The Hat Chat Podcast #11 - Time to Face the Music!

[@williamorrah9613]

I think the first time I remember you guys playing music was in a random video with Strippin. There was a song about corgis and a song about french toast. I remember Trott was a surprisingly technical guitar player, Smith was a good singer and improviser, and Ross was sitting in the background playing a broken out of tune pink ukelele. Good memories.

[@sebwaffles4424]

Such a nice surprise that you used my fingle, it made my week, at least, and thank you for pronouncing my name so articulately. You guys are the best XD

[@lio1234234]

Mate you really deserved it that song was both amazing and hilariously fitting to their funny trio. :D

[@kieranhunter2481]

As someone who has a degree in music education and now wants to persue music composition, I really wish I had some friends I could just sit down and talk in depth about music and theory and such. This was my favourite episode of the podcast so far!

[@mokmok8080]

Podcast now sponsored by NORDVPN? 7:40 top left. Good on you boiks.

[@thewildmitchell]

How is that good?

[@thewildmitchell]

​@@rijsmiddel8765 Are you getting a piece of the pie also? It's like saying, I love longer adverts in the middle of The Chase! More adverts, more censored content, more selling out essentially... I mean I'm hardly bothered, you gotta do what you gotta do but as a consumer, how is more monetised content in the form of any sponsor a good thing for us? It's brilliant for them.

[@Helldhaz]

I mean, they've had incredibly obnoxious popups all over their streams for years now, because it helps them make more money. A little banner in the corner is nothing by comparison.

[@thewildmitchell]

​@@Helldhaz I haven't seen the video, only first 20 mins or so so I didn't know if they did the usual cringey YT shit where they read the Dollar Shave Club script out or not. It's not that I'm criticising Hatfilms specifically, my point was just how are sponsors good for any consumer.

[@NoRubiTV]

If you boys wanted to make serious music I think there are a lot of people including myself who would love to hear it

[@WildWestRaider]

I never thought my favorite band Deftones would get a shout-out from the Hat boys!!! They've been my number 1 since I first heard them as a young teenager, and was my primary inspiriation to play rhythm guitar. Excellent taste!!

[@drugmaster_telros7770]

I FUCKING LOVED this episode. It's awesome to see what your views with music are! being a muso and studying music to so I cant wait to see the next musical episode, got to try make you guys a fingle at some point.

[@thomascatchpole71]

22:17 honestly I'd never heard "Warden" before and I've listened to it 10 times since this podcast. It's an amazing song, lyrically, vocally and instrumentally. I love it and Alex should be proud.

[@BanthaBoi]

Best podcast yet. I'm in the process of writing my own music right now and relate to everything you've said. Even though your music is jokey it has inspired me. I'd love to hear more about your music stuff boiks

[@KatyStCloud]

going back through and relistening tothese while working from home, this is still such a standout episode, so interesting and lots of great chat!

[@Crokto]

so you can argue about 320kbps mp3s sounding as good as flac if you want, but even if we assume they sound the same, flac is valuable for archival purposes, since there is no loss of information at all from an uncompressed file, but it's still smaller than a wav (plus it has more meta information). this makes it so you can process the audio and shit without loss of quality, or compress it into different formats in the future

[@stlingt]

This is probably my favourite episode so far! Definetly do another one on this subject

[@DR244Steam]

I don't usually comment, but please do another music episode if you have more to talk about! I love messing around to create fun sounds and tunes and this episode was really interesting and inspiring!

[@grahampennington8556]

I would totally listen to any serious music you would make! I listen to Smith's old stuff quite a bit.

[@aidanscovers]

trotts band opened for architects im dying lol

[@georgehughes7122]

The Blur song is called The Universal I think

[@GretchenDawntreader]

I picture Hat Films enjoying Jethro Tull, for all the playful rhythms and wild flute.

