HOT CHIP INTERVIEW
We chatted to Hot Chip’s frontman Alexis Taylor about the band’s progression, the making of their new album, and what makes them so damn good at performing covers.
Do you see vast differences in your fan base from country to
country?
Not really, except that in London people seem to pick up on references in our music to Garage and musics that have stemmed from here better.
Now having completed 4 albums, do you feel like you have a good idea
about who your fan base actually is? Do you see a certain collective
that follow you or do you have more of an eclectic bunch of fans?
Yesterday I met a business-man in a suit on the train who said he’d flown out to New York with his wife to see us recently, in a very sweet and dedicated move. He didn’t seem to fit an expected demographic of hot chip fan. I have the idea that our fan base is just music fanatics of all types across the globe – as well as people who like that song about ‘the monkey’. ‘Do the monkey one – “Over and Over Again”, do that one’.
Have your fans had any effect on Hot Chip’s direction over the years, or
has the progression been oriented around the band’s own objectives?
It is just driven by what we’re interested in and how we are feeling at the time. We make bad career moves in terms of what is popular I think!
Having done quite a few covers now, what do you think it is that makes
Hot Chip so “cover-friendly”?
I think the fact that I just enjoy singing other people’s songs – of all types – and start doing it unannounced during our shows or soundchecks. That usually leads to quite an open approach to covers – the alternative would be to just stop playing when I do these kind of things. I am in love with so much music and it still gives me a lot of pleasure to sing songs and take them in another direction by singing them straight in as unadorned a fashion as possible.
How have the covers that you’ve incorporated into the live shows come
about? (like New Order’s Temptation within No Fit State, and Prince’s Nothing Compares to You)
I grew up loving that Prince song – it was the first single I bought, Nothing Compares 2 U. It just came into my head in Montreal one day and then it made sense as a closer to the set – medleyed with our own song. Temptation was something I loved that I felt No Fit State was indebted to. I wanted people to make the link.
We’ve read that you spent more time in the studio for One Life Stand – how
was the recording process different to the other albums? What elements
did you spend more time on?
Just trying the songs out in lots of different arrangements before settling on something. We tried sending midi parts to about 15 different keyboards for a while and put Baritone guitar on everything. Not much of that made the finished record as we decided less was more after a while of throwing everything at everything!
How do you prefer playing in a more traditional band configuration as
opposed to your original line up?
I enjoyed the period where we all stood in a row at the front of the stage – but Felix seemed to want to get to the back. I guess he has stuff to do back there while we prance around at the front.
Where will Hot Chip go from here?
Copenhagen. Nothing is rotten in the state of Denmark.
