Hot Chip release a Best Of album, Joy In Repetition, in September and in the run up to that release have posted some fascinating behind-the-scenes footage of the making of their track Boy From School.
Posted to Instagram, it shows Joe Goddard in his bedroom studio, recording vocals and a touch of xylophone.
Frontman Alexis Taylor captioned the post: “I wrote the basic idea of Boy From School in Joe’s brother’s bedroom – a house I had spent many days and nights in, singing songs and hanging out with Joe, Jazz, Owen and other friends.”
He continued: “After recording the waltz-time Casiotone organ and drum machine version of the song, Joe suggested we turn it into a disco song. So we re-recorded it straight away and added the repeating Vox electric piano riff which runs throughout – which Joe then auto-wahed/phased to bring that distinctive sound. Casiotone MT-70 provided the galloping bassline, lap steel guitar was used for the new bridge section that Joe came up with, and we developed the song fully into the track you hear today – with further work on it over the next weeks. You can see Joe working on various aspects of the song’s percussive groove in this clip filmed by his dad Pete Goddard.”
And if you’re unfamiliar with the band’s oeuvre, here’s what the finished version sounds like:
Boy From School came from the band’s second – and breakthrough – album, The Warning. Released as the follow up to then-ubiquitous Over And Over, it scrapped into the Top 40 in May 2006 at Number 40.
Meanwhile Joy In Repetition arrives on September 5, complete with a Peter Blake sleeve depicting, yes, a monkey with a minature cymbal (a nod to a memorable line from Over And Over). Announcing the album’s release earlier this month, Taylor explained the title, saying: “There’s joy in doing something again and again. That’s true of rhythms, of grooves and of making records together for 20 years. We’re still doing it. We still love doing it.”
And he tipped his hat in the direction of his bandmate: “I think of Joe as being like Brian Wilson, with this huge dedication to finding how to make the most amazing pop music.”
