I know that I can't ever write a song that just sounds completely saccharin. Even if I'm singing about someone being my complete love life, I'm singing about my own inabilities to be as bright as that person.

When you're making the record, you're not thinking about an audience, but you still need them and you want them.

That happens quite a lot in Hot Chip - you can let go of something that was originally essential to the creation of a song.

For me, the audience is the most important thing in the whole chain, so finding out how they respond to things is a learning curve at all times.

Some people are better at seeing things through to a logical conclusion as far as copying things they like from other people's records; they understand what Brian Eno did and they just do it.

I was listening to a lot more folk music. I love the sound of acoustic guitars but I didn't want to be that person standing up there strumming away.

It's not like that because the improvisation makes it automatically democratic. No one's leading anything. I didn't have to worry about anyone feeling involved. It was just the most natural, easy process of making music.