*Music*
Monster shop!
Hello!
Hello.
I'm very excited today.
You're prepared, aren't you?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
For regular listeners that will remember that Chris rarely knows what album we're doing
until we walk into the studio.
Not only are you ready, you're fully prepared.
You've edited all the interviews.
You've got everything ready.
It's like going into somebody - you know when you go into somebody's house?
Yeah.
And they're a real grown-up.
You know what I mean?
They know where all their socks are, everything's organized,
everything.
You go in and you're like, "God, what?"
You see now, because I've done this.
Yeah.
That's it.
That's gone wrong now.
There's no socks.
I think this is it for the year, isn't it?
You're going to be dining out on this.
I'll be going, "Do you know what we're doing?"
And we're going, "Do you remember that time we did Prat of the Land?"
So I have to say, lots of albums that we do.
Obviously, the show is about a celebration of albums.
Yeah.
Because we kind of feel that albums have been lost a little bit.
That love of...
I like the words you use on the blog, the iconic.
It is.
Yeah.
It's iconic albums.
I guess we kind of look back to that golden era of when albums were mega.
Do you know what I mean?
When grabbing that CD or the vinyl or whatever it was, and it was really important to you.
So because of that, some of the albums predate us, right?
They're albums that probably meant...
I mean, we did Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin 4, last week.
I really enjoyed that.
It taught me a lot about Led Zeppelin.
It's the strangest thing.
Well, I didn't get Led Zeppelin properly before, as much as I did after listening to that and spending some time reading it and stuff.
But it's been great.
It's been...
So some of the albums are albums that, you know, they're albums that we have gone back and discovered afterwards, right?
Whereas this one, so The Prodigy, Fat of the Land, this was my teenage years.
Yeah, same.
Which is weird because you're a bit older than me.
So it's weird that we both had that sort of connection to it.
For me, this was...
I mean, this was '97.
Yeah.
So you were going out, eh?
You were like going out.
Yeah, I used to go...
You were in the world.
I would be...
I'm trying to think how old I was.
I was in school, you see.
So I would have been like 20...
I'm trying to calculate.
I'm a mathematician and I can't do the...
If I gave you it in a formula and algebra, you'd do it.
Oh yeah, I could do it in code.
So I would have been 23.
Yeah.
So we would...
And bear...
And this was also kind of...
We owned the internet at this point.
Yeah, yeah.
Right?
So we'd been a big part of IRC.
I'd written like tons of IRCD code.
So, you know, people would spin up these chat networks and I'd written half the code.
Yeah.
So you would join as a user and someone would annoy you.
Yeah.
So you'd be like, oh dear.
Do you know what I mean?
Then you'd like devastate the network because you were 23 and thought you were king of the world.
But we used to go out, we used to go to the pub on a Friday, come back and then we'd all spin up our modems, fire up Quake.
Yeah, yeah.
And then I'd have this album almost always, it would be this album.
And I would spin through it to like two, three, four in the morning.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And it would be...
That's kind of what I did.
I'd finish university.
I'd got my first job when I was going nowhere.
Do you know what I mean?
You're at that point in your life where you think I've worked really, really hard and life sucks.
So that's what we used to do.
Yeah, yeah.
And yeah, it was brilliant.
It was such a great time for me.
I remember...
As we're talking about it, I can remember that feeling.
I remember putting my headset on.
I can remember...
Yeah, I can remember everything.
Yeah.
Because we didn't...
Like nowadays when you play computer games, you can talk to each other.
Didn't do that back then.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It was over a dial-up modem.
Yep.
And it was pretty...
It was just me and my dad in the house.
If my dad picked up the phone, that was it.
My game was over.
Yeah.
And I'd get absolutely massacred.
And so...
But your headset was just to listen to music, right?
It was just to listen to music in the dark kind of thing.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And yeah.
So this album for me is a huge...
Yeah.
Their memories are massive.
Like in stark contrast to Led Zeppelin.
Yes.
Where there's no real frame of reference.
Yeah, I don't really have any.
It's a great record.
Yeah.
Great album.
But this one's full of nostalgia for me.
Whereas...
