Liam Howlett was interviewed on the 01/01/10 by Zorica Kojic from the Danas daily.
It’s a great read. As usual, no new news however interesting and fun read.
As you will see, it’s an Email interview, funny how Liam replies in CAPS only haha.
Click the Heading of this Post or click the Read More link below to Read the Interview by Zorica.
WE AREN’T INTO RETRO OF FUTURE, WE ARE INTO NOW
Liam Howlett, creative magician of English supernatural electro-punk hardcore techno band The Prodigy
Zorica Kojic, Danas daily
Planetary well known, English supernatural electro-punk hardcore techno band The Prodigy is celebrating an unusual jubilee in the New 2010 – 15 years of the first show in Serbia. The schedule of their later arrivals is situated in the locally much happier years after 2000 – in 2005 they are again in Belgrade on spectacular concert at the Belgrade Fair Hall XIV; in 2007 they are playing right after Robert Plant at the opening night of the Exit festival, crushing us in the stroboscope of their unique sound pieces; only to return, thanks to genuine popular demand measured by votes, to close the 10th Exit Festival in 2009. Between that almost science-fiction-like event at the Pionir Hall 1995, in the midst of the Balkan enthropy, and so far the last showing on the celebrated festival this summer – where we have seen Liam Howlett only one meter away from us on the stage watching The Madness play, observing and studying like a hawk the set up for his own performance, trying to build up the mental picture of The Prodigy show right afterwards – there is a lot that already happened to and around this band. But what is it that future will bring to them next?
* The new 2010 will see The Prodigy existing for two decades. For a start, would you be so kind as to explain to someone who came to the scene much later, whatever happened to the original "rave" energy and how your band emerged in the meantime to the fantastic format of a unique electronic punk rock attraction? And something more – do you think that just by accident "rave" coincided with grunge and new generation of hip hop on the other side of the Atlantic, or this global generation was definitely looking for their own way out, with or without guitars?
WE GOT INTO THE UK RAVE THING RIGHT AT THE START 1989, I WAS INTO HIP HOP AND BEATS BUT WHEN I WENT TO THE RAVES IT WAS LIKE SOMETHING NEW EXCITING SO I STARTED SPEEDING MY MUSIC UP AND BRINGING IN ELEMENTS OF THE RAVE SOUND I LIKED. WE WERNT THE FIRST, SHUT UP AND DANCE WERE DOIN THAT SOUND BEFORE US AND I LUVED THIER RECORDS. IT WAS DRUG FUELED AND FRESH. AS TIME WENT ON THE RAVE SCENE CHANGED AND BY 1993 IT HAD TURNED INTO SOMETHING I DIDNT LIKE. I STILL LOVED THE ORIGINAL 1990-91 RAVE STYLE SO WE HAVE NEVER LOST THAT. TO ME MY MUSIC HASNT CHANGED MUCH, ITS STILL THE SAME ENERGY. SOMETIMES WE USE GUITARS,SOMETIMES WE DONT BUT IT. NOTHING WITH THIS BAND IS OR HAS BEEN PLANNED, WE JUST FOLLOW OUR VIBE AND STEAL THINGS WE LIKE, THE PIRATES. WE DONT CARE FOR BEING LABELLED A CERTAIN. I DONT THINK PEOPLE REALLY CARE EITHER, THEY WANT SOMETHING FRESH, EXCITING AND REAL.
* I am asking this cause with The Prodigy it was from starters clear that it was a conscious and highly sensitive band with many influences – from dub alternatives and Max Romeo to expressive underground hip hop, but all in the manner that belongs only to this band. Which bands did you listen to as a teenager?
WE LISTENED TO THE SPECIALS AND TWO TONE SKA, THEN IT WAS EARLY ELECTRO THEN FOR ME PUBLIC ENEMY 1987-88 HIP HOP. BOMB SQUAD PRODUCTION, THEN OF COURSE INTO THE RAVE THING. ALL THESE THINGS MAKE UP MOST OF OUR SOUND
* How much would you say the complex sound layers of The Prodigy owe to your classical piano education from the childhood?