[@wetbread4922]

This was my favourite HC yet. Would love to hear more music talk in the future :)

[@dankirt15]

For someone trying to convince himself to take making music seriously this has be so helpful: with the tech stuff, the inspiration stuff and just the attitude towards it Thanks so much boiks

[@kantina4765]

you guys really should try making serious music. I think smith has a great voice and trott and ross are both talented in their own right. something poppy with a healthy amount of experimentation would work great with rosses production and trotts guitar. ps. I doubt any of you are reading this but if trott happens to, what model is your super strat? it looks expensive.

[@whiteninja2006]

Looks like a Schecter C1 FR S Apocalypse (the one with the sustainiac)

[@AhkoRC]

I think Trott is also a pretty good singer but he seems to shy away from it in favour of Smiffy.

[@moondusk8385]

Seeing a Hat Chat upload is sweet music to my ears.

[@mokmok8080]

Smiffy slowly turning into Simon with the grey streak in his beard

[@donm6578]

Clarinet is more complex and nuanced to play than the sax. I played Sax for 9yrs but have the hardest time learning all the extra keys and embouchure changes for the wider range that the clarinet has. I wish I started with the clarinet or at least learned it alongside the sax because Anyone who started with the clarinet will easily pick up the flute and sax, but you have to work harder to learn the clarinet if you're coming from flute/sax. Trott should get a sax cuz if he remembers anything from the clarinet he'll probably be pretty decent in short time.

[@twot2224]

Can't wait for the clarinet/oboe action next Christmas!

[@kattybatty13]

I remember my mum told me to pick an instrument when I was 5, so I chose the harp... I wasn't allowed this and no one taught it surprisingly! So we got to grade 5 violin, purely until about yr 10 in secondary school. All our music teachers were a little bit eccentric and odd though so eventually I just quit turning up, but I did like how I was only one of 4 who could play to a good standard.

[@razzledazzled4009]

I'm American and I've never heard mall pronounced like that, I've always pronounced it as mahl

[@SolstaceWinters]

As another American, I've always heard it pronounced "maul" like the weapon. Like how you'd pronounce "Molly".

[@KatyStCloud]

In which I am Trott, down to the grade 7 clarinet and loving Moonshine by Bruno Mars. Wonder if he's a gloryhammer fan too... they mix the cinematic with the metal so well plus bonus characters, narrative and costume

[@hal40k]

This was great, really fun to listen to your music interests guys :)

[@theempireband343]

Moonshine is the kind of song I listen to when I'm depressed to make myself more depressed, but I love it

[@JamesIRE]

Great podcast btw! One of my favorites so far.

[@awesomeaartvark]

Oooooh, congrats on the sponsor!! I don't make a lot of music, but I do love messing around every so often in free music programs, heh. Out of all the instruments I dabbled in, I wish guitar had been one of them, cuz it would make messing around/understanding chords easier for me, which I never quite got to learn fully on piano. But also, a lot of stuff you all mentioned about knowing too much, or focusing too much on the production aspect also applies to other areas of art, specifically drawing and shading from my experience. I kinda hit that area not too long ago, where I wasn't really drawing stuff I wanted to, and I didn't like any of it, cuz I was trying to draw stuff a certain way, instead of just drawing something cuz I felt like it. Just enjoying the process and approaching it with a "go with the flow" kinda attitude definitely has resulted in more pieces I'm happy with! I quite enjoyed this episode, hearing you all go into more detail about your music-making thought process and musical experiences was super cool!

[@orangemonkeygaming2715]

Does anyone know if the plectrums will be on the store? I can’t go to yogcon but would really like one.

[@RealKingChief]

As a musician myself (currently studying a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Performance) this was a pretty cool episode! I like the things that were discussed and I found it interesting. It's always good to hear others talk about things you like so you can get multiple perspectives or ideas and thinkings about it. It's also interesting since I'm currently focused on music as my direction in life and because of this I have to treat a certain aspect of it as a job which can entail a lot of practicing and working on my craft. Comparing this to more "general" music makers, it is interesting. P.S.The Blur part was funny to me because Blur is a band I quite like haha. Damon Albarn is one of my favourite musicians (listen to his solo record "Everyday Robots" if you haven't!).

