Dealing with musicians runs a close third to the old showbiz adage of never working with children or animals, which makes sense as they for the most part inhabitant the psychological space somewhere in between the two. Only one question into an interview with four members of Hot Chip in an antiquated old boozer in East London and Alexis Taylor is cutting my line of inquiry to the quick.
“What do you mean about the album being sentimental?” he questions.
I tell him I was referring only to One Life Stand,the title of their latest album.
“So you haven't heard it and you're just judging a book by its cover?”
At this point the other band members step in and attempt to diffuse the situation, though it becomes clear Alexis was just entering into the jovial mood of the lively pub in his own way. Owen Clarke, guitarist, bassist and keyboardist offers a slightly more philosophical insight to the album title.
“Well we're all a little older,” he offers. “'Now that we're older there's more that we must do' is one of the lines on the album. It's a time of change. We had a previous interview where we talked about Saturn's return, something that happens in astrology which I don't believe in. Something about how the planet Saturn completes its cycle around the earth every 30 years so maybe it's got something to do with that.”
Whilst no personal information regarding any life changes or transformations is forthcoming the band members do touch on something decidedly more pertinent to the physical recording of the album, saying it was the first time they had ever used a studio properly, which sonically translates to One Night Stand being marginally less synthesized sounding.
“Just going in to a studio where you have to record drum kits and get musicians in and not record by sitting on a bed with a synthesizer on your lap going is all quite new to us,” informs Felix. “That's what has really made the album what it is and it's featured everyone in the band much more.”
This new method of recording was brought on partly by needing space to record guest musicians and partly by being inspired by working with Peter Gabriel in 2008 on a cover of Vampire Weekend's “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa”.
Playing around with other people's music seems to be part of Hot Chip's raison d'être, so prolific is their body of remix work that it far outweighs their self-produced discography. Whilst the band are quick to point out remixes of their own tracks they have greatly enjoyed (Dominik Eulberg's remix of “One Pure Thought”, the DFA remix of “Colours”), when it comes to bands they have re-rubbed they are a little lost because they have no idea what people think of them.
“I don't feel like we get very much feedback on the work that we've done,” states Alexis. “Often record labels are the ones that want the remixes and the bands don't know anything about it. Felix and I did a Rilo Kiley remix a few years ago and I listened to it the other day and really liked it. I was really proud of it but we never knew what anyone thought of it or what the band even thought of it. Whereas with the Kraftwerk remix we got emails from Ralf saying they liked it, which was nice.”
I wonder out loud at this stage if R. Kelly would appreciate the image remix the band undertook on a promo tee shirt of theirs which depicts the troubled “Ignition” singer sporting a Devo cone hat.
“My friend Nick Ralph made that for us,” Alexis adds with his typical deadpan aplomb. “The combination of those things together speaks more than trying to say something about Hot Chip. It doesn't equal Hot Chip; Hot Chip is more than being influenced by R Kelly and Devo but there is something very amusing to me about mashing those things together... And capturing something in an image that you can't really talk about. It's just an image that makes me laugh and I'm proud to be affiliated with it.”
No comments:
Post a Comment