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So for me, it was about...
It was a bit of sort of school age.
And I transitioned from the point where I was sort of listening to my mum and dad CDs.
Yeah.
So like going out and buying my own.
Oh, HMV.
Where'd you get Woolies?
Where'd you get them?
Where'd you get them from?
I don't know.
It was at Our Price as well at the time.
Our Price, yeah.
Yeah, that was the thing.
My memory of this record mainly is I got into the prodigy between Jewett Generation and this.
Right, right, right.
So I got into Jewett Generation.
I love that.
Yeah.
And they were just about to put this out and they put Firestarter and then Breathe.
Yeah.
I mean, they were huge singles.
Yeah.
But we just started this school radio thing and I was probably year nine, year 10 maybe.
All right, yeah.
And I was sort of like giving the keys to the room to go, you do that every lunchtime.
You know, go and do that.
And I think they had the impression that they thought I was going to play like Mozart and
chilled music and classical.
And it wasn't.
It was a combination of like really heavy grunge like Nirvana.
Yeah.
Like Muddy Bands for the Wish Co and all that.
And then this, Prodigy, Breathe was every day, you know, because I bought the single when
we had a CD player.
I was like, that's it.
That's good.
In that goes, yeah.
And yeah, just really, just generally quite loud, raucous, inappropriate music for the,
Oh, a happy hardcore.
That was what everyone was into at the time as well.
Oh yeah.
I remember that.
Yeah.
They were like the, they were like the, the, the cassettes that your nan used to get, you
know, from the library, like the audio books.
They were like that.
There was that casing, but they were full of these like happy hardcore tapes.
Yeah.
They were just like rave, rave tapes.
Yeah.
Um, and so they went on as well cause everyone was into them.
So yeah, it wasn't, it wasn't any, it wasn't in any way appropriate.
And we were constantly trying to turn it down.
Cause he has to turn it down.
It reminds me of that.
Oh, so the Alan Parsons thing where he did, um, Alan Partridge, where he does the Alan Partridge
episode where he's, where he's on hospital radio.
Yeah.
And I just, oh yeah, that would be you, wouldn't it?
Yeah, it would.
Absolutely.
Um, and yeah, so that was my experience with it and just getting lost in the live show.
The, cause the prodigy, although they did these fantastic songs and put these records
out and they obviously had that, they had a look and a energy to their music and all
that sort of stuff.
But it was watching them live when you went, it's like metal.
I mean, I'm into, I'm into the punk rock scene.
I'm into the, the art of it and the anarchic side of the, of what happened in, in, in the
punk rock scene.
But, um, yeah.
And some of the styles we bring, we bring to, to the prodigy, but I don't think, yeah,
Sex Pistols weren't the only thing that happened in punk rock was good.
It was a lot of good bands.
I think, you know, I think in a way, yeah, Sex Pistols had their, their own style and whatever,
but it was just that, it was just, it was just punk.
The Prodigy, we've taken on so many, so many different attitudes from all over.
Do you know?
You, you can't really pinpoint it and just say it's, it's like, Six Pistols were punk.
It was part of an attitude, it was a follower, a movement was happening at the time.
If we're not part of a movement, there's no Prodigy movement.
Do you know?
There's not other bands which are Prodigy bands.
Do you know what I mean?
We're just a band that would stand on our own.
You know, yeah, I was in the reggae, I was, you know, I mean, that's my, that's my background.
That is a reggae scene, do you know?
That's where I've gone from.
I mean, if it wasn't for the reggae scene, I wouldn't be here now.
Cause that's where I learned to MC and that's where I got my vibes of being on the mic.
So, but you know, I was, I tried everything, do you know what I mean?
I was in, I went to punk gigs, I went to psychability gigs, you know, I was in, I was into ska when I was younger.
You know, hip hop, rare groove.
And I've been in, I've been in, you know, in the scene, man, I've been in it.
But man, at some stage, you know, but yeah, reggae scene was my foundation.
And, uh, yeah, I mean, when I, you know, I always wanted to do MC, yeah, MC in a groove and do my own music and whatever.
And, you know, I just want to be heard, basically.