NONE. I CANT READ MUSIC, I HATED PLAYING THE PIANO WHEN I WAS YOUNGER, ALL I WANTED TO DO WAS TO GET OUT ON MY BMX, I WAS 12
* Let us go to the very beginning of the band – it is clear now that your first album "Experience" was unveiling a new pop art form, capturing and playing with the daily soundscape of audio-trash whose source might be more from TV set then radio. Were the audience and critics able to comprehend the first album in its fullness upon the release?
LIKE ALL THINGS THAT ARE NEW, IT WAS AN UNDERGROUND THING THAT THE PRESS WERE THE LAST PEOPLE TO KNOW ABOUT OR UNDERSTAND. IT WAS A SNAPSHOT AND SOUNDTRACK TO 1991-92 BRITISH RAVE CULTURE. THE AUDIENCE OF COURSE GOT IT COZ THEY WERE THE PEOPLE WHO AFTER US IT WAS WRITTEN FOR. IT WAS NO NEW POP ART FORM, IT WAS RAW, MANIC, BEDROOM PRODUCED MUSIC FROM THE STREET FOR THE UNDERGROUND
* And when the "rave" subculture got under political pressure, it seems that only The Prodigy had a relevant answer how to stand versus / stand up to the system – "Music for the Jilted Generation"? How political was this record at the time?
WE TRYED FOR IT NOT TO BE POLITICAL BUT OF COURSE IT WAS COZ WE WERE THE ONLY PEOPLE SAYING IT FROM OUR SIDE OR AT LEAST THE ONE PEOPLE COULD RELATE TO. BUT BREAKING IT DOWN WE WERE JUST KIDS THAT JUST WANTED THE PARTY TO NOT STOP. WE DIDNT SET OUT TO MAKE A ANTI CRIMINAL JUSTICE BILL RECORD, IT JUST BECAME THE SOUNDTRACK AGAINST IT. TO ME IT WAS REBELLING AGAINST WHAT DANCE MUSIC HAD BECOME. WE WANTED IT TO BE MORE NOISEY AND A LOT OF IT WAS SMOOTH HOUSE WHICH WE JUST CAN’T BE HAVING
* Do you remember your first visit to Belgrade in 1995? The city and the country had been for a couple of years under sanctions, isolation and depravation of all sorts, both economical and metaphysical – did you have any previous knowledge about it all, before you came, and what were the first impressions of the audience and the whole affair both before and after the event?
YES WE DO REMEMBER COMING, WE WERE YOUNG THOUGH SO WE JUST WANTED TO COME AND ROCK IT, WE DIDNT KNOW MUCH ABOUT THE WHOLE CLIMATE AND SITUATION OVER THERE. WE REMEMBER IT KICKED OFF.. WE REALIZE NOW, LOOKING BACK AND NOW WE HAVE BEEN BACK AND SPOKEN TO FANS THAT GIG WAS IMPORTANT
* Youtube has documented a live footage of the band announcing and playing "Breathe" for the first time ever in Belgrade 1995. I’ve always wanted to ask you how you came up with such unbelievable lyrics? Was the official video for this composition inspired by Kafka’s story "Metamorphosis"?
HA HA, I HAVEN’T SEEN THAT, I WILL CHECK THAT OUT, IT WAS MAXIM AND KEEF WHO WROTE THE WORDS AND I DONT KNOW WHAT WAS GOIN ON IN THEIR HEADS AT THE TIME. I JUST KNEW IT WAS COOL WHEN WE RECORDED IT. AS FAR AS THE VIDEO GOES, IT WAS WALTER STERN WHO THAT VIDEO. HE ALSO DID FIRESTATER, NO GOOD, POISON SO IT WAS ROLLING ON FROM THOSE. WE TALKED ABOUT BRINGING WHAT WAS GOIN’ ON BETWEEN KEEF AND MAXIM ONSTAGE. THEY ALWAYS HAVE THIS CONFLICT ONSTAGE WHEN WE PLAY IT LIVE SO HE JUST USED THAT AS INSPIRATION. SET IN A MAD DECAYING HOUSE. THE CROC WAS MY IDEA I REMEMBER
* Did you feel under pressure to limit your art when all the problems with "Smack My Bitch Up" occurred, and what was the hardest thing that happened to the band regarding the public reaction to this song and video?