[@samuelehret-pickett7983]

Starting a bachelor in music in September too

[@RealKingChief]

@@samuelehret-pickett7983 Sweet! I hope it's fun for you :)

[@TheCrusaderGamer]

I used to hate that old ski slope in Yeovil, cant believe you played there.

[@ZorroLocoStudios]

I love your music! I've done some composing/arranging in the past, and it is very time consuming, especially since you have to be in a certain mood to work on certain projects. And mastering is not only a huge pain in the ass, but also often changes the way you see your work, you're definitely right about that. Thanks for giving us your perspective on that, I'm always interested in seeing how and why artists do their work!

[@TheBassHeavy]

I have a PhD in music so this was really interesting to me. I guess it's like Simon Clark listening to non-academics talk about physics. It's interesting how people explain things like keys. Looking forward to the music stream at Yogcon boiks!

[@psypsy751]

I didn't see Smith tuck in his ear and when I saw it I stared at it like "did he fight a fucking dog or something?" then it just popped out and no one reacted so I had to comment. That was funny, Smith, good contribution.

[@walkingdeadbanks986]

i paused at 10:00 i don't regret it lol

[@ronjohnson831]

Big fan of the podcast, deserves more views

[@DubiousJackson]

You played in a village hall? Try playing a library for a community festival and it’s just full of old people who mostly fell asleep! Did that gig two years in a row! Free wine was good though!

[@Lenny_DK]

speaking of music, and how they are similar you should try finding "axis of awesome and the 4 chords song" they play like 30+ songs that sounds very much the same like that.

[@MutterMayhem]

Smith should try Ben Howard if he hasn't already. He's pretty much the British Bon Iver

[@catmantad5539]

Listening to these podcasts a little late but was so chuffed to hear Trott mention Moonshine by Bruno Mars. Great track and yet no one seems to have heard of it.

[@jaxxinator5999]

Mall is pronounced like Smith says only in 'Pall Mall'.

[@user-uv2cp1qd1j]

Maybe you should try and make ‘serious’ songs. So when people go “ZOMG PLAY WARDEN!!!!” it won’t be out of place, and you can surround it with other somber songs, with or without lyrics.

[@kantina4765]

id like to hear them make some more less jokey music too. I remember stalking smiths old bands sound cloud and they were pretty good, plus rosses stuff is normally pretty good too.

[@user-uv2cp1qd1j]

Kantina as much as I’m sure we both love the social commentary entrenched in Pleasure Elf, they CAN do better.

[@JBLHPJ]

You guys should listen to tesseract, UK band probably my favourite right now. If you like deftones it's not a million miles away

[@BenjaminStewart]

Smith's ear at 8:30 HAHAHAHAH

[@rreeeekk]

"Can literally be heard by 5 people" while video has 5 views 👀

[@PuncoChicoGamingGod]

Holy shit...ARCHITECTS?!?!?! That's awesome twotty

[@kieran_himself]

why is smith folding his ear at 8:31 lmao

[@haljordan2370]

Need that new merch that Trotts wearing

[@atomfpv1907]

This was a great one guys

[@rusinsr]

Damn, the Fish are Friends merch was inspired by OffWhite? Coo! The black hoodie and white shirt are my favorite apparel items hands down! Please make more street-wear merch :D

[@maritemelke9836]

Im not joking when i say that i would buy a Hat films music album with serious songs and i would love if they also did serious songs as well as joke songs.

[@AhkoRC]

"You can just post anything on a bus and people will believe it." "Obviously we all saw that documentary and it really opened our eyes on the matter." It's alright guys. You do you.

[@MrSpannners]

How have these guys and funhaus not done a collab, they are so similar and their comedy is would work so well together. I would pay to make this happen

[@jamesdavies2140]

Where can you find these songs?

