The first time I heard a song was when I was lazy at home, watching MTV (yes, they once played music) and the host announced the video for the new single of The Chemical Brothers. Star Guitar, so it must've been in 2002. I wasn't into electronic music (in fact, I was even opposed to it, as in "it's not real music") so I didn't really like it. Fortunately, my taste in music changed.
I fell in love with their music at the end of 2009, although I can't remember a specific song. A colleague gave me his mp3-collection and soon after that I bought all records on CD. What I really regret is that I started to like their music just a few months after they played a DJ set here in Vienna.

[ Sawyer Denning ] [ usa ]

I vividly remember my first time I heard the chemical brothers. I was about 7, I think, I was on my way to a Halloween shop to buy a costume in the car. I specifically remember there was no seats. The first song I remember hearing was "It Doesn't Matter" I really liked it, I guess I wasn't paying attention to the other songs on the track. I also liked "Don't Stop the Rock".Then we arrived there and it was over. On the trip back my mom just listened to Earth Wind And Fire. I asked my mom who it was and she of course replied, "The Chemical Brothers."

So, I forgot about it for about 3 years until I rediscovered the album in her cd holder. I decided to listen to a few tracks. I liked it, but at the time I was a lot more into Fatboy Slim and Eiffel 65. After another year I tossed Eiffel (it became tiresome). I went back to chemical brothers and noticed a 2nd cd, "Surrender". I listened to a few tracks and left it. I would borrow it in and out for about another month until we got a cd burner drive I could never listen to all of the tracks, even in a month. I immediately copied both "Surrender" and "Dig Your Own Hole". Yes, the first time I listened to Setting Sun...It was intense. After 3 some months I bought a copy of "Exit Planet Dust". And to this day I love to listen to all albums and I now eagerly wait for the release of "Come With Us". I'm now 13, and only own all the original albums. It's hard finding single releases in America...

[ chem keith ] [ australia]

Well it was a nice Australian summer's night and that I loved going in the car and turning on the stereo and listening to the Top 40, but it was a night when absolute crap was on, basically. All of a sudden, a thunderest roar came over the radio. A super-heavy guitar riff that literally blow my ears away. The drums were awesome, the sampling was amazing and that I just needed to know who this was. It was something that I haven't heard before, it was so unknown, I didn't know who or what it was. The song finished, unfortunately. I wanted more, and I mean much more of this stuff. The radio DJ said, "Well, that was The Chemical Brothers', with "SETTING SUN"..". I couldn't believe it, I had no idea who they were, where they were from or what the hell was their genre called... This was back in the Australian summer of 1996. I was only bout 12 or 13, but I knew from that point on, I knew my world would literally be changed from that particular piece of wicked music. I am 17 now and that I will always be a huge fan of the Brothers. My Chemical collection is endless and that it will always stay that way... I got the amazing chance to see them last year @ the Melbourne, Australia, BIG DAY OUT festival. They were what I thought they'd be... MIND-BLOWING; just down-rite amazing. They closed the festival and that I just was in totally E heaven. And now with "Come With Us" is going to be released here soon, I can't hold my excitement in, and I'm gathering so are a lot of other huge Chemical fans...

[ Mia Hill ] [ usa ]

The first time I heard the Chemicals I wasn't really into it. I was sort of/kind of dipping into electronic music other than the industrial variety, but not familiar at all with this new genre I was discovering. I really didn't give them a solid listening until DYOH came out. I was working at Tower Records, and I had this little loft upstairs where I did displays for the store. I was torturing my assistant by playing a lot of KMFDM, old NIN, and Front 242 and another coworker came up to me and said, "Put this in your stereo, you just might like it." My assistant and I put the cd on and all these amazing sounds emitted from my little boombox sitting on my desk. I thought, "No way is it possible to get these kind of sounds! No way!" But all was kind of lost, as DYOH gave my assistant a splitting headache, and I just didn't want to endure the bitching and moaning of "turn it down" coming from other fellow employees working beneath my loft.

A few short months later I found out I was pregnant. I went on an extended leave of absence, and finally quit the record store job which meant I kind of lost my lifeline to hearing new mind blowing stuff. Still kind of broke, I didn't think to purchase the cd until much much later - until right before Surrender came out. By that time I was full on into re-discovering myself (long story) and one of the things that gave me so much joy: Music. I wanted to learn - so I opened up my ears once again. I was learning more about electronic music, trying to understand it, trying to figure out how computers and all the gadgetry could produce some of the most amazing stuff I've ever heard. I'm still trying to figure it out! And I've spread the chemical gospel and introduced a lot of my friends to the joys of the Chems. The years 1997 through today have been an interesting voyage musically - I could say that the Chemical Brothers definitely influence what I listen to these days, but that would be kind of cheesy, right?

My relationship with the band (if not the girl) soon blossoms, and it's not long before I have every album.