And, uh, when I hooked up with these guys, then there was, there's a blessing in disguise, well.
I mean, because I, you know, I, it was a little bit of anticipation what was going to happen.
You know, and I got on stage, you know, the first ever show.
And I thought, oh, what's going to happen?
And I just started chatting lyrics and it's like, you know, I realized that everybody in the crowd, I was probably the straightest person there.
Yeah, I was, you know, I've been drinking and smoking all day, do you know what I mean?
And whatever, you know, um, but yeah, everybody else was off their head and I realized that wasn't the vibe.
But, you know, there was a good vibe then, the party spirit of togetherness.
You know, it was totally different, I never experienced it, you know.
Um, so I was in a totally different scene.
I moved over to that scene and, you know, I discovered something new.
And not only did I discover the atmosphere, but I also discovered Loomis music, what did something to me.
And, uh, you know, it's just progressed and, you know, I got something, I'm addicted to it.
They're mad, they're punk for me.
They were buried on that punk edge.
I saw them at Leeds on the same bill as Slipknot and Guns N' Roses.
And they were brilliant.
I mean, they would.
And the thing that is fascinating to me is that everyone just lapped it up.
It was just like, these are the coolest guys ever.
Totally accepted.
Yeah.
There was no, whereas compare that to, uh, our recent experience at download where Diantwood were playing.
Yeah.
The metal heads were all like, no, I'm going.
Yeah.
I'm not hanging about for this.
And, you know, it, it really struck me how different, I mean, I suppose Diantwood are a little bit different.
Yeah.
But I think it was the attitude of the prodigy.
It wasn't the music.
No.
It was the attitude of, it was kind of like, you know, we hate everybody.
You know what I mean?
We're doing our thing.
We're, you know, anachronistic.
You cannot control this.
Yeah.
We're doing our thing.
We can barely control it.
You can't.
It was that, wasn't it?
It was, but it was the punk scene, wasn't it?
Yeah.
And for me, that's what embodied them.
And I know that sort of the, you know, Liam's hair was, you know, a bit sticky up, right?
Like punk.
Keith, sorry.
Yeah.
Andrew Liam's was as well, to be fair.
It's a bit sticky up, right?
But, you know, it was the way the whole band embodied that punk ethos, that whole movement,
if you like.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But yeah, they were one of a, well, I say they were one of a kind.
There were some bands that were, we talked about Greta Van Fleet.
Someone told me off.
Oh, really?
Talking about Greta Van Fleet, yeah.
What?
Because of your comments about them?
They were probably, they were right, actually.
It was kind of saying that.
They were saying that.
Just like our little sun bit, where we do a little disclaimer with small writing.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, to be fair, we've not been bad lately.
But we said, I said something along the lines of like Led Zeppelin were influenced by, you
know, blah, blah, blah.
And that was a positive thing.
But Greta Van Fleet were influenced by Led Zeppelin.
That was a terrible thing.
Yeah, okay.
And yeah, I'll take that on the chin.
That probably is a fair thing.
But having said that, I think Greta Van Fleet is so close to Led Zeppelin.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's what was getting to me.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But like here, you've got like, when we did the blog, I started to look at other bands that
were like a little bit similar.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And you've got like Pendulum, who have got that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But they're like, it's that same like musical style.
They didn't, I don't think they've got that same like punk.
No.
Ethos kind of.
I mean, similar, I suppose.
But their music style kind of, it's like a Prodigy 2.0.
Yeah.
Do you know what I mean?
It feels like, you can tell that's where it came from.
It was Prodigy.
Yeah.
But it's like their bits have been added to it.
And I guess where I was trying to go with the Greta Van Fleet thing was I don't hear the
2.0 part.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
In that kind of era.
Yeah, it's a, here's a carbon copy.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
So anyway.
But anyway, you know who you are who said that to me.
And thank you for holding us to account.
That's very good.
Thank you.
I want to talk about the interviews, because they're going to be laced throughout this,
but perhaps not in the way that we normally would, in that we normally talk about the
interviews, then play them.
Yeah.
I was going to drop them in.
I was dropping in random places.
Are you?
