Award winning producer Nigel Godrich is set to step out from behind the mixing desk, with his new project Hot Rats set to release their debut album.
Nigel Godrich is one of the most acclaimed soundsmiths in the music industry. Godrich’s delicate ears have helped push Radiohead’s music into new areas, where it’s the claustrophobic sheen of ‘OK Computer’ or the eclectic clatter of ‘In Rainbows’.
The producer has vast experience throughout the music industry, yet has rarely stepped into the recording booth himself. Godrich has formed the group Hot Rats with members of Supergrass, and intends to release an album this summer.
Supergrass members Gaz Coombes and Danny Goffey have joined Nigel Godrich in forming ‘Hot Rats’ which has apparently grown out of a knockabout cover of the Michael Jackson classic ‘Beat It’.
Speaking to the NME Nigel Godrich said “we went into the studio to record it because I’ve got a studio in Covent Garden (central London). They came in and did it and decided it wasn’t that good and thought of other songs we really liked.
“So we bashed out a bunch of covers which was great. It was really high-energy psychedelia.”
The band are not intending to record original material. Instead they will release an album of covers in the autumn consisting of tracks that Hot Rats know and love.
Amongst the groups covered on the new album are The Sex Pistols, The Kinks, Pink Floyd, Elvis Costello, The Doors, Pink Floyd and Beastie Boys.
Beastie Boys? Supergrass of course are used to these sort of japes. Coombes and Goffey formed The Diamond Hoo Ha Men after one member of the band broke his back. Playing a series of secret shows the group would often throw in a cover or two, reminding fans of the innocent charm that made Supergrass so irresistible.
“We tried to find songs that were not recorded badly but were recorded in a way which you could finish them or do them in a way which was slightly better,” explained Godrich.
“It’s your sort of classic favourite mixtape, what you think maybe people haven’t heard, which is done really tastefully.”
Hot Rats are due to release their debut album in the Autumn.
