KROQ

Liam interviewed by zeke on kroq on tour with lollapalooza in los angeles, august '97

• 1st August 1997
• Zeke

zeke: i am here with liam and leeroy from prodigy. first to start off, let's put to rest the rumor that you guys aren't going to put out another record, cuz that's the one that's running hot right now. that's not true, right?

liam: well, that was a statement i made after i finished the last album to just take the pressure off meself a bit, y'know? and if i say that, then next time i write a new album, there's no pressure. so, we'll say, soon as we get off lollapalooza, i'm back in the studio, do some new tunes. so, yeah.

zeke: how does it feel, personally for you, to have your record debut at #1 and finally, like it's been awhile for you guys to achieve, like, serious success in the united states.

liam: yeah, it's pretty exciting, man. definitely.

zeke: cuz especially since the whole hype machine tried to kill you guys, and that you guys were able to kind of, you know...

leeroy: right.

liam: yeah, exactly.

zeke: okay, so then, let's talk some more about the music. cuz obviously, the jilted generation album and the fat of the land differed greatly. where do you think the music, prodigy's music, is gonna go from here?

liam: see, a lot of people have been saying that, but i think the real difference was between the first and the second album rather than the second and the third album. i mean, if you listen to tracks like "their law," "poison," "voodoo people," that's much more in the vein of what the fat of the land was about. so i don't actually think the fat of the land and jilted are too far away from each other. the fat of the land was already on the progression, errrm, jilted was already on the progression to get into the fat of the land, it's only because we introduced vocals. the rock-hard element was already there, before, with the last album. but it's only since doing, um, bringing keef into the...into the sort of a vocal part, that's...it's the real change, really.

zeke: okay, um -- (liam cuts him off, continuing)

liam: it's not a change, i just think it's more of the same thing, y'know?

zeke: okay, um. why do you think, y'know,like artists like yourselves, and also, like, moby, have tried to distance yourself from the whole tabbed "electronica" scene? why do you... why do you think that is?

liam: um, well i, we don't talk about other bands. for us it's just like, we feel like...we shouldn't...we don't need to be riding on a scene. we don't need to be part of a scene. if a scene goes down, the bands go down with it. i've always said that when prodigy come and play, we play for ourselves first, and then we play for the people. erm... and i just think that we don't need to be part of a big scene that's going on, y'know. i think the act, the band, is strong enough to be on its own.