An interview with Hot Chip

An oldie but a goodie.

HOT CHIP










Thursday, February 28
by Mairi Griffin


“LIES are always fun because we’re not very good liars. We may have already lied, or not. But you can probably tell that we haven’t.” Sitting across from me are Owen Clarke and Al Doyle, Hot Chip's guitar and synthesizer players. We are discussing the interview process, to which they have been repeatedly subjected since the release of their most commercially successful album to date, Made In The Dark.


Owen continues, saying, “It’s a bizarre thing. I would never normally talk about the same thing every day for like four days in a city to strangers.” Tonight, the city is Glasgow and tickets were in such high demand that the show was moved from its original sold-out venue at ABC to the Barrowlands.

The band’s electro and dance oriented music has only just begun to make a noticeable dent in the UK charts, and Made In The Dark is the first album they have recorded in a studio proper. Their previous major label albums were made in singer Joe Goddard’s bedroom, something of a contrast. Al jumps in before I can even ask about it. “Aspects of this album were recorded in the studio, and yes, it was the first time we went through the process.” I ask if he’s sick of being asked about it and both members laugh, breaking the noticeable tension that appeared when the subject was brought up. “Three of the songs weren’t made in the studio. You have to guess which ones they are.” Owen nods and adds, “Part of the game of the album.”

The band has been a major inspiration for emerging talent like Klaxons, Foals and The Whip. But whilst half of Made In The Dark is filled with fierce basslines and lyrics that are invading both indie and commercial clubs, the other is a slower more R&B influenced affair leading critics to draw comparisons with New Order and Timbaland. Al tells me, “Obviously a lot of us know their music and really like it, and you can’t really be in a band like ours without acknowledging debt to New Order but it’s not something we actually play that much.”


So what did they listen to whilst recording the album? Owen explains, “There’s five sets of ears, so that’s ten ears listening to different things.” This ranges from techno to “weird music from the north of England” to country and folk. Alexis Taylor, one of Hot Chip’s two singers, was reported to be “under the influence of Willie Nelson” during most of the album’s production. He even went as far as to reference him on one of the album’s stand-out tracks “Wrestlers”, a song which in itself shows the band’s eclectic influences, having also been inspired by R. Kelly’s “I’m A Flirt”. They admit modern R&B is a heavy influence in their music but Al tells me, “I don’t think people should find that weird. It’s something we’ve always worn on our sleeves really.” The genre was the starting point for many songs on Made In The Dark, from where they set out to see if, in their own words, they could “Pervert or unpervert it.”

Dance music is still where Hot Chip’s heart lies though. After the gig Alexis will be playing a DJ set at the Buff Club. The entire band regularly DJ, although Owen is, by his own accounts something of an enigma, saying, “I’m like the shadow of a ghost. In the dark.” Recently when in Australia Hot Chip were drafted in to DJ before a crowd of fifteen thousand people after Klaxons pulled out at the last minute.

They both laugh as Owen recalls, “The curtains came up and I was so embarrassed that I knelt down and pretended to look through records just to hide. Then I had to take my watch off half-way through because I kept looking to see how long we had until we finished.” Al fills me in on DJ etiquette. “It’s very bad form to look at your watch. It’s the worst thing to see somebody playing records and going ‘F***!’ We’ve got another half an hour!’” For them the DJ-ing experience is far more nerve-racking and definitely less enjoyable than performing live, where “You get to have fun with your friends rather than just sneak into clubs.”

The gig opens with the first single from Made In The Dark, “Shake a Fist”. I was told the set list would consist mostly of new material, with Owen admitting, “We’re trying to do some older ones but we’ve either forgotten how to do them or we never knew how to do them. That’s a bit of a challenge.”

But their second tune is “And I Was A Boy From School”. The crowd go mental as the band tease out the introduction for as long as possible before launching into one of their most famous singles.

“Hold On” from the new album is next up and a highlight of the night, and it is swiftly followed by “Over and Over”, the only other song played from their previous albums but the crowd don’t seem to care about the lack of older material because tonight Hot Chip really have put on a show.

Strobe lights are turned on for “Touch Too Much” and “Ready For the Floor”, both of which have the whole crowd dancing, and they don’t stop, not even through slower tracks like “Wrestlers” and “One Pure Thought”. The final song of the night is “Made In The Dark”, perhaps the slowest track the band have ever recorded and its performance is definitely required to calm down the audience before sending them back out to the cold, wet streets of Glasgow.

Earlier the band had talked about letting modern music mature. “Maybe people should do the same thing with Hot Chip, don’t buy it now, let it age,” Al suggests. Like a fine wine? Owen replies, “No, not fine.” He pauses. “It’s hard to tell.” Al concludes, “It could go wrong. It could turn to vinegar. Only time will tell.” From tonight’s performance it’s clear Hot Chip shouldn’t be left to age. See this band as soon as you can. They’re ready to consumed. Now.