HOT CHIP ///
INTERVIEW CATONIA WHALEN ///
APT, NEW YORK ///
PHOTOGRAPHY JESSE WINTER ///

Picture this on a tiny cramped stage: Five guys who look completely different from each other all playing frantic keyboards while having the audience entirely captivated.That was the scene when experimental electro-soul pop combo Hot Chip from the UK hit the US shores for the first time in March. Their brand of enjoyable electrofunk built up slowly and then exploded into complete mayhem and the crowd loved every minute of it.

Led by co-writers/co-vocalists Joe Goddard and Alexis Taylor, Hot Chip have also been wowing crowds in other parts of the world such as UK, France, Germany and Iceland with their debut album Coming On Strong released by up and coming indie UK label Moshi Moshi Records. The band is rounded out by Owen Clarke (synthesizer), Felix Martin (drum machine/percussion) and Al Doyle on whatever is needed to add into the mix.

When listening to the album you can definitely hear what influences Hot Chip have. But at the same time, since they are inspired but a huge variety of music, it comes out sounding like something you've never heard before. Can you imagine a mix of Beach Boys, Kraftwerk, Brian Eno, Ween, Prince, Stevie Wonder, Neil Young, Madlib and Devo? I think not. These lads strive to be original and it shows. The album will be re-released this year on Astralwerks in the US.

I met up with Hot Chip at their DJ gig one lazy Sunday afternoon at APT in the meatpacking district and had a chat with Joe and Al.

How long has the band been together? How did you meet up?
Joe: I met Alexis and Owen at secondary school when we were 12. We used to share lunches together. Alexis and I started playing music together when we were 17 really. Then Alexis met Al and Owen when they were at University together and then the band got together just after that. So really we've only been together for about two years.

I read that you guys like to experiment when recording. And I definitely hear that in the record. To me some of the tracks on the album like "The Beach Party" sound like you're really having fun while making the music in the studio. Was that really the case?
Al: There is a certain amount of fabrication to it like the same way when you get a Beach Boys album and it sounds like a spontaneous party. It's actually really deliberately done in certain locations but obviously you've got to drum up some enthusiasm so that part is real but-Joe: That was actually the idea with "The Beach Party". There's a Beach Boys album where they pretend that there's a load of people in the room clapping along and having fun and singing and dancing yet it was fabricated. They just did it in a studio but they pretended like it was an actual party and we were influenced by that record and Alexis wanted to get that feeling on the track. So we whipped ourselves into a frenzy and pretended that we were at a party when in fact we were just sitting there in my bedroom recording the track. Al: I wasn't in the band at the time but I do know that Joe's bedroom is tiny only like 5m x 3m. It was very small with his bed in there as well and the computer and everyone jammed in there. We used to go around there and the five of us had to try to set up! Take me through the song process.

How is it all done? Do you do it in the studio on the spot or do you bring stuff in before you record?
Joe: Sometimes Alexis writes songs at home and then I kind of think of a good drum beat to go with it or something. That's how it used to work. Quite often I'll make a drum beat and then Alexis will get excited when he hears it and pick up a keyboard write a song on the spot. When he's traveling anywhere on the bus or the tube [subway in Brit speak] he writes lyrics into his mobile like a text message. Then he'll go through the different lyrics to see what fits with the song and records that. Then everyone gets involved. Al is an amazing classical musician so we're getting him to play like mandolins and cello and things like that on the new record. So we kind of just build it up informally just sitting around in our front room.

What's in store for the new record?
We've been working on it. And we're also going to record an album of us playing our live set in a studio pretty soon with Kieran Hebden who does the Four Tet records. He'll be producing us and it will come out at some point.

Joe, you produced Coming On Strong for the most part under the name Ulysses, right?
Joe: For the most part, but Alexis sometimes says things like, 'that should be louder' and 'I want the sound of that to be different'. He has a lot of influence on it and so do the other guys. But I primarily produce it. It's sort of self-produced then I guess. Joe: Right, no one else is involved at this point. Al: And it will probably be the same for the next album as well.

