Interview by Joshua Glazer

Hot Chip write electronic pop songs for record collectors. And they do it well, maybe because they happen to be the same sort of crate diggers that their sound resonates with. Hot Chip frontman Alexis Taylor may be slight in size and spastic onstage; his co-leader and musical foil Joe Goddard may resemble an adorable teddy bear; and their bandmates Owen Clarke, Felix Martin and Al Doyle may look like they’d feel most comfortable grouped together against the wall at a school dance; but the music the five of them create together is deeply sophisticated.
    None of this is to imply, however, that Hot Chip’s music is for lonely nights in one’s room. As anyone who has seen them live can attest, theirs is a sonic locomotive that will knock down some of the hardest rocking fools with just a twist of the Moog. But when Goddard speaks to ShockHound about the newest in UK dance music sub-sub-genres, it does little to erase the “music geek” perception of the band that has been built up over the course of  four albums, including their new One Life Stand — not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course.

SHOCKHOUND: You’re currently in New York to DJ tonight, correct?

JOE GODDARD: Yeah. It's gonna be me, Al and Owen.

SHOCKHOUND: You all DJ in various groupings. Does the sound vary depending on who’s involved?

GODDARD: Felix and Al play almost exclusively techno. They’re pretty fixated on that music at the moment. They have a residency at Space in Ibiza over the summer where they play that stuff. Myself and Alexis play a little more eclectic. I play more disco and house music, as well as techno, as well as some new UK music like off-shoots of garage and dubstep.

SHOCKHOUND: Like UK Funky?

GODDARD: Exactly. I’ve been enjoying a lot of those records recently. If I'm in London I play a ton of that stuff, and if it's other places I play as much as I can get away with.

SHOCKHOUND: Is UK Funky still a London-only movement?

GODDARD: There's a great scene in London; it's starting to spread around the country more. There's really good crossovers between techno and dubstep and funky, and it's a very fertile thing at the moment. You’ve probably heard about Joy Orbison and Floating Points, and a few other producers doing really great stuff.

SHOCKHOUND: How long have you been DJing?

GODDARD: At 17, I started DJing house parties, playing hip-hop mostly. At university, I DJ'd quite regularly at pubs and student nights. I'd be playing R&B and hip-hop; garage if I could. So I’ve been DJing a long time. But more seriously as a business, it's been the past 3-4 years. When we're not touring, DJing is a great way to earn the money we need to survive. But, I love DJing, and I’m quite serious about the art of it.

SHOCKHOUND: Which do you prefer, DJing or playing live?

GODDARD: Right now I'm very excited by the thought of playing live again, probably because we haven't done it in like a year. I'm really excited to start learning these songs we've written for the new album and playing them live. We're going to be playing with a few new people when we tour next year.

SHOCKHOUND: At first listen, the new record doesn't seem as meaty as the last one. Does that resonate with you?

GODDARD: I think when we play some of these songs live; it's going to be really fucking meaty. We're going to make them as big and loud as possible. I can't wait to do an extended, monstrous, fuckin’ rocking version of “Hand Me Down Your Love,” really techno-y and hard. We're a little bit confused that people seem to think it's a more mellow record. Maybe we have created something like that. We're hoping to get some really noisy remixes. The Carl Craig remix of “One Life Stand” should be coming in tonight. And hopefully that will be monstrous.

SHOCKHOUND: So what do you see as the differences between the new record and Made In The Dark?

GODDARD: We made a very conscious decision to make a concise and shorter record. We wanted it to have fewer sonic differences between tracks. We used certain instruments throughout the whole record. We wanted to have a palette of sounds that make the album feel like a unit. One thing in the back of our minds was making pop records that could be end-of-the-night classics someone might play, the way a DJ might play “Teardrops” by Womack and Womack at the end of their sets. Just as a joyful moment for people to leave on.

SHOCKHOUND: Do you think that sort of joy is something that’s missing from dance music right now?

GODDARD: I think over the last few years dance music has gotten very noisy, and I don't really appreciate that. I don't like the kind of dance music that doesn't really have bass. It's all just brash, aggressive and rocky. I like my dance music to be more soulful.

SHOCKHOUND How does the songwriting work in Hot Chip?

GODDARD: Myself and Alexis write the music. If it's a song led more by me, then I’ll make more decisions. And if Alexis writes it, he'll make those decisions. For example, "Brothers" is something I had an idea for — making the track this chuggy, synth-y, Krautrock sort of thing. Whereas “Hand Me Down Your Love” was really Alexis' baby, so he decided on most of the things that we did. It's how we make decisions about everything, really. In terms of artwork, Owen does that. As far as the live structure of songs, Al often does that. In terms of live drum programming, Felix really controls that, and we allow that person to do their thing and not get in the way.

SHOCKHOUND: And you produce all the records yourselves?

GODDARD: On this album, we allowed a friend of mine, [techno producer] Jesse Rose, to produce one song, which is going to be on the single, “Build a House.” That's the first song we had an outside producer. But the production of the record is really my favorite part of the process, so I like to be heavily involved. In fact, all of us are interested in producing. I think it would be hard for us to give up those decisions.

SHOCKHOUND: I’ve often thought Hot Chip would make a great house band, kind of the way the Roots will go on tour as Jay-Z’s backing band, or something like that.

GODDARD: I'd love to do that for someone like Dizzee Rascal. That would be really cool.

SHOCKHOUND: Will you tour this album as much as you did Made In The Dark?

GODDARD: Our minds are a little bit more on family side of things. Alexis had a baby girl this summer. I'm buying a house with my wife. We're still going to tour and we're excited about touring. But I don't think it will be quite the same amount as Made In The Dark.

SHOCKHOUND: What are some of your best tour memories?

GODDARD: We had a great time at Coachella [in 2008]. It was incredibly hot in that tent. You have to think about the temperature of those things. We've had problems in the past with sweat getting into our synthesizers and them just going nuts. There was a show in Lisbon where the synth I was playing just went nuts and started making really high-pitched squealing sounds, like bird noises instead of bass lines. We've had the drum machine go haywire, and change tempos so techno songs turn into reggae songs. Pretty much anything that can go wrong has gone wrong.

SHOCKHOUND: What else do you hope for One Life Stand?

GODDARD: Maybe sell more. [Laughs] We seem to have a good reputation and a reasonably good live thing, although we never sell very many records. I'm not complaining. We have a good time and good lives. We get to travel the world and make enough money to do it, so I'm happy with that.