Quotes

"I'm fascinated with aggressive music on a street level. We draw from all corners of rock 'n' roll history, hip hop, dance, punk, whatever, and spit it out as the Prodigy sound. The live element allows us to take it one step further, to really connect with the crowd and bring out a darker side to the band. It will always remain important to me to create something raw and unpolished. "
Liam
 

"When I listen to our old records there are certain elements I still like, I can see why they worked but I would never write like that again. Take 'No Good (Start The Dance)' - it's not a cool sound, it was back then, it was part of that scene, but you need to move on. And I was never happy with the second album Jilted. Everyone made a big thing about that record but I was never fully happy. I liked certain songs, maybe six, perhaps, but the rest were not right. The ground-breaking tracks were 'Poison', 'Voodoo People', 'Break And Enter' and 'Their Law'. Only four ground-breaking tunes on that album. I knew 'Breathe' and 'Firestarter' were good. That created an enormous pressure on me for the next track, but so did my first single 'Charly', so did all the other big tracks along the way. In a strange way I think that's what drives me, at least partly. What drives me even more is that we have the power to put things in the charts that would otherwise not be heard. We have the power to write a piece of music that is fucking hard and anarchic and know that it will get in the charts and fuck up the mainstream. "
Liam
 

"'Firestarter' was like that. Keith heard the track as an instrumental and thought it was wicked and said he couldn't wait to dance to it on stage.  He sat there for a while and then said 'I would love to put some vocals on this'. We put the actual vocals down in a London studio, and I can't explain the feeling me and Keith got that night, driving home listening to the tape, playing it over and over again. I knew then it was original, that I had achieved something. "
Liam
 

"All Prodigy music is raw, and that will never change, the production is raw, the sounds are dirty, you can't get away from that. Take it or leave it. "
Liam
 

"We'd been away for a year and we needed to come back with a big impact, but just another dance track would not have broken any new ground.  As far as I am concerned 'Firestarter' set a whole new level for English music, that's my honest opinion. When people heard that track it was a major turning point. It was so experimental, crossing the barriers between punk and dance.  Keith re-invented himself and it was a great introduction to him. It was convincing but not just because it was No.1. The track sounds like it means business, the way Keith delivers the vocals, the music has such attitude. It was a landmark. "
Liam
 

"America is exciting to us because they haven't got all the baggage that the UK has. My main concern is the preoccupation with scenes, and the interest in the 'electronic music scene' - what the hell's that?  We'll go over there and rock it on our own, we don't need to rely on a scene to survive. We have far more flexibility than other electronic bands as well - some dance bands are too purist and won't go on rock bills, but as far as we're concerned that's too myopic and limiting. We've got no doubts that when things kick off, we can deliver the performance and the music and the goods, that's our side of the bargain. "
Liam
 

"It's important not to get too locked into one way of thinking, some kind routine or format. That's what happened to me with the first album, Experience. I got locked into certain sounds within that rave scene, specific types of songs, and as a result it is quite a one dimensional record. I don't want to do that again. "
Liam
 

[On NME magazine] "These questions are reliant on my memory and unfortunately that part of my brain doesn't exist. We like the NME 'cos they've always been supportive, but if they diss us we'll set fire to them."
Liam

"As far as the rock 'n' roll format in dance music goes, I don't think it's been done before with such full-on attitude. The idea behind that was because no-one else had done it.  Everything was right at the time for us to do that. "
Liam
 

"When you first break into the music scene, everyone is so naive. I was only nineteen when it started happening with 'Charly' and I was so into the rave scene - apart from some hip hop, I was blind to everything else. "
Liam
 

"I go in and out of the studio in sporadic periods, I don't go in there for hours on end. I'm looking for that initial vibe, be it from a beat, a sound, a loop, whatever. Nothing is planned, nothing is deliberate. "
Liam
 

"The firestarter is in him, there's something locked deep and dark inside Keith which drives him forward. "
Liam
 

[on the meaning of the song "Breathe"] When we did the song, it was about confrontation between Maxim and Keith. There was no deep meaning. It was like, you want to taste me, come over here and taste me. And then Maxim was like, breathe me, breathe me... It was just more of a confrontational thing between them two. When they do it on stage, that comes across really obviously. I'm not gonna sit here and try and think of some deep meaning because it just hasn't got one. Firestarter has but Breathe hasn't. It's basically like a full-on, almost punk dance track. It's kind of got the energy of our other tracks but it's also got the edge of Firestarter in a way. When you see it live, it's really confrontational between them two. We just wanted to get that on record and it just captured that live part of the show, you know?
Liam

"With 'Breathe' it was a completely different to 'Firestarter'. I had already finished the song and they had been dancing to it for several gigs, they knew the song well. Then Keith came up with 'come play my game' in my studio, so we got Maxim round. I rewound the tape and went into another room to sit down. Fifteen minutes later they had the vocals worked out and finished. "
Liam