Based on where we're talking.
Yeah, yeah.
This is like, you've got this planned out, haven't you?
Yeah.
This is phenomenal.
Do you know how many copies this sold, this album?
Quite a lot, I'd imagine, but probably not as much as Led Zeppelin IV.
No.
It sold 10 million copies across the world.
It topped the charts in 20 countries, including the US.
Yeah.
Wow.
I mean, that's big, isn't it?
It's phenomenal.
Yeah, that's true, actually, because the video of their lore that I used to be obsessively
watching was from this Phoenix Festival.
Yeah, I'm sure it was.
And it was this particular live performance of their lore, which was amazing, which I don't
think was on this record, actually.
Their lore was due a generation, wasn't it?
Yeah, but the bit that kind of hit me with this is that they're just like some lads from
Essex.
Yeah, yeah.
And this is kind of very much like computer music.
Do you know what I mean?
You don't really need like a big acoustic space.
I mean, these boys would not have been like saying, let's save up and go to Abbey Road.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Do you know what I mean?
They would have been saving up for another Amiga.
Yeah, yeah.
Do you know what I mean?
Because it would have been that time where computer power was getting powerful enough to make a
difference.
And it's one of the things for me for this is that it almost feels like an inflection point.
Yeah.
Right.
Where, you know, if you think back to some of the other iconic albums, we've been talking
about the studios.
Yeah.
And because they were important, like where Led Zeppelin chose to record was important, where
Pink Floyd chose to record was important.
And, you know, even albums like Hysteria by Def Leppard.
Yeah.
Although it's like super polished and produced.
Like the recording space was important.
Yeah.
And, you know, the equipment and stuff that they got.
Mm.
For me, this was an inflection point where actually it became more about the software.
Yeah.
It became more about the, you know, the tooling you were using and how you were using that,
how you were mangling and manipulating that rather than, you know, this big, like acoustic
space that you'd spent 10 grand a week on.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And it wasn't that, as technology goes, it wasn't very far along.
No.
The kind of stuff like what we're adding to the blog now.
Yeah.
Is some of the software that's been coming along over the last few years and some of the kind
of things that have been developed, you know, the tools for creating music or a technology
perspective.
And this is monstershoprock.com, by the way.
That's where you can find the blog.
And it's looking amazing, by the way, Neil.
Thank you very much.
Because you're working very hard on it.
I've been, I've been tweaking and breaking it and using it and it's, yeah, it's, it's,
it's getting on there, isn't it?
Yeah.
It looks like grownups own it now.
But one of the dangers of using that kind of primitive tech when it came out is that everything
was, everything was mechanical.
Yeah.
There was this danger that everything would be sounding kind of to the beat and quantized
and quantized means locked into the time beats in a bar and that sort of stuff.
And, and the thing with this is they very much went after, no, no, no.
We want it to feel like a band.
Yeah.
This isn't about producing electronic music.
Yeah.
This is a band using electronic instruments and sequencing as their kind of musical palette.
And as their choice, as their like, like a band would have, they would choose to have
a guitar, a bass, a drum, a keyboard, a vocal.
Yeah.
And this was just part of their ingredients to create their music that their band wanted.
And they were so, it's so, it came through so strong when, when I was listening to the
interviews, it's this, this is a band.
Yeah.
This isn't Liam Howler and his mates.
Yeah.
This is a tribe.
Yeah.
This is a gang.
I don't know when you see them, it's worth going onto YouTube and, and, and searching
for some of the interviews.
Cause they, you can see them, their body language and stuff.
They're kind of, you know, when you see interviews with the pink Floyd is a brilliant example of
this.
They don't, they look like they don't like each other.
Yeah.
Do you know what I mean?
You can see it in the body language.
When somebody speaking, the other one's kind of like scrunching their face up kind of thing.
You don't get that with these guys.
You just get that.
We, this is, this is us against the world.
And yeah, it is epic.
It's worth pointing out as well.
Although, although I was saying that they, they, they use software, like they, they used analog
as well.
So there was a mixture of stuff in here, but I guess my point is that this, for me, this
is a point where software becomes important.
