HOT CHIP

Attempting to categorise Hot Chip’s output has become something of a music critic parlour game – phrases like electro, pop, funk and white boy soul are thrown around in relation to the UK band, but vocalist Alexis Taylor himself is blasé about those who would attempt to put them in a box. “I don’t find categories all that useful for describing our music,” he says. “Generally speaking, they’re quite misleading and narrow. I never feel the need to be told whether something is pop or rock or whatever, and I think it’s the case with most people that they can work it out regardless. “

Hot Chip’s most recent album, Made In The Dark, has earned the band some serious praise, ending up on many end-of-year best-of lists, including US Rolling Stone. The record represented something of a departure for the band – their first two records were filled with loose limbed, floor filling dance tracks, but Made In The Dark, although it included the infectiously bouncy single Ready For The Floor, was the band’s most melancholy and reflective to date. How have the band adjusted to playing these slower, more ballad-like songs in their live set, I wonder?

“It is a bit of a challenge,” Taylor says, “only because we’ve spent so long not playing that kind of music in our live sets, so people aren’t expecting it. People tend to go to the bar when you play slow songs. We’ve been working hard to get the dynamic right, going from the louder, faster songs to the ballads.” So, was Made In The Dark Hot Chip’s Something To Remember, or will the band go further into ballad territory in the future? “I think it’s likely that there’ll be ballads on every album we do,” Taylor tells me. “I tend to write slower songs like that left to my own devices. I’m sure they’ll be around unless we specifically try to weed them out.”

Hot Chip have collaborated with some fantastic artists before, including The DFA, who oversaw the production of their breakthrough second album, The Warning. When I ask Taylor if there are any other artists he’d like to record with in the future, his list is ambitious to say the least. “I’d be interested in working with Björk, Kanye West, Willie Nelson and Jay Z,” he tells me. Also on the list is Charles Hayward, from early ‘80s post-punk pioneers This Heat.  “I think that last one might actually happen.  This Heat were an incredibly brilliant and original band, and have played some wonderful music. Charles Hayward does amazing solo gigs now – I met him recently and we’re looking at maybe working on something in the future.”

As far as Hot Chip’s future is concerned, the band have already added a new song to their set – expect to hear it on their forthcoming Australian tour – and have demoed at least six more. “The last year has really been about touring and promotion,” Taylor says. “We’ve been working on new music, but we haven’t consciously been working on it as an album. You have new ideas and you record them, but there hasn’t been a conscious decision to go to a studio and try to flesh them out into any sort of album. They’re very much in the demo stage.”

HOT CHIP play the Gold Coast Big Day Out on Sunday & a DJ set in support of The Prodigy at The Riverstage Tuesday Jan 20.

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