It’s no secret that we in India are partial to bands of a certain vintage, especially when it comes to headlining concerts. It’s the reason why a Sean Kingston or Saving Abel coming to play at The Hardrock Cafe isn’t going to elicit half as much excitement as when Roger Waters or Iron Maiden come to play. We tend to like our retro and in that sense, having a band like The Prodigy come over is both new, and, at the same time, long overdue. Whatever their music may be described as in other parts of the world, where they might be considered electro or dance music, in India they are practically classic rock.
There was a time, not so long ago, when songs like Smack My Bitch Up and Firestarter from their album Fat of the Land (1997) used to be a staple at any club you went to, sharing space on the playlist with Hotel California and Nothing Else Matters. And thus it stayed for the longest time, until they kind of faded away a bit. For those not familiar with their newer stuff though, now might be a good time to find out, since they’ll be playing concerts in Bangalore and Delhi as part of the Eristoff Invasion Festival which is bringing some of the greatest electronic artists together for a one-of-a-kind musical experience in the country.
Says Arvind Krishnan, GM Marketing, BACARDI India, of the Festival: “With the changing music scenario, electronic music has floored many with its high energy. The Prodigy is purely reflective of that genius and Eristoff India as part of the Bacardi portfolio is enthused to bring such an exclusive event to India as part of their Invasion Festival.”
And ahead of their imminent arrival, we spoke to band members Liam Howlett and Maxim via email, on their musical reputation, their current projects and their views on the music scene now. Excerpts:
There are many terms used to describe your music (big beat, electro, rave, industrial rock etc). How would you describe your music? Is there such a thing as a typical Prodigy song?
Liam Howlett: We usually let everyone else describe it. It’s not really our job, y’know. Journalists, it’s their job to sort of categorise it. We’re a band that doesn’t want to be categorised. It’s electronic music, but it’s several different types of electronic music. We just don’t want to be categorised. We’re not purists. We write music, we mix all different versions when we write music so it’s not just one style. It’s basically hard electronic music.
Tell us about your favorite record and the one that you maybe didn’t like so much.
Liam Howlett: Smack My Bitch Up is my favourite; mainly because it’s a song I still hear in clubs. When we play it live, it still has the same effect, it always kicks off, and so it seems to be timeless. I’ve been at different countries and played it and people just like it. Also the way it sounds, the production is good on it. The one I don’t like very much is probably Baby’s Got A Temper. Most Prodigy fans know that I don’t like that record very much. I listened to it the other day and it’s not that bad. I think it’s because it was at a time when none of us were getting on so it was in a bad time for the band. So that’s wrapped up in it a bit.
At live shows do you go more with the older songs or is most of the show set for the newer songs?
Maxim: If we were playing in Germany (where electronic music is more popular), we’d update the set and play a lot of new tunes and so forth, tunes people haven’t heard
before. But because it’s our first time in India, we will be playing a mix from our first album to our latest album.
A lot of your songs have courted controversy in the past, even if it was mistaken (Smack my Bitch Up was interpreted as being about violence against women). Is that a tag that still follows you around
Liam Howlett: Well, we don’t know about that. Definitely, with Smack My Bitch Up, the music’s intention was not to be controversial. There was never an intention to go out to be controversial. The video really was the only time when we were like, we’re gonna go out and try and make something that’s really controversial. And that was mainly because people were saying, Oh The Prodigy’s controversial and we were like, no it’s not. We’re kind of like not interested in that unless it’s natural.
Dance and electro music is really big again right now. As forerunners of a sort, what do you think of the current scene — evolving in a good way or just a bunch of bands who sound too similar?
Liam Howlett: Well, I think it’s been all right actually, in the last year. There’s a lot of good stuff around mainly, I’ve got to say that a lot of the good stuff comes from England. There are a lot of people being creative with dubstep. That kind of music is always changing. What happens, is DJs or bands will make one song, and that song can change the whole scene and everyone will start to copy that for a bit and then another record will come along. There could be just one sound in a record and then everyone makes records that sound like that and then it moves in that direction. The good thing about it is that it’s always moving around. There are so many different types of dance music and electronic music, whatever you want to call it. I guess you also have commercial music, but dance music is not really pop music. A lot of pop music gives dance music a bad name, people like Black Eyed Peas they would sometimes be called dance music and electronic music, but that’s completely separate — that’s pop music.
Source: http://expressbuzz.com/magazine/something-old-and-something-new/235197.html