How Hot Chip Got Their Name

Spin magazine spoke with Joe Goddard of Hot Chip in a Q&A, talking about how the British electropop band got their name. “I remember Alex [Taylor] and I making the name up on the spot at a gig in our school’s theater when we were 15 or 16,” the co-vocalist told David Marchese. “We were using an old electronic organ and electric guitar and were playing some of our own songs and some covers: Spacemen 3, Pavement, stuff like that. We hadn’t even bothered to come up with a name yet. When we were done playing, someone asked who we were and we just said, ‘Hot Chip,’ which was a phrase we thought was funny at the time. We liked it because it was kind of pathetic. It’s essentially a stupid image: French fries, which are called chips in England. Basically, this is all a way of saying that the Hot Chip name began as an inside joke, and 15 years later it’s still our band’s name.” Check out more band name discussion here.