All right, so sitting here with the Prodigy at the Sunset Marquis, how's everything going?

Good, you know?

Doing good, man.

Been doing press all day?

Yeah.

Pretty much sick of it?

No, we try and keep it to, I think when it goes tips over the four hour mark, it kind of, tension starts to waver.

I mean, it's not our favourite thing to do, regardless, but the facts are, if you were the guy that was turning up six hours later, you know, our six-hour interview, you're going to get the Prodigy talking like this about whatever.

And yeah, but you know, we've got a great album, we're buzzing about it, we want you to hear it with the energy that we've got about it, you know, and about the live show and about everything that the Prodigy needs.

It's all key, do you know what I mean?

You're an integral part of getting out there and letting the people understand what we're about.

It's a necessary evil.

Yeah.

So just go ahead and tell us a little bit about how the album came to be and the recording process and all that.

Well, we started like, I think the album took all in all about 16, 17 months, but that wasn't a continuous studio time, we were doing shows as well.

I think the first five months were kind of an experimental stage, we didn't really have a deal with that stage either, so we kind of felt very free.

We had a big studio set up, and we wanted to set up an environment where we felt anyone could come in and kind of...

Lay stuff down.

Yeah, just really free, with no kind of rules.

But sort of after five months, we kind of, we realised that we'd laid down 20 ideas, but we hadn't really got anything that was a finished track, you know, so we kind of had a...

I think what happened is we kind of moved into a much smaller room, and at the same time as doing that, we wrote Warriors Dance, which was the first kind of finished track for the record.

Actually, it wasn't actually meant to be on the record, that track, and it was actually written.

I think it was Keeb's idea, he was like, let's forget about the album for a minute, let's kind of write a tune for this live show we've got coming up, because we know what that's got to be, we know it's got to be a banging tune for that gig.

So, we just set about to do that.

I think that psychologically put my mind in a different headspace and relieved me from the pressures of the album, you know, and once that track was written, we played it live a few times, and that obviously went on the internet then.

The fans recorded it, and it became like a fan's kind of anthem in a way.

So we then thought, yeah, it's definitely got its place on the record.

And we just rolled ahead from there really, and it just became, I think once you've got a couple of tracks, and we also had the album title, it kind of fed the rest of the writing, and we were on a roll then.

We kind of realised that we were going back to the way we used to do things, you know, like Liam says, the first five months were very experimental, but it was necessary even for us to realise what we did, you know, how we construct tracks and how we write tracks and how we get ideas together.

So, we kind of went back to the way we used to do things, and that was a very important part.

Yeah, like a real cut and paste way of working, you know, kind of not afraid to throw a lot of stuff at tracks.

Instead of trying to write songs, I think we were trying to, in the beginning, we were kind of, I think we were just overthinking it really, do you know what I mean?

Yeah, I think we lost the, you know, the basic, you know, the reason behind the track is the energy, do you know what I mean, but it was created from the beats and the bass, do you know what I mean?

And that's what triggers us off and gets us excited in the first place, do you know what I mean?

And I think in the first five months we were kind of like doing the opposite way of trying to write tracks where there wasn't any energy in actually just writing the vocals first and trying to create music after.

Do you know what I mean?

That wasn't exciting us, so like Liam says, do you know what I mean?

You know, how we used to write is like Liam would create beats and bass and studio and we'd get me, Keith would go and studio and think like, you know, man, it's rocks, man, do you know what I mean?

We'd get excited about the music and then the lyrics and the ideas would flow after that.

Did you guys have the idea to, you know, start your own label and put out the record that way while you were writing it or was that just kind of a spur of the moment type of thing?

No, it was pretty much well thought out.

I mean, once we left XL, who were a great label and are a great label, we kind of knew that we weren't ever going to sign to a major record label.

We thought, you know, you've got bands like Radiohead and kind of various other big bands that kind of stood up and made certain moves to kind of move away from, I think, us being one of the bands to kind of go, no, we don't want to be part of that big industry thing.

And so it's not a greater time than now to make those kind of moves to be more independent, you know what I mean?

So there was never a question of we wouldn't do it.

It was just finding the right kind of people to back it and stuff that believe in the band and once they heard the songs, they were in, you know?

I mean, it doesn't seem like, you know, well established artists at this point, they don't really need a record label so much.

They can pretty much promote themselves.

The fans know where to find them.

And as long as they have a good management team, it's good to go.

And I love that because all the big companies don't know what they're not to do.

They're scrabbling.

They're like thinking, we've got, how are we going to make money?

We're going to have to do all these 360 deals, which is a load of nonsense, do you know what I mean?

It's kind of like, it's stripping the artist of all their kind of artistic...

License.

Yeah.

It really annoys me, do you know what I mean?

It's like...

They want to sell your t-shirts and everything, you know, it's kind of like...

You're never going to get a cool band to come out of that scenario.

No.

