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Amid cries of ‘Have Hot Chip gone soft?’, guitarist Owen Clarke describes why the band are happy juxtaposing their trademark electropop with something a little sentimental

STANDING ON the doorstep of his London flat, phone pressed tightly to his ear as early morning traffic screeches past, Hot Chip’s Owen Clarke is trying to ignore the light dusting of snow that’s falling on his shoulders. He’s far too preoccupied with the more important things in life, like his band’s new album. One Life Standhas been two years in the making, after all; it comes on the back of their longest period of downtime since they “blew up”, as bloggers might put it, with their dinky dancefloor-filling full-length The Warningin 2006. But it’s not just that, Clarke says. The Londoners’ fourth album arguably features some of the electropoppers’ bravest moments, to boot, and having heard the aptly-titled slow-moving ballad Slush, we’re inclined to agree. They’re primarily known as a dance band, but do Hot Chip feel like they’ve finally earned the right to be indulgent by juxtaposing sentimental numbers with their trademark bouncy electronica?