Yeah.
The, the type of software and, and what you're doing with it starts to get, starts to get
important.
So the, you know, I think software prior to this would have been used.
I mean, it's not that people weren't using computers in the, you know, in the mid nineties,
but computers in the mid nineties were shocking.
Yeah.
And it was like, it was things like the Amiga, the Commodore Amiga that started to pay attention
to sound.
You know, and if you were doing, if you were doing stuff on PCs.
You know, the sound was appalled.
It was awful.
You had to go and spend a fortune on hardware and stuff to make it, make it work.
And synthesizers as well.
You deal, you know, most of it was 16 bit.
Just, you know, I think, you know, there were 32 bit was, was kind of coming through at this
point.
Yeah.
There wasn't fast enough.
There wasn't enough storage.
So you couldn't, you couldn't like deal with stuff in, in like 24 bit and, and, and high resolution.
Cause the.
It just wasn't there.
It just wasn't in the storage space.
So, so they were really cutting edge, I think.
And where, where they were.
I don't sit down with like an idea of a soul and then think, yeah, I'm going to do that.
I'm going to do that.
And I'm going to go in the studio.
And then it all happens.
It's all in the studio at that particular time.
I go in there, start messing around, you know, just start messing around some, maybe some
drums or some, some loops on the sampler and stuff and just get it rocking, you know, and
you just basically try and keep it sounding really sort of kind of funky and hard, you know,
cause a lot of people, when they use, when they use electronic instruments, they get into
the, the trap.
I mean, some people like it, but a lot of people get into the trap of, they think it's
got to be mechanical cause it's written on a computer.
A lot of people think, yeah, it's got, they can't put the funk into it.
I think one of the cleverest things is to kind of, um, when you're writing on electronic instruments
is to have, to get a groove, some kind of groove in your song, you know?
And so like, you know, that's what I try and do.
I try and make it funk back into the computer, you know, and, and, but keep it tough.
Not like, not like disco, more like just the, the swing of the groove and, and to just keep
it solid and hard, you know, and it's, I guess that comes from sort of like late eighties hip-hop,
we sparred by bands like Public Enemy, stuff like that, and just, um, you know, just keep
it like, good attitude, good strong attitude all the way through the tip of the songs, you
know?
Um, I mean, some people say that my, my music aren't, you know, songs, but I mean, I, I heard
last week, I heard a band, um, in Slovenia, covered, um, Brie, like the heavy metal band to
the version of Brie, like playing it on guitars and drums, so that was quite interesting to
hear someone else do my song, you know?
Every song, everything's, every song is different, but really it's, it's the same idea behind the
same, behind every song.
It's kind of like maximum impact every time, you know?
When I'm in the studio, I'm kind of really fussy, you know, I kind of, I've got a sound
in my head, and until I get the sound or something really close to the sound, yeah, I'm, I'm like,
no, it's not right, it's not right, and yeah, you're right, you know, it could take, sometimes
it does take a couple of weeks to get the right sounds, but like when, you know, when it comes
out, it's got to be right, you know, and yeah, I'm like that, definitely, yeah.
Usually I get things down pretty quickly, you know, if I've got beats, if I lay beats down,
you know, Maxi Morley, you know, and, and Keith wanna hear beats, you know, they, they wanna
hear things that can, they can get a vibe off of, if it's a vocal song or something, you
know, it's like Poison, literally, I laid down, um, I laid down just the beat for Poison, and
within like a couple of hours, you know, we had the vocals sort of worked out and stuff,
they wouldn't, it was just jamming, and, um, so usually things can come together pretty
quickly, it's just the, the, the odd elements that take time, you know?
The, uh, ST, Atari ST, that was the big, the big computer that was used in for this kind
of stuff, for music, was the Atari ST.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, they did the same thing, so they followed on from, from
what Commodore did, where they had, um, this is gonna get a little bit nerdy, right, but,
um, in fact, Apple have gone down this route today.
Wow. Um, but, uh, so, if you think about a normal PC, it's got the CPU, and, and it's
got RAM, and it's got disk, and other bits and pieces, and then you plug in cards to go
and do stuff. Um, well, what Commodore did with the Amiga was they had the CPU, and then
they had these discrete, um, like, specialist bits of silicon that did sound, and, you know
what I mean, and did other, other tasks.