You know, it's going to be all the pop shit, like Lady Gaga, the shit you're force-fed, you know, you know that's just a big marketing thing, do you know what I mean?

Yeah.

Well, I mean, it's ridiculous the way that it was structured anyways because, I mean, you didn't really own your music at that point.

Yeah.

So...

So we're really against that, do you know what I mean?

We're kind of old school in that way of thinking and we can't, our heads can't be changed, you know, we're not going to...

We won't...

We don't want to do it any other way, do you know what I mean?

You guys came about in the 90s when there was, you know, kind of a big dance music craze at that point, and then it kind of went away for a while.

It seems like it's coming back, but do you think that it will ever be, you know, where it was in the 90s?

I don't think we've fussed, are we?

No.

We kind of tried to...

I think the Prodigy has tried to ride the edge of that always.

We haven't tried to sort of saturate ourselves in, like, a particular scene.

I mean, we know we are part of the electronic, the history of electronic music in England, but, like, we've always tried to just ride the boundary of it so we don't get sucked into it.

I mean, when the rave scene went down in England, you know, we made a big decision to kind of, like, go: are we going with that and possibly going down with that, or are we going to effectively start again and be our own entity and kind of, like, be our own band and go off and do that?

So, we decided to do that.

So, you know, we hope, like, the underground scene will keep alive, which it always will, because there's always kids that want to go out and take drugs and kind of have a mad time.

And this is what this music is about, it's about hedonism, it's about escapism, you know.

We're not bothered about the kind of weight of political messages and shit like that.

We kind of, you know, certain bands think that when you're in a band, you should have a voice to voice that, those opinions, they don't interest us at all.

And then you guys are touring the U.S. right now and then you're going to go back into Europe.

Is there any plans for, like, a full-scale U.S. tour in the upcoming future?

Because you're just kind of fleeing.

I mean, this is it.

I mean, you know, it's kind of like touring the States is a really costly process, you know, and, you know, it's kind of, it's a hard place to be, you know.

The determination and the hunger is there to do it.

The infrastructure's not really here for us to, you know, hopefully it will, do you know what I mean, we'll come back and we'll tour and we'll take you to other cities and so forth.

That's fantastic, because in Europe, you know, you'll have, like, you might do a festival in Germany, one of many, and then you might do a few gigs off the back of that.

But here in America, it just doesn't seem to be many kind of, I mean, you have Coachella, which is great, and a couple of others, but it's just such a big place.

You'd think there'd be more kind of opportunities to come here, play with other bands and stuff like that.

Alternative festivals.

I think for the most part in the States, it's just the music scene is just so saturated.

Right.

You know, I mean, you can pretty much go downtown or Hollywood every night of the week and see, you know, a really great band.

Right.

And so it's just, you know, for the fans, it gets expensive.

Sure, right, right.

Yeah.

But, you know, like, it's kind of like in each state, you would've thought there was some kind of festival in each state where all the bands in that state are, you know, getting from other states, you know.

Yeah, put it on and make it a good ticket, make it a good value thing, you know.

That's what we do at home.

It's not like you're struggling for space here.

It's like we've just come off of an English arena tour in, you know, we did the whole of England and we took on, we took Dizzy Rascal with us, who's like a, you know, he's UK hip hop.

He's great.

Yeah, we love him, you know.

But the idea was we wanted to put, it was like, it was almost like a mini festival.

We were touring around England, you know.

And that was cool.

I think the kids kind of, like, really liked the bill and they liked the DJs we had on and just, we tried to make it an event, you know.

What do you like more playing, like, the arena tours or the club circuit?

I think you need it all.

You know, you need the diversity.

I think that's what the band thrives on.

You know, going and playing, you know, a download festival, you know, all the current rock bands and, you know, the heavy, heavy bands.

And then on the flip side doing Gatecrasher, you know, which is a complete dance event, you know.

And then, you know, doing the festival season, seeing the other bands, you know, getting the opportunity to play outside and, you know, suck up the summer is great.

And then, you know, and then shrink it back down.

You know, like, even coming here after a big arena tour in England, you're back down into the clubs again, you know, 1,000, 2,000 people.

We thrive on that, you know.

As long as we can make it banging, keep the sound good, you know, keep it, you know, again, make it good value for the people that are coming to see us, you know, in every respect.

When we do our own shows, obviously, taking it back in the clubs, when you're doing a festival, there's a little compromise of what you can bring to the festival sound-wise, light-wise.

But obviously, when you're doing your own individual shows and going back into the clubs, it's 100% controlled by us.

As I said, it's our lights, our sound.

And, you know, so it's 100% the band.

So for those who haven't seen you live, just kind of sum up, you know, like, what is The Prodigy Show all about?

Beat, bass, energy, and venom.

Alright, well, thanks for taking time, and have a great show tonight.

Cheers.

Thanks, man.

We'll see you guys later.