Daily Record

Electro trailblazers The Prodigy return with The Day Is My Enemy to reclaim big bass drops from Pop

• 26th March 2015
• John Dingwall

THE band's sixth album follows on from the hugely successful Invaders Must Die and marks the group's 25th anniversary

THE Prodigy have hit out at superstar DJs and electronic artists, claiming they’ve sold out by recording mainstream pop.

The blistering Essex band – Keith Flint, Liam Howlett and Maxim – are back with their sixth studio album The Day Is My Enemy, on Monday.

Liam, who believes the British music scene has missed The Prodigy since their last album, said: “Who else is shaking it up?

“Electronic music has become pop music and people have got used to hearing this type of music that way.

“So there has got to be a flip to that. It is our job and our responsibility to bring that other side and that is what we have done since day one.

“We like music that attacks and wakes you up. It’s rebel music.”

Maxim added: “Dance music is the mainstream now but a lot of artists can create edgier music.

“They just go for the safe option because they’re just looking at the money.

“They’re not challenging themselves or the music scene. They’re not making
interesting music and they’re not doing anything creative.

“It could be a career move but I don’t think it’s a good career move.”

As they prepare to celebrate 25 years together, Liam wants The Prodigy to be recognised for a musical legacy he feels is as important as the Britpop scene that dominated the charts in the latter half of the 90s.

That’s after 25million record sales worldwide and two Brit awards for the band best known for hits such as Firestarter, Breathe and Smack My Bitch Up.

Asked if The Prodigy have been given enough credit for their contribution to the British music scene, Liam – the man behind the group’s music – said: “No, I don’t.

“The Prodigy should be recognised as being an equally important music type as the whole explosion of Britpop.

“It’s more relevant culturally than Britpop ever was. We were part of the whole rave and party culture.

“Because it’s rock music, the whole Britpop scene during the 90s seems to get more of a look-in than electronic music.

“I’m not saying we want more respect like some moaning little kid. But electronic music sometimes gets overlooked unfairly when there has been some great music made by electronic artists over the years.

“They are equally as relevant as rock music and it’s important to know that.

“People are getting the wrong impression of electronic music which is now basically pop.

“Every pop artist wants a piece of this sound. The reason why our record is important is because it is the flip side to that.

“You need the yin and the yang and this is the yang, the abrasive end that is important.

“It’s not a great environment when you have DJs running a scene. It should be electronic bands, not DJs who are pop producers.”

MC and vocalist Maxim added: “That’s no disrespect to DJs in general. It’s just that certain DJs are saturating dance music with sh**.”

Although The Prodigy haven’t included a Scottish tour date among their UK shows in May, the great news for fans heading to T in the Park is that The Prodigy will be playing the festival in July.

Liam said: “We’ve played T in the Park countless times.

“We love it – we always get a great reaction there. The Scottish people are party people.”

Maxim agreed that Scots fans have always gone wild for The Prodigy. He added: “The difference between Scotland and the rest of the UK when we went up there back in the day was that people just went off their heads.

“The energy levels were twice as high as the rest of the UK, including London.”

Fans have already had a taste of the new album with the recent single Nasty.

The tour and T gig will be a chance to hear live versions of songs that make up their first long player since 2009’s Invaders Must Die, and it’s bursting with a punk energy reminiscent of John Lydon’s PIL.

Liam, 43, who is married to former All Saints singer Natalie Appleton, mother of his son Ace, 11, said: “I can’t tell you why this record came out so angry. I think it’s just in-built.

“It’s more about what I like music to do. I’ve always seen music I like as a form of attack.

“That’s what I use music for, it’s an attack. I didn’t plan this album to sound violent, it’s just the sound that came out of the studio, a kind of build-up over the last four years.

“There’s a similarity to John Lydon’s PIL in places, not least on Nasty. Anger is an energy, from his PIL song Rise – that’s a lyric which always resonated with me so we’re in good company there. That punk energy has always been there and maybe the mainstream needs reminding.

“Our fans know totally what we are about and that we’re not really stuck in the dance scene because it is too restricting for us. We have always lived on the outside of it.

“All the bands we’ve been into, our main inspirations are still a mixture of punk energy, the rave culture and Public Enemy, Bomb Squad and that kind of energy from hip hop.

“Those three elements create The Prodigy sound.”

Maxim feels the label of a dance band never really did them justice.

He said: “Obviously we came from the dance scene but we are a band who play all different events, not just dance events.

“The tension is buried deep in the music right from the first drop.

“It’s all about the sound having that sense of danger. That’s what The Prodigy sound is.”

The anger even spilled over in the studio as Keith became impatient with the time Liam was taking to deliver the music to accompany his vocals.

Maxim said: “You can’t put a timescale on an album.But during the process there was a lot of frustration because new tracks keep the show going and keeps the buzz going for the band.

“There was a time when we were saying to Liam, ‘Where’s the tracks, man?’.

“In his head, Liam had different plans.”

It wasn’t quite a case of the dreaded musical differences, more just that each member had their own approach to the process.

Liam said: “When you are writing the music, the ideas are developed in my head but they want something that is tangible. The vocals were recorded right up front and I can understand that for Keith I was sitting on that track and he wanted it done when I was working on another track.

“That caused friction – mainly between me and Keith – but I find if things are forced they are never as good.

“We are passionate people and it’s part of the process.

“We’re like brothers. We’re close and so when we finished the album we all gave each other a knowing glance.

“We just know this album is a great record for us.”

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• The Day Is My Enemy

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