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.

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

It's funny, I played a social gig once - we were playing music that was rhythm based, but it was going in some strange places. Some people came up to me afterward and said, "Can you play a tune that we'll all recognize?" I've carried that with me forever - why would you want a tune you could recognize? What's the point of that?

We're still making Hot Chip records whilst doing these other things, so why not just try and make music you enjoy making rather than being tied down by things? It would just be crazy to not allow people to make music.

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.

Starting out, I remember being on the same bill with other bands, and I always thought they were so much better because they were rehearsed and had all their moves down and they sounded really tight.

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.