[@unorthodoxbox]

I remember the first time I played a piano was at secondary school and I did really enjoy it but my teacher just did not seem to like me, I know in future years our dislike for one another became more evident but I remember the first two years being invested in that thing and she shunned me when I wanted to read notes. *shrug* still make the odd if crappy jingle now and then though I think the most recent was Deku's theme, don't want the show but read the comic and music just pops into my head when reading it.

[@kiko114kiko114]

i really like noot noot...

[@XxkristybellxX]

I’d be intrigued to hear what you guys come up with if you did a ‘serious’ song

[@cwilkinson7629]

I'm sure you pronounce it differently for Pall Mall when playing Monopoly tho, boiks

[@willstalley6311]

Your guys performance on jingle jam last year was class !! The intro was fuckin sick on a mission to learn it 🤙🏻 🎸 !!!! Good luck with ur performance

[@mechanicalturk5202]

Interesting that Alan miss pronounced 'pronunciation'

[@Phagocytosis]

In the relatively early days of Hat Films, you guys did make some serious instrumental music, right? Like Chinchilla and Evasion? I would love it if you did more of that, still. But I imagine it's a bit time-prohibitive, perhaps, now that you are so busy with everything.

[@MattyFez]

I want to call out Crisp Tropp on him saying there's no difference between high bitrate MP3s and FLACs

[@SulkyOptimism]

Same. Trotteru you got some assplaining to do.

[@theroyle7098]

What was that free copyright music website they (i think it was trott) mentioned?

[@kaibrooks2309]

Trott played before Architects!? What the fuck they're one of my favourite bands... wow lol

[@snowhazard7872]

I would love to hear a serious song this jingle jam

[@Ratbagsocialist]

"flume" harley strettan used to play sax i think.

[@PurpleOwl79]

Bruno Mars should not be classified as a guilty pleasure, Bruno Mars is actually talented as fuck and a good guy.

[@Tom-qc3kl]

How tf did trotts band play before architects

[@samuelehret-pickett7983]

I loved this one boiks

[@LukkiiBoy]

how do you spell the name of that "bonnie something" band they were talking about?

[@martinbeesley3167]

Bon Iver

[@Hoppa_Joel]

Craig Hornsby Alex Trott.... C.H.A.T. films! :)

[@lauren.3]

So then would the podcast be the chatchat podcast? I kinda like it has a nice ring to it

[@zel-nh9ot]

Yooooooooooooooooo, you guys should totally make a serious song! Love Smiths old music, you guys clearly love music and enjoy making it so why not experiment? What is there to lose? Look at Joji for instance, he had a huge shift from youtube/joke music into serious genuine song making. I'd really love hearing what you guys could create for any given genre. You guys aren't particularly associated with any individual genre as far as I can tell (Smith in folk, Trott in metal and Ross with electronic) so you have tremendous freedom to experiment.

[@StormHawksHD]

AaaaaaAAAaaaAAAlssmiffffyy CAMMMMMMM..... VARRRIOUS SHOTTTS OF SKYYYLANDDDSS... EPISODE 30!

[@whosadaman8326]

where is elon is by far my favorite song you guys have done

[@whiteninja2006]

Sorry Trott, but FLAC IS better than high quality mp3. Not massively so, admittedly, but still. Enough for me to notice it (sometimes I wish I wouldn't notice it, would have saved me a lot of money). That said, if you go further with REALLY high quality digital files (uncompressed .wav, .dsd, 24-bit and 96khz + ) , the difference is astounding... provided you're listening on proper equipment. For 90% of the time, mp3s will be sufficent. Personally, I do like the convenience of streaming services (deezer is what I use), but the quality is iffy in most cases, even at 320kbit/s.

[@jasonaubin3575]

I love Bon Iver

[@eugenemcelroy6229]

Smith the wordsmith

[@marcycutting7030]

All through this podcast I'm just getting horrible 'Noot Noot' flashbacks Very interesting other than that though boiks!

