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Somewhat under the radar, Hot Chip have delivered one of 2012's finest albums in the shape of 'In Our Heads'. We recently caught up with Felix Martin from the band to chat about the album, switching record labels, making music for the Olympics and why we might not be seeing a Hot Chip sitcome any time soon.
Gigwise: How have you found the reaction to ‘In Our Heads’ since it was released earlier this year?
Felix: It’s been fantastic. We’ve been particularly happy with how well it has done in countries that we’ve not necessarily done so well in the past. We’re really happy with Domino, our new label, too. They’ve been fantastic and really got behind the album.
How have you found working on an independent label again after spending time with EMI on your past few albums?
It’s not actually as different as you might imagine. Domino have lots of people working in well defined roles that help with making ideas happen quickly and easily. We could have released a couple more albums through EMI but it was a mutual decision for us to move on. We’ve never really been a big mainstream thing for them, we’ve generally sold a lot less than our profile might suggest really!
How do you feel that ‘In Our Heads’ fits into Hot Chip’s musical output as a whole?
I think it fits in nicely really. The ideas we have always had are more refined now and makes us able to create the best album possible. There’s no great departure.
How have you found slotting the new songs in alongside the older ones during your festival sets this Summer?
Absolutely brilliant. We’ve played lots of festivals, we were at Lovebox earlier in the Summer and we’re playing Bestival next month and the new songs seem to be fitting in perfectly. It’s often better to be playing new songs, at least from a performance point of view.
One of the best things about Hot Chip in recent times has been your music videos. How did you come to work with Rollo Jackson on your latest video for ‘How Do You Do?’
Rollo’s just a really old friend, we’ve known him about fifteen years and we were wanting to create a really lo-fi video that had things like skateboarding in it. There was nobody better to ask to do it than Rollo, he’s great.
You also worked with comedian Peter Serafinowicz for the second time on ‘Night and Day’. What appeals to you about working with him and do you have plans to do anything in the future with him?
He’s very unpredictable and eccentric, which appeals to us. We’d be happy to work with him on any project. He’s very funny and incredibly interesting to work with.
Could we see Hot Chip - the sitcom?
Haha, maybe not but we did discuss the possibility of making a book together recently. Everything we have done before has been quite straight forward so it would be nice to do something different.
Hot Chip have been around for a while now and many of your contemporaries have moved into producing for pop stars. Is that something which appeals to you or the band at all?
I think that is something that appeals to Joe (Goddard, Hot Chip producer) more than me. I’m not a fan of the pop charts at all but I know that Joe and Alexis (Taylor, vocals) pay a bit more attention and know what is going on there.
Anyone watching the ping-pong at the Olympics this year would have heard the sounds of Hot Chip playing as the players entered their matches. How did your music come to be used at the Games?
I know that we were asked to do it and then we contributed a song to LOCOG and it all went from there. I didn’t go to anything myself but I know that Alexis went down to see the table tennis a few times. It was great to be a part of it all.
Hot Chip's latest album 'In Our Heads' is out now. The band play Bestival in September.
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