Chemical Bros. Win Grammy In Spite Of Themselves

Despite telling JAMTV last November they never win awards, the Chemical Brothers took home the Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.

The London-based techno duo beat out Steve Vai and Joe Satriani to earn their place in the hallowed Grammy history books. Their song, "Block Rockin' Beats," from the gold-certified Dig Your Own Hole earned the duo their first Grammy.

The Brothers, Ed Simons and Tom Rowlands, talked to JAMTV about the comparison between their music and that of the Prodigy, another forerunner in the realm of electronic music. Simons said because Prodigy "dress well and look cool," they aim to sell lots of records and win awards. The Chemical Brothers, on the other hand, say although they are always in the running for awards, they generally don't win. Getting records out to the people is a prize in itself and in fact is more important to the Brothers. "We make records for people to dance to," Simons said. "Our goal was to get our music to DJs all around the world."

Now that the Chemical Brothers have won a Grammy -- the biggest prize in the music business -- they can continue spreading their innovative techno sound around the world. Last we heard, they were working on new music, but it doesn't look like they'll have anything new until 1999.

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Song Stories

“I'm Yours”

Jason Mraz | 2008

Jason Mraz re-emerged after his disappointing second album with this lead single, a Jack Johnson-esque ditty about giving yourself fully to someone else. The success of the reggae-tinged song (it earned two Grammy nods and a spot on the Billboard singles chart for well over a year) was something the folk-pop singer never predicted when he wrote it in 15 minutes at home. "I played a happy-hippie chord progression that would probably work without 50 different Bob Marley songs," he told Rolling Stone. "I thought, 'It's too novelty. This is a nursery rhyme,'" concluding that "you can never guess what's gonna be a hit."

More Song Stories entries »

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