The bloke is a complete lunatic. When I met him (Keith) five or six years ago, he was driving round in this battered up old Ford Escort and there was one night we went out doing three-point turns in the snow, off our faces on E and mushrooms. I'm not saying this was acceptable behaviour in fact it was fucking stupid but it'll give you an idea of where our heads were at at the time.
Liam on Keith

"We'd been away for a year and we needed to come back with a big impact, but just another dance track would not have broken any new ground. As far as I am concerned 'Firestarter' set a whole new level for English music, that's my honest opinion. When people heard that track it was a major turning point. It was so experimental, crossing the barriers between punk and dance. Keith re-invented himself and it was a great introduction to him. It was convincing but not just because it was No.1. The track sounds like it means business, the way Keith delivers the covals, the musc has such attitude. It was a landmark. "
Liam

'Firestarter' was like that. Keith heard the track as an instrumental and thought it was wicked and said he couln't wait to dance to it on stage. He sat there for a while and then said 'I would love to put some vocals on this'. We put the actual vocals down in a London studio, and I can't explain the feeling me and Keith got that night, driving home listening to the tape, playing it over and over again. I knew then it was original, that I had achieved something. "
Liam

"With 'Breathe' it was completely diffrent to 'Firestarter'. I had already finished the song and they had been dancing to it for several gigs, they know the song well. Then Keith came up with 'come play my game' in my studio, so we got Maxim round. I rewound the tape and went into another room to sit down. fifteen minutes later they had the vocals worked out and finished. "
Liam

I'm really strange when it comes to working. I like to do everything myself. I can't have anyone else in the studio. The first embryonic stage of writing a track and starting the music, I have to be on my own. I have to be stumbling around in the studio, catching a vibe with no one else around. That's the way it works best really.
Liam

When I was 14 years old, I used to record stuff off the radio and do mixes with the pause button on my cassette player. I've always loved doing mixes. I never liked sport or anything like that. Mixing tunes together was just what I always wanted to do...
Liam

I was 15. I basically just did it for myself in my bedroom and I spent like a year just learning the techniques, going to mixing competitions watching people, listening to stuff and just picking it up. And then I think I entered a couple of mixing competitions. I entered a mixing competition on a London radio station and entered a mix under one name and two weeks later I thought no, it has these bad points, I'm gonna do another one. So I entered another mix under another name and I came first and third with both those mixes. It just took off from there. But I never thought Yeah, I want to be in this big band!
Liam

"The music business is like a big trap and that's why I never like to put both feet into it - I like to stand back and laugh at it, because if you jump into the mainstream completely then you are never going to escape. Songs like 'Firestarter' burst on to the mainstream and bend it, twist it. Then we retreat back underground. That's the best way. "
Liam

"what month are we in now?"
when asked when stuff will be released

"dream on guy ritchie!"
denying that prodigy are gonna do a full soundtrack

"i bought these shoes today. they are really comfortable!"
showing comfortable shoes on the australian television

"you cant fuck with love!"
telling how he and natalie got together

"i honestly dont know what i was doing for last 2 years"
when asked what he was doing when they had a rather long rest

"[i would design] a lawnmower to mow my korg grass"
when asked what ultimate gear would he design for korg

"..sounds like beach boys on acid"
explaining what 'no souvenirs' sounds like

"[i am] very well. very well. very drunk"
when asked how he is doing at reading 2000

"we havent done fuck all this year, we dont deserve it... but thanks anyway"
when receiving an award at 98 mtv ema awards in milan

"i only got a 2 bedroom house in essex"
telling he is not that loaded on xfm radio

"i listened to experience the other day... it is funny"
when asked when was the last time he listened to 'fat of the land'

"[bgat beats took] couple of minutes"
joking about how easy is for him to do fat beats

"i feel like i am the oldest person here, definitly"
when asked if they feel like a 'grown up band'

"i do a ten mile run before i go on stage"
after he was asked how he prepares for a gig

"that was a lie, i am very unfit"
obviously just after the quote above

"thanks for coming!"
liam to waiting fans outside sofia airport

"these questions are reliant on my memory and unfortunately that part of my brain doesn't exist. we like the nme cos they've always been supportive, but if they diss us we'll set fire to them."
quote from nme april 2002

"it is not a direct reference to royal family, it is a relation to.... what did we say? it made sense at the time?!"
talking about bgat lyrics

"i'd like to bomb ibiza"
talking about dance music

"hahaha... i was taking the piss when i said i had a wank to celebrate 'fat of the land' going to number 1 in 27 countries...hah hah"
from the face magazine

"loads of bands sell out over there (america), they use real stupid samples and commercial shit and earn loads of money, but noone ever says 'hang on a minute, ll cool j has really sold out'. just because he has money he gets respect. he's got his own sitcom now, so whats that? i used to respect that, i'm gonna get shot now!"
clublife interview

"...ya know wha i mean?"
after every sentence