Muzik

Interview with Maxim

• 1st November 2000

MAXIM has been talking to Muzik about the currently in progress Prodigy album, their first since 1997's 'The Fat Of The Land'.

"We're still tinkering around with stuff," explained the rapper. "There's a couple of tracks done already, but it's still early days. Obviously there's a lot of people out there wondering what the Prodigy are going to come out with next, so it's not something to be rushed. You want to wait till you've got your creativity at its peak. "

However, despite this, Maxim confidently predicted that we will see a new Prodigy album within the next year. "The thing with an album, you might write three tunes in a month, or you might not write a tune in six months," he said. "You can't really put a timescale on it. So, obviously people are asking 'when is the new Prodigy album?' Hopefully it'll be out around the middle of next year - in time for the end of the summer. "

Maxim also revealed that the Prodigy touring machine would be back in action sooner rather than later.
"We want to be touring next year, y'know?" he enthused. "We want to get out there as soon as we get a decent amount of tunes together - and I speak for Keith on that one as well. I love it when we're going to the airport togetherm going to the gig together, being at the gig together. It's not just about being on stage - it's about all the rest of the stuff that goes with it. It's like an adopted family, y'know?"

Reviews:
MAXIM - HELL'S KITCHEN (XL)
YES, the most anticipated solo album since Andrew Ridgley's is here at last. 'Hell's Kitchen' stylistically resembles 'Fat Of The Land', but for all we know, Maxim may have been a prime mover in The Prodigy's current metal-rap-gothick techno direction, so let's not hold that against him. What we must hold against him, alas, is his vanity project's lack of either subtlety or charthammering hooks, and the fact that Maxim's rapping, er 'style' - always more Mr C that Chuck D - is badly exposed. Lacklustre star turns from Divine Styler and various Gravediggaz, plus a few pointless stabs at two-step hybridisation fail to reverse an overwhelming feeling of inconsequential - probably the last thing that scary Mr Maxim would have wanted. 2/5

Check Your Head:
WITH MAXIM. THE PRODGE'S RAPPER CELEBRATES HIS DEBUT SOLO ALBUM WITH A GOOD OLD NATTER WITH MUZIK. IS HE REALLY "PSYCHO SOMATIC?" (WHATEVER THAT MEANS...)

You've toured all over the world.
What's the hairiest situation you've found yourself in?
"There's been quite a few, actually. We ran over a petrol pump, somewhere in LA or San Francisco. The petrol was just gushing everywhere, and we were stuck in the van shitting ourselves. Ten there was the time we found ourselves slipping down a mountainside, in a van. There was a 4,00-foot drop like four feet away from the van! The driver put his brakes on sharp, and it started sliding backward towards this drop. We all jumped out! It just stopped, but we were like 'fuckin' hell, what's this?'"

There must have been some pretty wild parties along the way as well...
"We've had quite a few good times, d'you know what I mean? Heh heh. We've had a few crazy people following us as well. There was this guy in America who kept following us and saying he was Liam's long-lost brother! We were like 'fuck off - what's wrong with ya?' And he genuinely thought he was his brother. "

So you're a rock 'n' roll beast, then?
"Nah! Far from it. I see myself as having two personalities, and the thing is, they are genuine. It's not an act. I know when to switch on this so-called 'rock 'n' roll' persona because I've got it inside, but I'm also a mellow person. "

What's the most extravagant you've been with your Prodigy ritches?
"I'm not really into extravagance. I've got my jeep and stuff. I suppose the most extravagant has been my teeth - I've sent £10,000 on them. I got all my fillings replaced with white gold, and my first four teeth are white gold. "

You recently recorded a song with Skin from Skunk Anansie.
Who'd win a fight between her, Keith Flint and yourself?
"It'd have to be Skin I reckon. She's got a great personatily, but she's got to be a hard woman considering her position. She's in the male-dominated, guitar-strumming, dick-stroking rock scene, she's a woman, she's black and she's bi-sexual! To have got where she is, she's got to be pretty mean!"

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