OF COURSE NOT, AND WE NEVER WILL. WE ARNT INTO MAKING SOMETHING CONTROVERSIAL FOR THE SAKE OF IT. IT HAS TO BE RIGHT. THATS JUST SLANG HIP HOP, THE KIND OF THING WE WOULD SAY. WE DID ON THE OTHER HAND GO OUT TO MAKE THE MOST CONTROVERSIAL VIDEO TO SAY FUCK U TO THE CENSORSHIP LAWS OF THE UK. WE WERE HAVING A LAUGH AT THEIR EXPENSE. THERE WAS NOTHING TOO HEAVY, JUST ALL AMUSING TO US. THERE WAS A BIG DISCUSSION ON TV LATE AT NIGHT ABOUT IT, OF COURSE THEN THE BEASTIE BOYS AT READING MADE THEM SELVES LOOK STUPID BY TRYING TO BE ALL GROWN UP AND TELL US WE CANT PLAY IT, JUST FUNNY SHIT LIKE THAT REALLY.
* How did you come up with such a strong visual element to your live presence – were you, Keith and Maxim inspired by punk and hard core aesthetics and tradition, or did more inspiration come from negative utopia movies like "Mad Max" for example?
WE DIDNT COME UP WITH THEM, THEY JUST HAPPEN, LIKE EVERYTHING ELSE IN THIS BAND. I DONT THINK WE EVER WERE INSPIRED BY PUNK REALLY, ITS ALL TOO CLICHE. WE LIKED THE ATTITUDE AND THE FUCK U OF IT AND THE INDIVIDUALITY. THE WAY KEEF DRESSES I KNOW THAT ALOT OF HIS INFLUENCES ARE WHAT HE WAS INTO WHEN HE WAS GROWING UP. HE HAS ALWAYS LIKED AND HAD AN INTEREST IN CLOTHES AND STYLE.
* Did any other aspect of both pop culture and high art help to create The Prodigy as this piece of total art, including the band’s sound and visuals? Can you please name movies, comics, novels, poetry, TV shows, unknown and known bands, classical music, paintings, Bowie, De Sades – whatever made your own artistic expression flourish.
HMMMMM… I ALWAYS LIKED OLD HORROR FILMS AND THE BANDS I REFERENCED EARLIER. ITS JUST ALWAYS US TRYING TO MAKE SOMETHING LOOK OR SOUND DIFFERENT. WE AREN’T INTO RETRO OF FUTURE, WE ARE INTO NOW. I THINK WHEN SOMETHING IS IN YOU, YOU CAN’T ANALYSE IT. THAT IS FOR YOU GUYS
* How would you describe the place your last album "Invaders Must Die" has in the band’s history? How do you comment on the wild reaction the audience had on it at the Exit festival last summer?
IT IS A GREAT BAND ALBUM, WHAT I MEAN BY THAT IS WE ALL WROTE IT. NO OTHER PRODIGY ALBUM HAD THAT. AFTER THE PROBLEMS WE ALL HAD WITH EACH OTHER IN 2003-04 IT FELT TRIUMPHANT WITH THIS ALBUM. IT GLUED US BACK TOGETHER AND I THINK PEOPLE CAN HEAR THAT IN IT. ALSO IT TOTALLY CONNECTS LIVE. EXIT FESTIVAL WAS AMAZING, I KNOW WE HAVE PLAYED IT MORE THAN ANY OTHER BAND AND I HOPE WE CAN COME AND PLAY IT AGAIN.
* What will be the New Year wish for the New 2010 to the followers of The Prodigy in Serbia?
WELL, WE WANT TO SEND OUR RESPECT OUT TO THE SERBIAN PEOPLE AND WE WILL DEFINETLY BE BACK TO PLAY NEXT YEAR. THANKS FOR KEEPING THE PRODIGY VIBE ALIVE.
HAPPY NEW YEAR.
LIAM H X