Girl Ultra & Chromeo’s Dave 1 Want to Wave Their ‘Flag of PDA’ and Bring Sexy Back to the Club Via New LP ‘RRRomeo’

At 15, Mariana de Miguel was already sneaking into Mexico City’s nightlife with a fake ID, saving money to see the bands that shaped her imagination.

Among them was Chromeo , whose sleek, playful funk sound traveled through the city’s indie and electronic scenes.

Years later, the artist known as Girl Ultra would find herself making a full album with Dave 1, one half of the duo she once watched from the crowd.

“It’s a funny full-circle moment,” she tells Billboard at the Del Maguey Single Village Music Series at National Sawdust in Brooklyn on Sept.

29, 10 days before the release of her latest album, RRRomeo , due Friday (Oct.

9).

Dave 1 first encountered Girl Ultra’s music around 2017 or 2018, when she was emerging from the SoundCloud R&B movement.

The two became Instagram friends, and during the pandemic, he reached out with an idea: Chromeo could work with other artists, so “let’s do something.” He initially imagined an R&B-funk album.

Girl Ultra had another direction in mind.

“She was like, ‘I don’t want to do R&B anymore,’” Dave recalls.

“I was like, ‘OK, so come over and we’ll vibe and we’ll do stuff together.’” That refusal became the foundation of RRRomeo .

Produced alongside Dave 1, the record moves through analog funk, synth-pop, darkwave, dub, tropical textures and the cinematic residue of Mexico City nightlife.

It is a collaboration between two artists with distinct musical identities — but also a story about one artist trusting another enough to let her pull the work somewhere unexpected.

Girl Ultra.