Pitchfork

For the second time in six months, we spoke to Hot Chip co-frontman Alexis Taylor about a new record from his band. Last time, it was their DJ Kicks mix. This time, it's an honest-to-goodness full-length follow-up to last year's The Warning, titled Made in the Dark and due on Astralwerks tentatively on February 4 in the UK and February 5 in the U.S.

The record's release will make three LPs for the band, and Taylor was kind enough to expound upon the musical changes it marks for Hot Chip. In the process, he also revealed the band's (fake) collaborations with Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel, (real) remixes for Alicia Keys and Rilo Kiley, and just how deeply ingrained their eclecticism is. Oh, and he wants more people to buy Gang Gang Dance records.

Pitchfork: Why did you chose to call the album Made in the Dark instead of some of the other titles you were throwing around, like Shot Down in Flames and IV?

Alexis Taylor: There's always someone in our band-- always a different person-- to veto any of the names [that could] be taken not too seriously. IV was definitely my favorite. It could've worked. There's a great Fucking Champs album called IV, there's Black Sabbath's Vol. 4. This is our third record, so calling it IV was good. Shot Down in Flames-- Felix [Martin] was worried it sounded too much like a name the Beta Band might have come up with, so we went with the other name. "Made in the Dark" is the name of one of my favorite songs on the new record. I like its open-endedness, and it's nice to sometimes name an album after one of the sadder, more thoughtful songs rather than it just being like Coming on Strong, The Warning, and then Shot Down in Flames: big, slightly jokey, macho phrases.

Pitchfork: Is not being taken seriously a fear you guys have?

AT: I kind of like giving people the wrong impression all the time, so I'm happy if the album's called IV and people are annoyed that it's just a stupid joke. That doesn't bother me at all, but I don't think calling the album Made in the Dark was an attempt to be any more serious; it was just a phrase that is from one of the songs and everyone agreed on it. There's not really a fear...I think if people would see us, meet us, see us play live, hear our records, if they give us any time they would see that we're very serious about comedy and very serious about serious things as well.

Pitchfork: The press release describes the new album as "faster and rockier." Is that true, and was it an intentional move?

AT: Yeah, some of it is rockier, and there are moments that you could detect a bit of a heavy metal influence.

Pitchfork: Are there less electronic elements?

AT: No, no. Unfortunately, we never do things by adding one thing and taking something else away. We just throw everything into the mix, so it's just as much electronic stuff and just as much live stuff. There isn't really one thing gone to make room for something else.

Pitchfork: Does that mean it's going to sound bigger and more maximalist, maybe, than previous records?

AT: Yeah, some of it is. And other tracks are much more minimalist, so if the press release says it's faster and rockier it doesn't account for that fact that there are more ballads on this record than any other record.

Pitchfork: So it's more of everything: more slow, more fast...

AT: More of everything, yeah, more of everything is probably the easiest way to describe it. That way it could be read as more of the good things, more of the bad things, more of the okay things, just more. Excessive and...no no no, it's not really [laughs]. Quite a lot of strength in certain tracks, and quite a lot of overloading in other ones.

Pitchfork: Other than the heavy metal influences that you mentioned earlier, are there any new directions or left turns that people might not be expecting?

AT: There's one that is kind of wrestling with the idea of making an R. Kelly kind of slick r&b number, but it maybe ends up sounding more like Randy Newman's "Short People". Maybe that's the strange turn.

Pitchfork: Which song is that?

AT: That's "Wrestlers".

Pitchfork: It doesn't sound like there was a specific mood or sound you guys were aiming for then, just more of the whole variety of moods.

AT: The records I've grown up listening to, like a lot of Prince records or whatever, they don't really work on one mood. On Sign 'O' the Times or something you go from a sort of ballad like "Slow Love" to "Hot Thing" the next minute. So if you think that of the two main songwriters in the band-- that's me and Joe [Goddard]-- one of us was listening to music like that, and another person was listening to the Beatles' White Album or whatever from an early age, then you realize why all of our albums go from one mood to another so readily. It's because that kind of eclectic music has been our first musical background and inspiration from a long time ago, and that stuff goes in really deep, I think. What you listen to when you're eight years old or whatever.

There are other people I like-- Will Oldham or someone-- who might make a record where it's just acoustic guitar and harmonium and voice for the whole record, and those records are amazing to me. I kind of wish we could do something like that, just a bit more restrained. But we don't really seem capable of that; we seem to want to jump all over the place stylistically every time. And I don't think it doesn't work to do that. I think it totally makes sense as a record to me, this record, in the way some of those other records I was mentioning do. We didn't set out to make something with one mood. What we did set out to do was show that we're a band as much as originally having been a duo, so this album represents the whole live sound of the band, what you hear on stage, a bit more than we've ever been able to represent before. Because we never really tried to do that before.