Yeah. Um, so you were offloading a lot of that onto these, like, dedicated bits of silicon.
Yeah.
So you could run, you know, really high resolution audio, and it wasn't slowing the computer down.
Yes, yeah.
Um, and, and, and that's the, that was the big shift. That's why the, um, Atari and the Amiga
were huge at this point for this kind of stuff, because, um, you could, you know, like, 3D,
they had, like, they, like, way before you got, like, 3D graphics cards and stuff on PCs,
these kind of things were, they had those chips on, so you could, you could do that kind of stuff.
You could do it, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But yeah, it, it, I mean, and they were cheap as well. Yeah.
They were, they were affordable, like, where PCs would have still been, you know, pretty expensive.
Yeah, yeah.
In the early '90s, you'd have been, like, two, three thousand quid.
Yeah, definitely, yeah.
I mean, we, because we've, we've, you know, Pro Tools kind of, what, what, wiped the floor
with everything in terms of studio stuff as, as it progressed, as it went on.
Yeah.
Right, right back here.
Yeah.
Some of the, some of the bits of software that people were using were things like Cubase
or even Logic, but it wasn't, it wasn't Apple owned by that, that it was, it was.
It talks about Propellerhead Reason when I looked at it.
Oh, Reason, okay.
Yeah, when I looked at this.
Yeah.
I thought, I thought Reason was a bit later, but no, that's cool.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Reason's excellent.
So that's a rack based system.
And Logic.
Yeah.
I guess they would have had that in the studio and Logic would have been sitting on a Mac.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
But yeah, it's, it's, I don't know.
I just think it's fascinating that, that history, this, this, for me, this is that point in time
where it's not a toy anymore.
No.
people playing and being, you know, experimental, this is, you, you, this is just a core part
of how you do music.
Yeah.
At this point, any studio you'd have gone into in 97 would have had this soft.
Yeah.
Matt, perhaps not the, the extent that the Prodigy used it, but.
Yeah.
You know.
It had been around, it had been available.
Yeah, exactly.
So like you say, Pro Tools and Logic and all of that stuff is kind of a big part of it.
And I think you can hear it.
there's a point in time where, you know, comparing the, I mean, comparing the production of this
against Led Zeppelin IV.
Do you know what I mean?
The big, that big shift in, it kind of thumps.
It's got, it's just this kind of like slab of noise that hits you and the compression.
And do you know what I mean?
All of that stuff that's being used in like in the instrument tones as well that they're choosing.
And I love on this album as well, how they, so I think it's, I want to say diesel power,
but at the beginning, the drums, when, when that kind of kicks in, the reverb that they've
added to make it sound like it's in a, in a room.
Yeah.
I just think it's excellent.
Really is a cool album for like digital production.
You know what I mean?
I think it's excellent.
Should we play a song?
Yeah.
Or should we play an interview?
No, I think we'll go diesel power.
The interview is in.
If you have, great.
Well done.
Well chosen.
Let's.
I think diesel power is the one you just spoke about that.
So let's hear that.
Let's do it.
I really, I really like the beginning of this.
I really like the end of this.
And then I thought.
I can make this music.
You know.
I'm going to try and make some of this music.
So I bought some equipment.
And just started.
Knocking some beats up and stuff.
And just.
And then.
The next thing was.
I had a demo tape finish.
And I met Keith.
And then basically just.
Gave him the tape.
And then.
We decided to.
We met Maxon.
And decided to put the whole thing on stage.
And see how.
That would.
That would die.
Yeah.
Basically.
It's a long story.
I mean.
It's evolved over seven years.
You know what I mean.
It's very hard to like sit down.
And kind of explain it.
In.
In a couple of sentences.
But like basically.
I'm originally from the hip hop scene.
You know.
I sort of grew up.
And all my influences were from.
Where hip hop came from.
The sort of.
You know.
Sort of New York.
And.
And kind of DJs.
The way that whole thing started.
