Cracking the Code

Milwaukee acts can have a hard time getting noticed in the birthplace of electric blues, house and post-rock. At least that’s one explanation for the anonymity of Codebreaker in Chicago. The electro-funk-pop duo’s second album, the self-released Exiled!, has been out since March (and was issued worldwide via iTunes at the end of May) and generated ripples of attention in the indie-dance communities on both coasts and in Europe. But despite its proximity to the Windy City, the band hasn’t played Chicago in over two years.

After taking a few spins of Exiled!, that seems unfair. The record draws on funk, disco à la Chic, early rap and the protohouse that Chicago DJs love; and on the pop side, its melodies recall such unlikely sources as the Jesus and Mary Chain and indie-dance legends Saint Etienne. The party-starter “Exiled!,” the robo-disco of “Are You Ready 2 Love?” and the breathy Brit-funk of “Dream Lover” go down as well in an indie-dance set as on an uptempo house night. The whole enterprise steers clear of irony-laden ’80s amnesia even as it shows that left-field, sophisticated dance can be accessible.

The band—which is formally a duo but plays live as a quartet—took the circuitous route to dance-pop, according to singer-keyboardist Steven Hawley. “Since high school, I had started playing in hardcore and punk-rock bands,” he says. “My peers either ended up in prison or in successful indie-rock bands—neither of which really appealed to me.” Hawley never caught the indie-rock “fever” of his friends in ’90s emo legends the Promise Ring; instead, he got into reggae, dub and soul. “I didn’t feel comfortable reentering the game with a project until at least I had a decent grasp on the type of music I respected the most,” he says. His tastes made collaboration difficult, so when he started writing songs five years ago he enlisted studio musicians to realize the demos. “I’d have these sketched-out ideas and I’d be like, to the bass player, ‘Okay, on the second verse, just think “Billie Jean,” but tweak it.’?”

In 2003, Hawley released the uneven Codebreaker EP, which had some tunes licensed for TV and commercials. But when he hooked up with bassist-producer Sage Schwarm, a veteran of Milwaukee’s funk-punk Citizen King, things clicked. “He’s the kind of guy that one night, I could catch playing with a live dub act, and the next you’d see him in a rockabilly band,” Hawley says. The eclecticism shows on the duo’s 2005 record, What Is This Earth Love?, concepted like the Clash’s Sandinista!—in which each song sounds like it’s from a different band. It also had dance-punk leanings—the title track earned the band a new-wave/electro tag.

The funkier Exiled!, as the title indicates, is a vague critique of everything that passes for cool. “We really wanted to take time out to come out with a unique sound—something that adds, not just exists,” Hawley says. “Sometimes we take a look around the current subcultural landscape of things and we’re like, Is this really what everyone is behind? It’s not speaking to me.”

The outsider band is more at home playing dance clubs alongside DJs than Milwaukee’s rock venues, but it hasn’t discounted its hometown’s livability—Hawley makes his living doing voiceover work and as a resident DJ at local clubs, while Schwarm runs Milwaukee clothing and record boutique Luv Unlimited. Codebreaker has begun touring, recently playing a dance party at Washington, D.C.’s 9:30 Club.

This month there’s a minitour of California, and European dates for the fall. The bookers at the Empty Bottle are working on something for Chicago, too. Hawley, somewhat mystified, explains, “Far and away, the most enthusiasm we’ve been getting is out of Norway.”

Exiled! is available through iTunes.