Cover Feature Hot Chip: Weird Science

Pop is a science. Granted, it’s also the complete opposite: where every emotion, instinct or feeling you’ve ever had can become entwined with the sounds of one particular song. But at its heart, it’s a form of music that requires more smarts than any other. Just like science, there are different strands; different types of scientists, studying different fields. Many are theoretical physicists - those that steal a little from one place, borrow some more from another. Some are chemical magicians, creating the same high again and again, to gradually fading applause, as the impact invariably diminishes.

Then there’s Hot Chip. A group who are at once fantastical and disarmingly real in a genre of make believe; Hot Chip are NASA. If NASA built space shuttles in a shed at the bottom of their back garden, out of odds and ends they’d picked up down the car boot sale last Sunday.

In an era of fly-by-night movements and instant gratification, their latest - ‘In Our Heads’ - sounds like a classic after just one listen. In the lineage of the great pop minds, from the Pet Shop Boys to Prince, it’s a record for both the head and the heart. And, as the band’s Felix Martin excitedly proclaims: “It’s the best Hot Chip album by quite a large distance.”

“I like it the most of all the records we’ve made,” frontman Alexis Taylor continues in agreement. “I think the songs on it are the strongest we’ve written, and I think the sound is the best we’ve come up with. The production suits every song; we don’t jump around from one style to another in a jarring way. It works as a whole.”

“I think it’s got the best songwriting we’ve ever managed,” offers up fellow founder member Joe Goddard. “It’s full of our love of dance music and pop music, R&B. It’s got things from disco to techno to garage and house influences. It’s got multi-layered vocals and strong choruses. It’s quite accessible, and fun hopefully.”

Underlying ‘In Our Heads’ is the impression of a band who are comfortable in their own skin. From the triumphant saxophone line, to the almost wilfully obtuse lyrics (“Remember when people thought the world was round?”) - as introductions go, opener ‘Motion Sickness’ is a definite marking of territory. For over a decade Hot Chip have been making less ‘dance music’, more music to dance to. Personal and experimental, yet intriguing, odd and enthralling, even now there’s a feeling that this is a band who simply don’t bear comparison to their peers.

“We do feel more confident in what we’re creating,” Goddard muses. “I feel more confident, as a producer and songwriter, that I know what I’m doing. There’s a lot to learn about record production as you get into it, and I feel I’m starting to know what I’m talking about and understand the concepts. There’s a lot more incidence, and confidence in songwriting ability as well. I think that’s a big part of this album in a way. Doing other musical things helps that, helps to make you feel like you know what you’re doing and you’re confident in your abilities.”

Those aforementioned “other musical things” have become more prevalent of late. A supergroup can be a difficult concept: in theory, putting together a bunch of talented musicians - each excelling individually - should be a simple formula for something brilliant. In practice, it rarely yields the desired results. Yet Hot Chip have almost become their own supergroup. From The 2 Bears to About Group via New Build, through to loan transfers to James Murphy’s sorely missed LCD Soundsystem and even offers to work with Adele (“It’s not like we were planning to write a whole record with her, there were a few days in the schedule where we were going to try and write a song, but scheduling got in the way.”), of late their various individual creative projects have only gone to strengthen the whole; without, as Joe explains, the inconvenience of egos getting in the way.

“I think when we come together to do Hot Chip stuff we kind of agree with each other quite a lot. It’s quite nice really. When you have such a long working relationship, I think we have a lot of respect for each other, and trust in each other, so when we decide to work together we usually find there aren’t too many people pulling in too many different directions. It’s usually quite a good, comfortable way of working.”

It isn’t just other musical projects that might add something to the mix, though. Like other good pop scientists, they’re aware of all possible parameters. As prolific DJs, the experience of what works at the coal face surely helps when it comes to crafting their own music?

“I think DJing does feed into it,” Goddard agrees. “Even if you’re not consciously thinking about the way DJing influences songwriting, I think subconsciously things are going in, because you’re in the club environment looking at what makes people react or respond on the dancefloor. I think those things naturally feed into writing songs for Hot Chip. It’d be kind of weird if they didn’t in a way, you know?”

Hot Chip’s route to dancefloor fillers stands out from many of their contemporaries. While many have put beats before words, it’s their lyrical content that often sets this band apart. It’s hardly an original feature, but in an era where an uninspired vocal is increasingly farmed out to a guesting artist, it’s a quality which adds a another level of intrigue.

“I’m not looking for an award for poetry or anything,” Alexis explains, “but the words are very important - they always have been. I care about them. I try and make them as interesting and as emotionally direct as possible. And yes, I do play around with language.

“I’ve sort of got used to the fact that it’s a surprise for people that anyone would do that, in what they call dance music. For me, that really shouldn’t be a surprise. I like the fact the music is very busy and lively and exciting, and you could almost not notice the words on the first listen. But hopefully there’s a lot there for you to go back to over and over again.”

“I think we’re all really influenced by Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan,” Felix adds. “People who are really poetic. Language is a really important thing, a really important part of our music. Alexis is really fascinated with different crazes and different words. A track might start from just a strange phrase or a joke or something that he’s heard, and then he’ll turn it into the idea behind a song. Like ‘Over & Over’, or ‘Shake Your Fist’. They’ve all got these funny little vocal hooks in them, which is all part of a general fascination with words and with language. It’s definitely a really important part of the band, and probably an under appreciated part in that a lot of people think of us as being quite a darkly electronic act. I think one of the reasons we’ve been successful is because of the lyrics, and the fact that they make a really direct connection with people.”

When most bands decide to unveil their new album to the world, they’ll choose a nice catchy three and a half minute long number. Something with a repetitive hook line and huge chorus. Not Hot Chip. For them, an eight minute long, dizzying YouTube clip was the way forward. Yet ‘Flutes’ encapsulates the group perfectly: “Something a bit different to what we’ve done before,” as Goddard puts it.

“It’s still quite a catchy song,” Martin adds. “It demonstrates a side to our music that’s always been part of what we do I guess, which is something a bit more like a house track or a techno track - quite long with quite a lot of development in it. We’re not like Kylie Minogue or something; we’re not just gonna release three or four minute long pop songs all the time.

“I think ‘Night & Day’, which is the first single, is a probably a much more conventional pop song in the sense that it’s quite short and it’s got lots of hooks in it. That’s the first song we’re going to be making a video for, and that we hope is going to get lots of radio play.”

At the time of press, said video hadn’t arrived (though it has now - you can check it out above - Ed). Still, it’s worthy of note. Directed by Peter Serafinowicz - the mind behind the brilliantly mad clip for ‘I Feel Better’ - not every band can get the voice of Darth Maul behind the camera, let alone twice.

“It’s a really bizarre video,” Felix reveals. “It’s based around a strange religious ceremony. There’s cameos from some unexpected people. It was really funny when we turned up, because when we showed up they were shooting a bit with Lara Stone, the model, as a woman controlling a spaceship. We didn’t really know anything about what was going on, it was bizarre. Alexis’ little daughter was there, she’s about two and a half or something, and she was so excited about all the different costumes and people in make up. She was running around trying different people’s clothes on. It was really funny.”

Hot Chip’s new album ‘In Our Heads’ will be released on 11th June via Domino.

Taken from the June 2012 issue of DIY, available now. For more details click here.