[@gregorB92]

Blur oasis and coldplay. Love them all. Wouldnt have alot to talk about with you guys about music haha

[@Osfrie]

I think Trott needs to move back a bit from his mic, he's always louder than Ross and Smith, the bass from his voice is nuts. I'm worried my flatmate might wake up because of this coming from my speakers XD

[@MrLIVE-jf1qp]

I enjoy watching the boys come up with music, it's beautiful and funny but while I enjoy the hatfilms music making and the funny ideas within the music, I have do have some issues with it. I believe the boys have talent and alot of creativity, but the music comes off as unfinished. The only reason why I don't have hat films music on my playlists is because I don't think they take the time to truly refine what they create into something that is not only funny but pleasing to listen to. Their music from the live streams comes off as very improvy and embraces it's flaws. But to me its the difference between a studio track and a live concert recording, the studio recording is always better. To the boys, keep making music and having fun, I've been watching and listening to you for a long time now and love every day that I get to see you guys be silly and creative really does make my day. I would love to see you boys take your time a make and refine and polish some music into a hatfilms album, because if you really really tried I know you'd blow all of our dicks right off.

[@jacobbishop3573]

Did Smith just say that 'Bittersweet Symphony' was a Blur song?

[@donny6349]

A lot of people mess that up

[@jacobbishop3573]

@@donny6349 Fair, I mean they're both - without a doubt - members of the Britpop movement. And especially if Smith didn't know or care much for Britpop, but still. Always kinda grew up joking that BSS was the biggest song The Verve ever did, so it's odd to me.

[@SolstaceWinters]

Alllll praaaiiiiise the nooooot!

[@alex31721able]

I got told you're meant to say mal too

[@Khronogi]

Just create your serious songs if you want, I'll listen.

[@franklinmiles1]

I think they might love Two Steps From Hell as much as I do, I hope they check it out.

[@VideoSage]

I may never be able to understand, your disdain for Noot Noot. Its a dark, twisted cult song, that feels like it comes out of the sewers of an ancient fantasy. It's quality, to someone like me, who isn't that nitpicky about audio quality, sounds fantastic. Any flaws I can remember, add to the twisted nature.

[@victarion6294]

Would you ever consider going on the True Geordie podcast? that has the potnential to be a all time great podcast in my eyes

[@samc3926]

Lukas 99 imagine ross just doing the true geordie impression to him the whole time

[@samuelehret-pickett7983]

I'd love that so much

[@_Swarm]

Repetition legitimises

[@RealKingChief]

Repetition legitimises

[@ianbrown7509]

smith you're my father. please acknowledge my existence.....

[@bookboy6924]

please play warden at yogcon

[@lio1234234]

They are right in ways. FLAC would have no use in a podcast or music video due to compression from these services anyway, but if you have a really good system the whole way through (D.A.C, Amp, Speakers) then yes FLAC files can make a slight difference, but if you are pumping that kind of money into your audio system you are going to want to choose a file that can make that slight difference because you clearly care about it enough. Whoever suggested to use FLAC files for the Fingles clearly didn't know about them properly and they are what I like to call Fake Audiophiles, because they give us true audiophiles a bad rep. We aren't all snobby know it alls you know. :)

[@compufirststore]

Nice surface.

[@LordClunk]

Can someone please turn Ross' mic up. he is always quiet compared to the others.

[@QuietBiscuit]

Id like to see them try and produce a real song that has meaningful lyrics

[@TheShadowNetwork.]

I personally don't like the direction that Gorillaz has been going since their comeback. I used to be a huge fan, I've got all their albums, I bought merch, etc. They've had one or two good songs like Tranz and Saturnz Barz but other than that, they've completely changed their style and I feel betreyed that they've left people like me behind. People who helped get them where they are today.

[@RealKingChief]

I personally think that The Now Now was a good "return" in some way. Gorillaz seem to ebb and flow through each album in terms of music styles and things. Although, I didn't really like Humanz; there was only a few tracks on it that I liked really.

[@Braddicusz]

Hai boiks