Making Sense of Hot Chip

Leadsinger, multi-instrumentalist and distant cousin of Rick Moranis (maybe), the one and only Alexis Taylor shook a fist and talked about crane flies, Plastic People and how The Bee Gees are stayin’ alive as a Hot Chip fave.

How was your weekend out of ten?

Taylor: “It was about 8/10. Pretty good. It was spent in Hastings where the famous Battle of Hastings took place. It was an event called Jack in the Green festival, an annual pagan festival that brings in the summer, people dressed up all in green with leaves on their person and a big street procession. I was just there with my family.”

You didn’t do a one-man pop-up gig?

“No. There were some people doing some traditional folk music, not electronic beats.”

When me and my mates who are also fathers go out we call ourselves Dads Gone Wild…is there that vibe with you guys when you head out to venues like Plastic People (RIP)?

“More like Dads Standing Still Drinking Alcohol. There’s not much extreme these days. There are moments of extremity.”

How did recording residentially at the rural Angelic Studios with the core of the group of Joe Goddard, Owen Clarke, Felix Martin and Al Doyle as well as Sarah Jones and Rob Smoughton change the dynamic within the group and effect the flow of the record?

“We could work longer hours, stay up later and get through a lot of material. We were all in one place without any distractions. Other than the huge crane fly infestation that took place. The productivity levels were high; we’re keen to be productive anyway. It wasn’t massively different, just a bit more expensive.”

Expand on the crane fly thing…

“Erm, there were lots of them in the studio. Some members of the band were more afraid of them.”

Which camp were you in?

“I was in the not-so-scared camp. I used to be very frightened of spiders when I was small. I don’t seem to have that fear any more. I have replaced it with a fear of rats instead. Yeah, not so keen on them.”

Did the crane flies get in the White Wine and Chicken? (This is a new song on Why Make Sense? and a laboured but necessary segue – Continuity Ed)

“I think I’d become vegetarian by that time. I’m not sure why I’d write a song with those lyrics. They came to me and I thought I’d write a whole song from the perspective of someone who was sharing a nice, quiet comforting meal with somebody that was, ahhh, not the most high class of meals. It was more just a fantasy. There wasn’t any fried chicken eaten but there was some white wine drunk.”

What prompted the change to being a vegetarian?

“Maybe it was the writing of that song that turned my stomach (drier tone than an Oyster Bay sav blanc). Just the idea of discouraging the killing of animals. That straight forward response to what eating meat involves.”

Why Make Sense? was road-tested at now defunct Shoreditch club Plastic People. Is the record a love letter to the venue?

“The initial stages of making the album we had songs like Love is the Future, Easy To Get and Huarache Lights we could play those out as works in progress and hear them on a good sound system in a fun environment and a crowd open to new sounds. It would be Hot Chip DJing from start ‘til finish without any other DJs. It wasn’t our intention to relate lots of songs to Plastic People but there are lines here and there in Huarache Lights and Love is the Future that make me think of that place and that’s more of a happy accident. I couldn’t imagine it would close down and turn into a cocktail bar.”

Damn shame.

“Huarache Lights stayed very close to the first draft version. It felt right early on. I had a third verse written that we took out so I could have more instrumental in the track. We added live drums. It already had a sample-led feel. It was never gonna be a really live sounding track. Love is the Future when we played that out we had a double bass and different bassline and different chords. We had one where there was speaking between Sly Stone and Richard Pryor from the ‘70s from a TV chat show pasted over the top of the main section. Right at the end we got the vocal from Posdnuos from De La Soul.”

How did you hook that up?

“Part of the reason we were able to invite Posdnuos to be on the album was down to Australia actually. We got taken by a lady from Domino Records to a Chinese restaurant in Sydney back in my non-vegetarian days. There were lots of animals hanging around the restaurant to show you the kills. As we were about to go in De La Soul were coming out and I nervously told them how good their records were and I didn’t think they’d remember me but I used that little exchange in an attempt to persuade them we’d met before when I emailed them. I think Posdnuos was in Australia when he did the recording of the rap so there is a real link to Australia on that track.”

Scritti Politti has a cult following down here too. He did the arrangements on Love is The Future while Posdnuos did the rap, yes?