And it was all really DIY music.
You know.
People would make.
Rap records in their bedroom.
And stuff like that.
So I really respected that.
And like.
I never wanted to play guitar.
Or drums.
Or be in a band.
When I was younger.
I just wanted to be a DJ.
And.
You know.
Like most people.
That get into dance music.
You know.
You DJ first.
And then you buy some equipment.
And you start writing music.
Exactly the same with me.
You know.
I did.
I did that.
And.
But I wasn't.
I wasn't happy to be like.
In a techno band.
It was just.
Like that.
Just seeing one form of music.
And just kind of.
Staying on that.
Tip of like.
Using certain sounds.
And using certain tempos.
Because a lot of people.
Into.
The dance scene.
Are really like.
Catering for DJs.
The DJs.
They were making records.
So DJs.
Can play them in the clubs.
I just don't.
I just didn't want to do that.
You know.
And.
And I think like.
Jilty Generation.
Our second album.
Was a real turning point.
For the prodigy.
It was when.
Everything really came together.
The live show.
Came together.
The music.
Came together.
Before that.
It was.
I was just naive.
You know.
I didn't know.
Fuck all about the music business.
Do you know what I mean.
It was just like.
I didn't know anything about.
My direction.
I wanted to go in.
As soon as the rave scene.
Collapsed.
I think it was a good thing.
Because it made us.
As a band.
Come out.
Stronger.
As performers.
Come out better.
And like basically.
The whole thing.
Kind of.
Grew from there really.
You know.
Because yeah.
When we first started.
In the dance scene.
We just listened to dance music.
You know.
Very blinkered.
You know.
But.
Travelling around.
We realised.
That there's other bands out there.
Doing the same things.
But in other scenes.
You know.
And.
We realised that.
There's energies at festivals.
And energies at.
College dues.
And whatever.
You know.
There's energy there.
You know.
It wasn't just.
Doing the.
The dance.
Dancing things.
It's evolved in a way.
Where you know.
I think.
Liam has taken our influences.
From other scenes.
And put in his music.
You know.
And.
We've.
We've just grown.
We've just.
I mean.
That's why it's progressed to this level.
As it is now.
Do you know.
We've just taken the other influences.
The music.
Into a live show.
You know.
And realised that.
You know.
Whether you're.
Taking drugs down.
The dance scene.
Or whatever.
You know.
In the dance party.
Whether you're drinking alcohol.
Down to college.
You know.
You can still feel the same energy.
And feel the same buzz.
And we realised that.
We've got something special.
Do you know.
The first music.
I was listening to.
Was.
Like some ska.
And stuff like that.
Because.
Most of the bands.
What were around.
I mean the specials.
They were like a gang.
And.
You know.
They were like.
On a sort of blood.
Childish sort of thing.
When I was younger.
I sort of look at them.
And figure.
Yeah.
You know.
I wish I was in that gang.
You know.
And it was like.
Their music was tough.
And they looked tough on stage.
And so I kind of.
Wanted to be like them.
You know.
That sort of.
When.
Gradually went into the hip hop thing.
Into like.
Um.
Certain bands.
Like Public Enemy.
Old Dragback MCs.
EPMD.
All these bands.
From like New York.
And stuff.
And like.
Um.
Just tough beats.
And that.
They're the things that inspire me.
Just the beats.
The hip hop rhythms.
And stuff.
And like.
Just um.
Keeping the beats fat.
And basically just.
Building the structure of a song.
Around the heavy beat.
And the heavy rhythm.
How familiar.
Are you with the.
Amen.
Breaks.
I did the.
Amen.
Break.
I don't.
I don't know.
Why.
I don't know.
Tell me.
So.
I think you've told me before.
Yeah.
You can hear.
As a thing.
But it's basically.
It's a drum solo.
Yeah.
From a track.
Amen brother.
Yeah.
And it's.
It's on a record.
Yeah.
And it's this particular.
Yeah.
Most beats that are used on.
Prodigy songs and trip hop.
Yeah.
And loads.
And like.
Hundreds of records.
Yeah.
Are that beat.
Right.
So loads of.
So you'll hear it.