Would you ever like to work with a certain producer in the future?
Al: It depends if other producers would get the best out of us as band, because being self-produced so far we've got quite a strong stamp on the sound. And a lot of producers will come in and make the record sound like their own. But some producers, I think, could actually get really good material out of the band and make us work really well and get something interesting out of that. If we could get someone like that, then maybe we would. Joe: I think working with Kieran will be good because he tends not to make them sound really different but gets something good out of them.

He acts like another member of the band?
Joe: Yeah and he kind of facilitates the whole thing. That would be cool.

How would you describe Hot Chip's sound if you were a music critic?
Al: We've been described pretty badly a lot of the time.

That's why I want to let you guys say it.
Al: When we had our first single "Down With Prince" out, the NME described us as slap-core. Joe: We didn't really even know what that meant! Al: I guess because of the slappy bass in the track I suppose. We tend to get lumped in a lot of electro stuff so we've been called 'electro Belle & Sebastian' and Alexis' voice has been compared to Mick Hucknell from Simply Red. Some crazy things like that which seem to have no relevance at all. Joe: What we would like, is for people to see references like Brian Eno and the sounds of some of his records. The way that some of his albums build up out of simple things. The playing is sometimes not incredible but the ideas are really great. That's what I'd like people to pick up with us. Good ideas. We all love things like the Beach Boys, and that is something that we like to be likened to. Al: Alexis doesn't mind if it's called 'soul party music'.

That sounds fun. I definitely hear influences of funk and soul and pop.
Joe: And also things like Kraftwerk, which is something that we all love is good. The precision of Kraftwerk isn't in our music, but I think the melodies that they come up with are beautiful in their simplicity, so we're kind of influenced by that. And the sounds of their keyboards are something that we always try and learn from and get into our music.

What kind of music were you raised on? And what are you listening to these days?
Al: My dad used to be into dub reggae and then he used to listen to a lot of folk stuff like Fairport Convention, Richard and Linda Thompson, so that's what I grew up with. And a little Velvet Underground and things like that. But as we've gotten older we've been listening to different things. Felix and I like quite a lot of the stuff coming out of Germany at the moment stuff like house and techno and sounds from Ghostly International. Joe: I grew up listening to two tapes that I got when I was really little. One was the Rolling Stones Greatest Hits and the other was the Beatles Rubber Soul. My dad tried to be very cool in his music when he was growing up. He grew up with punk and bought me all the Velvet Underground albums when I was young. At first I couldn't understand them at all but I got into them after a while. And Bob Dylan and stuff-Al: We're all pretty big Bob fans as well.

Any Neil Young fans?
Joe: Oh yeah. Alexis and I both are both Neil Young fans. Al: That was another big one with my dad actually.

You guys also DJ regularly too, right?
Al: Alexis and Joe DJ'ed at Glastonbury last year as well. Joe: They had a Domino tent and they asked us to DJ in between bands and play a little set at some point.

Where have you toured so far? Where would you like to tour that that you haven't yet?
Joe: We've been around a few places. We've been to Sweden, Barcelona, and France a couple of times. Al: We've played Germany on a support slot with Faithless. Joe: Tomorrow night is our first gig in the states. We've done some gigs with Soulwax in the UK, Amsterdam and Brussels. So we've been around Europe basically.

Are there any other UK bands that you feel close to? Are you part of any scene?
Joe: We're kind of doing our own thing. The UK scene is so dominated by people doing punky guitar songs. I think that will kind of blow over in a little while since there are so many of them and not all of them are that great. After a while people are going to get sick of that thing and get into something kind of newer. But some of those bands are great, but we feel like doing our own thing really. Al: When we do shows sometimes we have to play with guitar bands, and it seems to make no sense to us at all. They either play before or after us with this thrashy kind of stuff and it has no relation to us at all. So I think people understand us slightly less over there because of it. Sometimes we do get a really good reception in the UK, but it seems to be a bit better in other parts of Europe and hopefully over here as well. Joe: We feel more affinity to other older groups. I suppose a lot of people feel that you know their real heroes are people that they listened to when they grew up or whatever. And that's definitely true of us. People like Kraftwerk, the Beach Boys, Can, Brian Eno are the real heroes. We don't feel like we have that many contemporaries. ///