YRB Magazine

British quintet Hot Chip has built a heavy momentum over the past few years, becoming the coolest nerds to make indie electro in quite some time. Winning over fans across the world one by one with their unique brand of tuneage, the group, consisting of Alexis Taylor (vox/synths/guitar/percussion/piano), Joe Goddar (vox/synths/percussion), Owen Clarke (guitar/bass/synths), Al Doyle (guitar/percussion/synths) and Felix Martin (drums/synths), has released a trio of albums over the past five years that swirl together a handful of influences, with Motown soul, ‘80s house and flannel indie rock coalescing to create some of the strangest, most enchanting music to grace dance floors in years.

Now, the group is gearing up to release its fourth album One Life Stand, a record that pulls back on the dance reins and lets the music breathe. While the eponymous lead single is more casual Hot Chip fare, One Life Stand sees the group slipping into atmospheric hazes for some of the tracks, making for one of the most diverse, invigorating releases the band has offered. Ahead of the album’s February 8th release, Owen hopped on the phone with YRB to discuss why the band cooled off a bit on this album, what his responsibilities are as the group’s resident graphic designer, why he’d like for the group to collaborate with Shakira and Sinead O’Connor, what it was like to be in Chaka Khan’s backing band and what else they’ve got in store for 2010.

YRB: I’ve given a few listens to the new album One Life Stand. First off, where did the title come from?

Owen: We're terrible at deciding our album titles. Our first album, Coming on Strong, took a while to get the title right. And we always have various guidance, usually in the form of jokes before we settle on something. Basically, we did what we did with the last three albums and pick a song as one of the title tracks. On The Warning, there's a song called “The Warning.” On Made in the Dark, there's a song called “Made in the Dark,” and One Life Stand has a song called “One Life Stand.” That's basically the reasoning behind the title. And that's it.

YRB: The album is pretty laid back, almost like you guys used this album to help you unwind. Is that what you would call this album, the Hot Chip relaxation album?

Owen: That was not one of the possible album titles, but I think it's more sort of composed and I wouldn't say it's laid back. The last record, there were lots of… I wouldn't say low points and high points, but there were things where there was a lot of energy involved and it was more placid and still with ballads and things. So I think on this album, there's more of a synthesis, and I think that's why it doesn't go in either direction. So you get that mid-tempo sort of thing happening.

YRB: What exactly do you mean by “synthesis?”

Owen: Well on previous albums, you might have known us to do a song in this style or that style or that was kind of the case with The Warning, we kind of put two things together. But with Made in the Dark, we thought let's not put those two styles together in a song, so we instead made different kind of songs. This one is more like putting things together again, but operating by using the sort of dynamics of a song rather than styles, so there's a similar palette of styles like technos and different things that we put together.

YRB: How I've interpreted it, there seems to be some light Beach Boys influence like on “Brothers” and “Alley Cats.” They’re somewhat sunny. What sort of influences do you count?

Owen: Well, I think the Beach Boys have always been an influence on Joe and Alexis. But I mean, personally, I don't like the Beach Boys. I find them a bit creepy. How fortunate it is that we have different tastes and that they're all exact and they all work. There are interesting harmonies and singing and gospel things, so we had Al singing, this guy playing drums, Charles Hayward, he did a bit of singing, and Alexis sang and so there's a range of voices. And so in that way, it's similar to the Beach Boys.

YRB: You're the group's resident graphic artist. Did you do the cover art for this album?

Owen: Well the cover art is only just a merging. It's a strange time for design. I've been struggling to put together packaging for a CD, a 12-inch and then tracks are already out. It's the size of a thumbnail, and I'm making pictures you could paint on your hands, basically. That's quite a strange time for that. But yeah, people are kind of keen on telling people about things and seized upon a couple blogs and things saying that our first track that was supposed to be accompanying the album, our giveaway sort of thing, is our first single and our tour effort was taken and put into being the single artwork. It's a time where you make things and they put things together themselves outside of making new products that we aren't even aware of. So it's quite a crazy time for design.

YRB: What's your background in design?

Owen: I went to art school in London and Chelsea and then went to the West Country of England and just being in a band was helping two guys trying out how to do live music with no recordings or computers and things. And then we just kind of did a couple of gigs, and five years later, I'm in New York and doing interviews and things. It's all a strange turn of events.

YRB: Since this album is a bit different for Hot Chip, do you think people will be able to dance to this album?

Owen: I don't know the range of different people that follow Hot Chip. It kind of goes into marketing jargon and demographics and things, but there are people that know us from our singles and others that know us from websites and our albums. So I think people that know us from our albums, they might not be so surprised. If you only knew the success we had from singles, then you might expect something more dancey and electronic. But I've caught myself dancing to tracks on One Life Stand, so it is possible to dance to it.

YRB: You guys have been traveling all around the world and doing awesome out-of-the-box stuff. What’s one thing that comes to mind that you remember as being extremely surreal?

Owen: Well I suppose last year, we were asked to play the weird Diesel Jeans XXX party and be Chaka Khan's backing band. Four years ago, five years, if you'd told us we'd be her backing band… Five years later, there are big fans in front of me blowing Chaka's hair around and I'm attempting to make my way through one of her incredible tracks. I think that was the strangest thing I encountered.

YRB: I was actually at the show, and you guys surprisingly worked well with one another. Had you practiced at all beforehand?

Owen: We figured out how to do the song in regard to the record and stuff, and then programmed bits and pieces and stuff. We were just going to wing it. And then we arrived in New York and had a musical director to help arrange songs when she's playing, and it's in a different key nowadays, so we had to take all the stickers off the keys and relearn everything. I mean, we matched it. And when you've got Chaka Khan up there, it doesn't matter what you do.

YRB: Are the members of Hot Chip big fans of Chaka Khan?

Owen: Yeah, we've been quite lucky because we've been able to work with a few people that we regard as heroes, over the past year or so. We did a Joy Division cover, and though we didn't get to work with them, being able to do that was quite incredible. And working with Peter Gabriel on the Vampire Weekend cover, we were very lucky.

YRB: Who do you all want to collaborate with?

Owen: We get asked about this sometimes, and Joe and I were just talking about Shakira or somebody like that. It's not something that you necessarily think about or pursue. Sometimes, these things sort of happen. I never think to go and collaborate with Chaka Khan. These sort of things come along. But I think something that you'd do with a unique voice like Sinead O'Connor or Tom Waits, someone where you make use of that, that would be exciting as well.

YRB: What else can we expect from Hot Chip before you guys drop One Life Stand?

Owen: We'll be touring for quite a bit. We enjoy playing gigs and stuff, but right now, we're figuring out new ways to do new songs and new ways of doing the old songs, and then playing them out live. We haven't thought beyond that. That's basically where we are.