Simian's 'surprising' collaborations

Simian Mobile Disco's James Ford and Jas Shaw talk about the "surprising" sessions which see Gossip, Hot Chip and Yeasayer help on their new LP.

For some people it's a scruffy door matt.

For others it's a smattering of well-loved cushions.

For James Ford and Jas Shaw – together they are electronic-partnership Simian Mobile Disco - it's a colossal pair of bass-spewing speakers and a leather swivel chair which make somewhere feel like home.

As we meet them at London's bustling Premises Studios [Metronomy are rehearsing upstairs, Hadouken downstairs] they're deep within their natural habitat.

"Everybody came into the studio, that little box in the corner that you can see, and sang their hearts out…" says Ford pointing at a curtained booth.

Second coming

It's a facility which has been well used.

Their forthcoming album Temporary Pleasure boasts a flashy roster of vocal contributors that includes Gossip's Beth Ditto, Hot Chip's Alexis Taylor, Telepathe, Jamie Liddell and Chris Keating from Yeasayer who sings on current single Audacity Of Huge.

"If you listen to the Yeasayer record it doesn’t sound like anything on that," Shaw says of the track. "We were definitely surprised. There's something seedy and unpleasant that we really liked."

James and Jas say Beth Ditto was surprisingly a bit shy

The whole record is a marked departure from their 2007 debut Attack Decay Sustain Release – a jilted mix of disco pop and techno scattered with appearances.

Crafting a cohesive whole must be a problem?

"I wouldn't say it's a problem," counters Ford. "I'd say it was a challenge that we enjoy."

"We specifically try to choose quite a varied group of people so we did have a challenge of trying to make it fit all together and I think we have."

The diverse star volunteers were all recruited through the band's wide ranging contacts and reputation in the dance world.

"We just thought they'd all do something good," Ford smiles. "We like the lyrics they write, we like the vocal style – we were just interested to see what they'd do."

'Amazing voice'

Two tracks particularly stand out, firstly garage-soul diva Beth Ditto's (untypically restrained) vocal turn on Cruel Intentions.

"We did have a bit of an agenda with her to make her sing in that way," says Shaw.

"We were aware that she has this amazing voice. We didn't want her to do the 'Rock thing' we wanted it to come across as a more soul-y Detroit-y thing.

"We did say, 'Sing quietly'. She was really up for it, she said, 'I don't often get the opportunity to sing like this'."

The Arkansas singer wasn't exactly what the pair were expecting.

"She was actually a little bit shy," says Ford. "The first time she was singing through she made us press record and leave the room - which I was quite surprised about considering she gets naked and rolls around on stage."

Hot Chip's bespectacled foreman Alexis Taylor also lends a hand to throbbing track Bad Blood.

"Before he was on it sounded more like a Border Community track, it sounded really techno-y, you put him on it and it just sounds like Hot Chip," laughed Shaw.

"He’s just got one of those voices that works amazingly over electronic music. As soon as he was on it was like, 'Wow that literally sounds like a Hot Chip track'. We tried as much as we could to take it away from that. He's just got that Hot Chip magnetism."

Other projects

Of course Simian Mobile Disco isn't the only matter preoccupying Shaw and Ford's time.

Just in the last six months Ford has lent a production hand to Florence And The Machine's debut, Arctic Monkeys' Humbug and Klaxons' much talked about second album ["I don't want to add fuel to the fire which is Klaxons" he states.].

It means all their music is made in a pressurised, time-constrained environment.

James Ford: "We don't get anything finished unless we're together in the same room.

"This record was made in snatched moments in between touring and producing. I think that was a blessing because we didn't have time to over think or rationalise it too much."

Temporary Pleasure is released on 17 August.