LCD's end?

LCD Soundsystem on permanent back burner but guitarist reveals future 'disco' plans

17 November 2008 - Hot Chip's Al Doyle, who also plays with LCD Soundsystem, has revealed he thinks it is the end of LCD as we know it.

Recent reports suggested the band were on a break but guitarist Doyle said the project is, "on permanent hold".

Instead of creating new LCD material they would like to collaborate with some 1970s disco singers from New York.

For that, Doyle said frontman James Murphy would like to take more of a back seat, rather than fronting the band as a whole.

Speaking to BBC 6 Music about Murphy's plans, Doyle said: "I don't think James is going to do anything more under that name. I think he'd like to do something with the same personnel possibly next year."

He listed the band members that would be involved in future projects as himself, James Murphy, drummer Pat Mahoney, bassist and guitarist Tyler Pope and Nancy Whang on keyboards.

Doyle went on to explain one possibility: "We were thinking of doing something where we find a lot of the old disco singers in New York that might still be around from the 70s, and get them in as guest vocalists with LCD as a backing band, and tour around as a disco heroes style show.

"There's an improvisatory aspect to what Hot Chip do, which I don't think is part of LCD."
Al Doyle

"It's just an idea that we had, God knows if we'll make it happen."

As for their band name, Doyle said the title LCD Soundsystem might not live on either.

"We'd probably call ourselves something different but James is quite keen to do the disco thing," said Doyle, "Or he's also quite keen to do something that's more of a collaborative project between all of us without him taking so much of a lead.

"Although I'm not sure if he'd be capable of doing that or not, he's not the kind of guy that really sits back."

Inside Murphy's mind

Speaking about his LCD Soundsystem cohort, Doyle said: "I've definitely learnt a lot from him but I think that we're very different people. I think that, by his own admission, he's a quite borderline obsessive compulsive in the way that he works.

"He's very strict and finds it difficult to play outside of what he considers to be the set structure of a song or the way in which it sounds. Whereas the way that I work, and the rest of the boys in Hot Chip, we're very free about what we do onstage and it changes all the time."

However, Doyle added that their opposite approaches compliment the way he and Murphy make music together, saying: "There's an improvisatory aspect to what Hot Chip do, which I don't think is part of LCD, but I think that's good for both of us.

"There's some things that I do that James wouldn't normally have somebody in the band doing, so I think he quite enjoys that and I like the discipline. It's like going to boot camp or something."

Hot Chip released their third album Made In The Dark in February and Doyle said they plan to make a fourth record in the latter part of 2009.

Georgie Rogers