Aah, Hot Chip. Those loveable larrikins and dance floor architects. With 2006’s The Warning they rightfully ascended the electropop food chain, topping many an end of year poll and winning over even the heaviest critics of the ‘electro’ genre. Now, in 2008, they are back with Made in the Dark, an album which has already had chart impact in the UK, US and Aus.  

What makes them so special? Well if this interview tells you anything (which it may not), it’s the band’s humour and playfulness that’s at the centre of their appeal. Combine this with an infectious sense of melody and ubiquitous dance floor made tempos (“The tempo should be reliable, not some wayward macaroni that thinks it can drift off where it pleases”) and there is little doubt as to how and why they have succeeded.

Wireless Bollinger managed to snag Felix Martin, Hot Chip’s drum machine guru, to have a chin-wag about the new album, major derailments and the preferred manner of eating deep fried potato segments…

What was the band trying to achieve on this the 3rd LP?

A stunning, breathtaking firestorm of an album that will cause the entire lives of millions of people across the world to radically improve; an immediate, shocking global event that will break all previous records, exceed all expectations and knock all the competition senseless – in short a record that will in itself preface a groundswell of planetary excitement of such magnitude that the earth itself will shift on its axis, reversing the northern and southern hemispheres and causing the climate of Sydney to be exchanged with that of Hull, in the UK. In summary, our aim was nothing less than to radically improve the climate of Hull.

What created the inspiration for the new shift in tone and tempo of tracks like ‘Hold On’ and ‘Shake a Fist’?

We're not sure this is such a shift in tone or tempo to be honest. The tempo of our music has remained steady, somewhere between 120 & 130 beats per minute (bpm) for most of our adult lives. Occasionally we play around with this a little bit – pushing it to say 132 or even 133 bpm, or conversely, dropping it down for a relatively slow jam around 115 bpm. Once upon a time, we experimented with a tune that played itself out at 1 bpm – it sounded like Zeus clearing his throat – but we eschewed such cheap tricks for this latest album of ours. The tempo should be reliable, not some wayward macaroni that thinks it can drift off where it pleases.

You've hinted that there was a conscious decision to slightly derail the image of five guys on stage using synthesisers. How much of this do you think has been successfully realised on the new tracks?

I'm afraid we've always been a terribly incoherent group of people. Individually, we are extremely sensible, together, focused and driven men. When asked to act as a group, we prevaricate, disagree and generally find it very hard to decide on some kind of strategy for improving ourselves in the eyes of the public. So, to return to the question, I think our entire career up to this point has been a series of major derailments, for the most part unplanned. Fortunately people seem to have been pretty tolerant, and even pleased about this so far.

Your two sets at Splendour in the Grass last year in Byron Bay got near equal praise. How do these big international shows compare to the shows in Britain?

Thank you, it's kind of you to suggest that we were praised for our appearances at Splendour in the Grass. It was a real pleasure to play in Australia again after having so much fun at the Big Day Out festival earlier in the year. Shows abroad tend to be more fun for the band I think. There is a sense of freedom and excitement at playing to all your foreign types. And the UK is the world centre for weary cynicism, which has sadly blighted many of our gigs. That being said, we've just completed a tour of the UK that was very fun and I have every reason to say 'thanks' to our audiences here too.

Al Doyle said: "If we have to have remixes – which we sort of do – then we're going to try and go for the most interesting stuff, and if we can introduce people to some people that we think they should be listening to then that's a sort of good power to have I think." Do bands have a responsibility to educate and challenge?

There are precious few responsibilities for people in this industry! The lifestyle is very much a hedonistic one once you achieve a degree of success and it's seen as quite a sin or at the very least an eccentricity to do much beyond living it up a bit and putting out a half decent record every couple of years. Our main aim is to challenge ourselves to continue making strange records that people actually end up buying. We try and treat the whole experience as an education, and years of playing live have certainly improved us as musicians and in my opinion as songwriters. I can't think much beyond that – we try to make records that are surprising, we don't want to second guess or patronize people and we never want to set out to make a 'classic record' – what a criminal idea! As far as DJ-ing and producing goes, we have a lot of friends who make good music and we are always keen to use our own exposure to shed light on them.

How much of the Hot Chip 'style' comes organically from the collaboration process, and how much is a conscious attempt to create something which challenges the conservatism of indie rock - an attempt to throw a ‘Gang Gang Dance’ amongst the pigeons?

Yes, when we started out we used to talk a lot about the sheer dullness and blandness of most music around us, we felt the need to do something radically different but as songwriters and producers we have always had our "pop" side, something that has drawn the records we have made into the mainstream. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts to put a rocket up the collective backside of the UK music scene, we are now surrounded by a different but equally moribund collection of dullards. I just hope we didn't make things worse.

Why wasn't ‘My Piano’ included on Made In The Dark?

It was an exclusive track for !K7 and the DJ Kicks compilation that we made.

Are there any plans to record an independent mix-album in the vein of DJ Kicks?

We are all DJs and continue to play regularly around the world. It seems pretty likely that more mixtapes and compilations will emerge when we have a bit of time off.

The upcoming tour shows an equal priority given to both North American and European dates. Does this say anything about the way Hot Chip approach both touring and the music business in general?

We enjoy touring in the US - to be honest we should probably play a lot more in Europe but it's never been quite as much fun. We've sold bugger all records in the States so I'm not sure why we keep going back. They're always very welcoming though - I think there are silent millions who have simply downloaded the record for free.

When can your growing Australian fan base expect to see some Hot Chip action down under? And how does Australia fit into the wider picture? (Musically, business wise, pressure from labels etc?)

We'll be back sooner rather than later. Both our trips down under have been great fun, we are aware that we have some really loyal fans in Oz and we are very keen to spend more time in that part of the world.

What was the highlight of your last trip out here in 2007?

Meeting 80-year-old Thomas Beck, a survivor of the Holocaust who currently lives in Sydney. Some very old friends of mine are making a film about him and I had the chance to meet him – he came to our show and had a great time – we are now his second favourite band, just behind the Gypsy Kings.

And finally - What is the preferred way for the band to eat deep fried
potato chips?

Sparingly?