“Yes. Green Gartside (Scritti Politti) is a good friend of mine and I thought he’d enjoy the string arrangement because it didn’t seem like something he’s well known for doing. I thought he’d enjoy the hip hop and R&B influence we share and he’s a bright musician and gifted and I thought he’d come up with something good so we asked him to do that and he wrote it in Midi and then sent all the information on the notes and how it should be played over to Emma Smith. She’s a violinist who’s played on every Hot Chip album and she recorded that and multi-tracked that. It’s been an ambition of mine to have Green on a Hot Chip record but I always thought I’d ask him to sing….that track was already quite full. On other tracks on the album there are string parts written by Adem (Ilhan) who went to school with Hot Chip who used to be in a band called Fridge with FourTet. He wrote the strings for a lot of the other tracks, I don’t want him to be completely overshadowed by talking only about Green (laughs).”

A boy from school, you say. The second side of the record starts with Dark Night, it’s party-time, it’s funky, it’s still contained. Great job. It feels like you sequenced it so you’d bring us closer to you on the dancefloor.

“That was a happy accident. There were 15 or 16 tracks we wanted on the album then we narrowed it down to 12 and then at the mastering session we decided to take two further off to make it a shorter album so it flowed better. Then it became really easy to start the second half with Dark Night. We care a lot about the sequencing and we go through lots of orders. It used to be me who would do it all but nowadays it’s much more collaborative. Why Make Sense? was the opening track then it became the final track.”

Dark Night reminds me of Flutes and Hand Me Down Your Love as an important underground club, very Hot Chip track to add to your back catalogue.

“Yeah, I can see those comparisons (bright tone).”

Need You Now has deep, mournful and melancholy but still hopeful chords, it’s like a ‘90s rave in a freezing warehouse where it’s 5am and you should be shivering but everything is still working so you’re not.

“(laughs knowingly) Joe made a lot of that music and programmed it, I wrote the words that I sing and Al wrote the words that he sings, the rest of us just responded to Joe’s music. I could hear it had a celebratory feel. All the things you’re describing make sense to me, that is what the record sounds like.”

I love the way Huarache Lights undulates. It was a perfect single to reintroduce yourselves. As for making Why Make Sense? was there any doubt you’d record another album?

“There was never any doubt, it was just a matter of making the time and doing different projects. They have lives of their own and they have to exist properly, not just as side projects, but yeah at the same time you have to keep an eye on that so you have enough time and interest to do Hot Chip. We balance it easily, we all come back to making music together happily. We were making this record on and off throughout the last year and half. It does make sense to us…even if we do ask the question why.”

It’s inclusive to ask a question and open a dialogue with the listener. There’s a generosity to Hot Chip which as a listener and a fan I’ve always absorbed and admired.

“I’m glad that comes across. We may come your way later this year…We’ve played Falls Festival before. (My intel suggests it may be Meredith Music Festival – Rumours Ed). Actually, I’m really into the Bee Gees’ Horizontal album, a fine Australian trio, a fantastic record. That’s what the next Hot Chip album will sound like.”

WHY MAKE SENSE?

HOT CHIP

[DOMINO]

***

Hot Chip albums usually go like this: four bangers you’ll remember forever, a few jams you file under the I-can-see-what-they’re-going-for-here-and-I-don’t-begrudge-them -but-I-will-skip-them-in-future, and the rest is all Alexis Taylor’s runty, falsetto over soft-ass beats. Let’s direct our hips to the winners: Huarache Lights is a woozy, undulating trip far beyond the wizard’s sleeve, Started Right slams its body down and winds it all around on strings, cheeky guitar fills and synths. Dark Night is like Nicolas Jaar coming up during a Sasha and Digweed set in 2002, and Need You Now whirrs and jags and taps on twiggy drums as Taylor gives us his Boy From School cloudbusting thoughts. Lively.

SOUNDS LIKE: four songs secrete the fountain of youth

IN A WORD: consistent

BANGERS AND ‘CHIP

10 Dancefloor Monsters by The Bookish Band

Hand Me Down Your Love – Hot Chip

Over and Over – Hot Chip

Ready for the Floor – Hot Chip

One Life Stand – Hot Chip

Flutes – Hot Chip

Shake a Fist – Hot Chip

Boy From School – Hot Chip

Night and Day – Hot Chip

Need You Now – Hot Chip

Huarache Lights – Hot Chip

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