Alexis Taylor jacked in a writing job to sing with dance-indie crossover band Hot Chip, but, with a second album under their belts, and a slot in the upcoming Garden Party in Co Westmeath, he's glad he took a gamble, he tells Jim Carroll

WHEN the Ticket last spoke to Alexis Taylor, he was about to leave his job writing press releases and updating the website for Domino Records to become a full-time Hot Chip. The singer was excited, if a little nervous, about what was ahead.

A year on and it looks like he made the right decision. The success of the band's second album, The Warning, has seen Hot Chip go from a cool name to drop to a band with big tunes and bigger ambitions. The sound of indie kids and Prince fans falling into step with electronic beeps and bleeps - their smart, arch, oddly inventive tunes have found favour far and wide.

The Chip's appearance at this weekend's Garden Party is one of several high-profile festival turns this summer, including a headlining slot on the John Peel Stage at Glastonbury.

"These festival dates are really for our own sake, to give us a break from the writing and recording we've been doing most of the year," says Taylor. "We did a lot of American shows earlier in the year and now there are these shows, but it's really just a short stint away from the studio.

"There's already a lot of new material written and chances are we'll be playing some new songs on these shows. Because we're still plugging The Warning, I suppose we don't have to actually worry about putting something new out for a while."

The new material, suggests Taylor, will be a mixture of different sounds and influences. "There are three or four songs on the next record that are very, very gentle and relaxed. They're inspired by folk music, basically. A lot of them have real piano and they're quite quiet with some mellow synthesizers and some harmonies. They're gentle and less boisterous. Then some other tracks are pretty pounding, some pretty straightforward techno with a real song-based edge to them."

It seems as if Taylor's hope that the next album will have more of a spread of influences to it is already bearing fruit. "I suppose I'm the one in the band who looks at our debut album and thinks there should have more of the soulful influences from that to our new material. There have been some great and inventive modern soul records that have stuck with me and there are also people who are soulful in a broader sense, country singers like Willie Nelson and Townes Van Zandt. They had more effect on me than anyone contemporary which Hot Chip might be bundled in with and I'd like to see if we could do something about that on the new record. Most people in indie rock tend to be far too conservative about stuff like that."

Last time around, Hot Chip recorded much of the album in various bedrooms.

"Well, quite a few new tracks still been started in the bedroom!" quips Taylor. "We were actually thinking of doing half a song in the bedroom and half live, so that you would be able to see the transformation from one to the other. But we've also been into a studio to record a few times. This time, it's going to be less intricate and more like the five of us playing live. What we don't want to do is to repeat the formula we used on The Warning because we've got a bit tired of that."

It's a long way from the schoolyard in Elliot Comprehensive in south London where Taylor first met Hot Chip co-founder Joe Goddard. Interestingly, they weren't the only leftfield musical stars to come out of that unlikely hothouse.

"Kieran Hebden from Four Tet and Adem Ilhan were two years above us, but we used to hang out with them because we were all into our music. Also, dubstep artist Burial was in the year above us. It was a totally normal comprehensive school, but they had some good music teachers, and the music department had rooms available where bands could rehearse. There were amps you could use and everything.

"We learned a lot from Kieran and Adem and those guys. They would teach us various things and I would listen to records they recommended."

Ahead of their summer festival jaunt, there is one new Hot Chip product in the shops and that's the DJ Kicks mix album. Besides a new band track, My Piano (influenced hugely by Diana Ross's My Old Piano), the album also features tracks by Tom Zé, Audion, Ray Charles, Wookie, New Order and Etta James.

It's an attempt to showcase all five band members' individual likes and tastes. "It wasn't easy," admits Taylor. "We knew we didn't want to do a straight house or techno album and that we wanted it to be more like a mix tape. We also wanted to use it as an opportunity to introduce people to stuff they may not have heard before, like Wax Stag and Pete Um who are both mates of ours."

The mix album also neatly sums up where Hot Chip are at, playing away at the crossroads where dance acts and indie guitar music come together.

"I know that we get some people to our shows who come along thinking we'll play techno and house," says Taylor. "Then, there are others who think we'll just play indie hits. Hopefully, we can continue to appeal to both camps."

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Swing of the castle

The Garden Party was always set to make a return. Thanks to a fantastic location (an 18th-century walled garden in the grounds of Ballinlough Castle, about three miles from Athboy, Co Westmeath) and a laid-back atmosphere, the first Garden Party last year had people saying such things as: "it was just like a mini-Electric Picnic".

For year two, there's a big emphasis on the extra bits and bobs, with the people who created the Picnic's Body & Soul arena now on board. There are also various magical villages, holistic havens, ambient lounges and enchanted playgrounds.

The musical bill of fare is also promising with headliners Pet Shop Boys, Hot Chip (see main feature) and Von Sudenfed set to make an impact.

Another probable highlight will be Vitalic, French producer Pascal Arbez, whose OK Cowboy album remains one of the more lasting and satisfying electro-disco thrillers of recent years.

Garden Party takes place at Ballinlough Castle, Co Westmeath, tomorrow