friends. For 280 Mondays in a row now. We've traveled the entire world playing music. When you have something that you're passionate about, it's easy and it works.

U2T: What is on the horizon, and what is the dream?

Fei: We want to DJ on the moon. We want to be the first ones to do that.

Dom: I want Prince to be our hype man. We'll do an entire Purple Rain tour.

Orville: The big thing on the horizon is that we've got a lot of new music that's going to be coming out, and our tour coming up.

Dom: We actually just released a new track called “Free World Movement.” It's a really strong, powerhouse anthem that we dropped for free. It's a solid track, it's really good. We have a collaboration with YOOK!E from New York that's going to be fantastic.

Orville: We're working on a remix for Figure.

Dom: We're playing Freaky Deaky, which is super awesome. … A lot of times, you know, the local acts disappear from that. But we've really solidified ourselves ... We're on everything. It finally shows that we've progresssed. We're respected by Chicago and other artists and it's just awesome.

Fei: We're just figuring out what's the next step for our brand, our business and also, obviously, our music.

Dom: We're going to do this tour, and collaborate, and hopefully it works. We're going out on our own backbone, we're doing all the connections. We're working with our amazing team, Lauren and Scott and a couple of people from React, but we're doing this on our own. This is grassroots, and it's going to make or break us. But we're finally ready to step out on our own name. Let's hope it works. Let's do it, you know, fuck it! Chicago supports us, hopefully the rest of the world does.