‘end of night’ anthem Alexis pinpoints as one of the album’s Ideas
original inspirations. Hot Chip can also be compared to The Beatles in other ways
“When we were ending the last record, we were getting very too, specifically in the way the core duo manage to cram so
excited about all those classic soul tracks you might hear on many innovative and experimental ideas into the often
Magic FM late at night,” he elaborates. “To most people restrictive packaging of the pop song. Although Alexis
they’re quite cheesy but we’ve always thought that they had a emphasises that “There’s never been any wish to align
certain charm to them. But there’s always been a melancholy ourselves with a tradition of great British musicians,” he also
side to what I write and I think that comes through even more says “if anyone takes us seriously enough to consider us as
now because we varied things so much between tracks like part of that, then that’s fantastic.” And it’s easy enough to
‘Bendable Poseable’ and ‘Ready For The Floor’ on the last draw a line linking Hot Chip to The Beatles also taking in the
album. likes of Scritti Politti, Robert Wyatt — with whom they
“Having said that, ‘Ready For The Floor’ might be a very reworked parts of ‘Made In The Dark’ for a 2008 EP — and New
emphatic-sounding pop song but it’s still sung from the Order; all open-minded mavericks who bent the pop
perspective of someone trying to communicate in a blueprint.
relationship where there’s been some sort of breakdown. That “That’s true, but we like as much American music as we do
sentiment often seems to be at the forefront of everything I English music,” Alexis demurs. “I mean we’ve covered Prince
write, and I’m not sure why because I’m actually very happy! as much as New Order in a set. Obviously we don’t sing in
Maybe that’s just what I find interesting about expressing American accents but we don’t try and sound particularly
myself and that’s the kind of thing I get a lot of pleasure from ‘English’. A lot of my favourite old music tends to be American
listening to in other artists. It’s never something I find soul or country records, and when Joe and I were first starting
depressing — there are certain moods that people put down Hot Chip, it was American r&b producers like Timbaland and
on records that are actually just depressing and self-indulgent Rodney Jerkins who were really exciting us.”
and I wouldn’t want to listen to them — but being soulful and
mournful isn’t something that I’m shying away from.” The American r&b influence has long been a bone of
contention with Hot Chip. It first surfaced on ‘Playboy’ from
Intimacy 2004’s debut album ‘Coming On Strong’ whilst the
Nor is sex, or at least the pursuit of it. The title track in deliberately overwrought vocals on ‘Made In The Dark’ track
particular contains plenty of come-ons aimed at an object of ‘Wrestlers’ made it probably Hot Chip’s most divisive record.
Alexis’ affections, but this being Hot Chip the concupiscence Meanwhile, ‘I Feel Better’ on the new album features Joe’s
comes tempered with confusion, the apparent cockiness vocals being processed through Auto-Tune; the device that
failing to hide the vulnerability within. became 2009’s hip-hop sound du jour after Kanye West caned
“Nearly all of my songs are about relationships so they’re it on ‘808s And Heartbreak’, before falling so far out of favour
naturally full of things like love and sex,” Alexis says. “I don’t that Jay-Z felt compelled to write its epitaph on the recent
see any distinction between writing a love song or something ‘D.O.A: Death Of Auto-Tune’ from his ‘The Blueprint 3’ LP.
sexier. A lot of Prince songs are full of lust, but then you have “There’s been a real backlash against Auto-Tune and some
something like ‘Adore’ from ‘Sign O’ The Times’. ‘One Life people absolutely can’t stand it,” Alexis admits. “I definitely
Stand’ is similar — it’s an overtly sexual song and there’s a wondered how it would be received when Joe told us he was
definite predatory element to some of the verses, but the going to use it on that song, even if the only reason was
chorus is about wanting to commit to someone like the Prince because he felt he couldn’t reach some of the notes. But it’s
song does, about how you can adore someone, but still feel certainly not done with irony, and it’s a shame when a
lust for them. I think what I’m really writing about is intimacy, genuine love of something appears to be ironic. Having said
and intimacy can be loving or platonic or sexual depending on that, I feel that I can tell the difference between Flight Of The
the sense you’re singing about it. The intimacy in ‘Brothers’ is Conchords’ R Kelly pastiches and our tunes where the
different to the intimacy in ‘Thieves In The Night’, so it’s not production and style has been influenced by r&b. They’re very
exactly an album of straightforward love songs. I think the heartfelt records, but we’ve always had people who are wary
songs are quite realistic, and something like ‘I Feel Better’ is of where we’re coming from and who sometimes miss the
aware of the absurdity of love, as well as being aware that humour when it’s there and find it when it’s not. But I like it
when you accept this absurdity, then you can feel satisfied.” when people play around with ideas in records myself, so I
can’t be surprised if people sometimes get the wrong end of
‘Bedroom’ music of a strange ilk ‘One Life Stand’ might be, but the stick.”
it’s also the first Hot Chip album that hasn’t literally been
produced in a bedroom, with Alexis, Joe and fellow members Perhaps, in a pop industry stultified by Simon Cowell’s ‘The
and multi-instrumentalists Al Doyle, Owen Clarke and Felix X-Factor’ factory, Hot Chip are simply too brainy for their own
Martin recording it in a full studio rather than on a lo-fi set-up good. That’s if you interpret ‘good’ as chart success of course,
in Joe’s bedroom, as was the case with all their previous but although Alexis points out that ‘there’s never been an era
efforts. The album also follows on from recent solo projects when every position in the charts was filled with fantastic
from the group’s two lynchpins. Alexis released his solo album music’, he’s also proud of their 2008 Top Ten chart position for
‘Rubbed Out’ in 2008, and Joe continues to DJ regularly, as ‘Ready For The Floor’ and has similar ambitions for their new
well as co-running the well-respected Greco-Roman label — records. Not because he envies the pop star lifestyle — ‘I like
home to the likes of David E Sugar and Grosvenor amongst being able to get a bus without being recognised’ he says —
others — and working on his more techno-orientated but because, when you put as much heart into something as
dancefloor productions, which recently bore fruit in the form Hot Chip do with their music, you inevitably want to share it
of his ‘Harvest Festival’ album. with the world.
“We both worked on our solo records concurrently with the “The music we make is never going to be as ‘pop’ as some
new album,” Alexis reveals. “It’s just the case that we have other things because we’re deliberately trying not to make it
more music that we’re interested in as individuals than we can bland,’ he opines. ‘But I also feel that it’s redundant to work
really fit within the parameters of Hot Chip, where there’s in the pop field if you don’t have some sort of hit with it
maybe an expectation that everything has to be a three — however small. So I’m glad that what we do sometimes gets
minute pop song. But the way we write together has been accepted by a wider audience rather than just being some
very influenced by how Lennon and McCartney worked, where clever comment on pop music. I certainly wouldn’t want it to
one would write the bridge and one would write the chorus, be that.”
before piecing them together.” They’re lovers, not fighters, after all.
050
www.djmag.com
DJ482.hotchip_feature.indd 50 13/1/10 14:43:02
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