Pitchfork: Speaking of the live/electronic dichotomy, you sampled Todd Rundgren on "Shake a Fist", though it was first referred to as just "featuring" him. Were there any other live or sampled guests with you guys on any of the songs?

AT: Just Phil Collins. He's on every song.

Pitchfork: He plays drums on every song?

AT: Yeah, drums and co-songwriting credits.

Pitchfork: All right.

AT: And Peter Gabriel as well, but they wouldn't be in the same room at the same time, unfortunately, so...

Pitchfork: Yeah, that sounds...[laughs]

AT: I think Phil was more into being in the bedroom, and Peter Gabriel was more happy to be in the studio for the live sort of stuff.

Pitchfork: And Phil Collins' advertising commitments didn't get in the way? I know he had that Cadbury commercial.

AT: No, they didn't. He managed to find time.

Pitchfork: Did he show up in the gorilla suit?

AT: No, that doesn't really well present his image. I think he's actually slightly balding.

Pitchfork: Wow, you'd never know from that ad. So are there any other high profile samples or guest appearances?

AT: You want more high profile than Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel?!

Pitchfork: I mean, Wu-Tang Clan got the Beatles.

AT: [Laughs] Well, it didn't get any more high profile than having Emma Smith, who played violin and saxophone on both our first two records, play violin and saxophone on our new record. A lot of the songs have been inspired by Black Dice, but [Black Dice] are not on the record. There are two mentions of Willie Nelson on this record to look out for.

Pitchfork: Lyrical mentions or musical nods?

AT: Probably there are some slight musical nods that I can't help but create, but there are lyrical mentions to him. Mentions of him, rather. That doesn't mean anything: "Mentions to him."

Pitchfork: Other than Joe's DJ dates and the short South American tour, are there any big tours scheduled for the coming months?

AT: We'll be coming out on tour next year. I guess we'll probably be to the States in April, but nothing's confirmed yet.

Pitchfork: So nothing before the record comes out?

AT: No. There might be some DJ things. We've got a lot going on. We've been collaborating with different people, but none of it is bringing us to the States, I'm afraid, for the time being.

Pitchfork: With whom are you collaborating?

AT: I've been working with Green Gartside from Scritti Politti on a record. And then we made a song for an album of David Shrigley covers. And also Joe and myself are playing with a contemporary string quartet, the Elysian Quartet. Lots of different things. Joe is producing a young rapper.

Pitchfork: Do you have any new remixes up your sleeves?

AT: We just did one for Alicia Keys. It's only just been sent off to her, so I don't know if she's going to approve of it or not, but I just finished it the other day.

Pitchfork: So you don't know what it'll appear on, if it does?

AT: No, I guess on a single sometime, but I never really know how these things work. But they wanted it really quickly, so I'm guessing it might be this year. I don't know. We did one for Rilo Kiley. Me and Felix did that one. It's nice to do remixes of ladies. We haven't done many of those in the past. [For the Rilo Kiley remix] we took a lot of ideas from Justus Köhncke. He did an amazing cover EP under the name Kinky Justice where he just covers his favorite songs. There's "Watching the Wheels" by John Lennon, "Got to Give It Up" by Marin Gaye. He does "The World Girl" (Scritti Politti), but there's one track, I don't know who it's by originally, but we kind of took something of the mood of that Kinky Justice/Justus Köhncke tune for our Rilo Kiley remix. I'm not ashamed there's a little bit of stealing going on there.

Pitchfork: Anyone else?

AT: We've been trying to get Terry Riley to remix tracks for us but his manager's coming out with negative responses so far. I don't know... what else have we got? I guess the whole Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel remixes to come.

Pitchfork: Well you're remixing the whole Genesis catalogue, correct?

AT: Well, just The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. They weren't happy with the actual mix of it, so we're remixing but not like a remix with dance rhythms, more just like a mix of the record. That should come out in Japan only.

Pitchfork: A lot of those things tend to come out just in Japan. Well, thanks for talking to us, Alexis. Is there anything we didn't get to that you need to get off your chest?

AT: Why are there not more people buying Gang Gang Dance records? That's what I don't understand. I don't live in New York, but I continually go on about that band and it doesn't seem like enough of the world have embraced their music. That's one thing I'd like to get off my chest. Maybe get an answer.

Hot Chip shows:

10-14 London, England - Scala (Worried Noodles release party/benefit)
10-27 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - Marina de Gloria (TIM Festival)
10-28 São Paulo, Brazil - Anhembi Sumba Drum (TIM Festival)
10-31 Curitiba, Brazil - Pedriero Paulo Leminski (TIM Festival)
11-02 Buenos Aires, Argentina - Crobar
11-11 Buenos Aires, Argentina - Personal Fest

Joe Goddard's DJ dates:

11-07 Newcastle, England - World Headquarters
11-10 London, England - 93 Feet East
12-01 Manchester, England - Warehouse Project #
12-02 Sheffield, England - Eat Your Own Ears Party

# with Four Tet