And you go.
Oh my God.
That's probably like.
That's firestar.
That's diesel.
About diesel power.
Yeah.
And it slowed down.
And then it's probably.
The aim and break.
Wow.
Most songs are this.
This single loop.
Yeah.
And they built.
They chopped it up.
And they built the beat from it.
Right.
How cool is that?
Yeah.
It's so cool.
I do like that history.
I was listening to Dave Grohl.
Talking about.
When he was.
Invited.
To join Nirvana.
And he said.
I was a drummer.
But I wasn't very good drummer.
I didn't really know what I was doing.
And I'd not really played in a band before.
And I didn't really like rock or metal.
Very much.
As I wasn't.
I said.
You know.
So my sisters did.
Yeah.
And so I kind of was able to pretend a little bit.
Yeah.
And look cool.
But you know.
I was listening to like the gap band.
Yeah.
All this stuff.
And he said.
So when.
They were the beats that I knew.
Yeah.
So when I came to sit down in the studio.
And we did nevermind.
They were the beats that I'd got him.
And that's what I played.
Yeah.
So he said afterwards.
Everyone was like.
Oh wow.
And all these amazing.
Like cool beats that no one's done before in rock.
Right.
Yeah.
Because that you're rock.
Journalists and stuff had not heard them before.
Yes.
They thought I'd invented this stuff.
But I'd literally just stolen it from like all this disco and stuff.
And that's kind of what I did.
And I do like that.
I kind of think that.
Yeah.
The history of where this stuff comes from.
Yeah.
And that melting pot of ideas.
And.
I just think it's excellent.
And I do.
You know.
So.
Yeah.
So Kendall Lacey was.
Was our.
Our.
Our listener.
Who told me off for.
The Greta Van Fleet.
Hello Kendall.
Yeah.
Hi Kendall.
He will listen.
And then.
He'll tell us what we got wrong.
Thanks Kendall.
But then.
So.
But I.
I think.
It made me think.
We had this like brief conversation on X.
And it made me think that.
Did actually.
It's all influence.
Isn't it?
It's.
It just all is.
It's.
It's like.
So.
You know.
The stuff that.
That you record for riding the low.
You were talking about that being like.
Just like.
Ripped off from.
What you listen to of.
Of like.
The smashing pumpkins.
And 90s grunge.
And not like.
In a.
Malicious way.
It's not like.
Oh I'm going to copy what.
You know.
I'm going to copy.
I want that vibe.
That's the vibe I like.
Yeah.
Exactly.
So that's the kind of thing that you do.
And.
It just made me.
It just hit me that.
You know.
This is just where music is.
And comes from.
You know.
That kind of ebb and flow.
Of.
What's happening.
And.
You know.
You've got artists like.
Ren.
We talk about Ren quite a lot.
But he's.
He's just like taking stuff.
And then re.
Reimagining it.
And.
I had one like this.
Even this last week.
Where I was listening to.
The Foo Fighters record.
Yeah.
Echoes.
Silence.
Patience.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
The last track.
I think is home.
It's a beautiful song.
Yeah.
But just the way it's mic'd.
The way it's processed.
The way.
I was listening to.
You know.
And I was enjoying it as a song.
Yeah.
But what I was really taken by.
It was like.
My God.
That guy's in your ear.
Do you know what I mean.
Yeah.
And it's.
And it's like.
I want that.
I want.
I want to record a song that feels like that.
Isn't it.
And that's what it is.
It's not.
It's not a copying thing.
Is that maybe they.
They.
They've gone a little bit further.
You know.
Where it's like.
They only had.
They only had a Led Zeppelin album.
But this.
But for me it's about like.
I want to do a thing that feels like that.
Yeah.
And I think you're right.
I think it's.
It's.
You can't avoid that.
It makes you.
It makes you who you are.
Yeah.
Like.
I mean.
It's in everything we do as well.
So.
You know.
The.
Like.
So I.
I work in software.
So the.
The code that I write.
Is like a function.
Driven from stuff that I read.
In the 80s.
Yeah.
Do you know what I mean.
When I was first taught.
And I was first.
And I.
You know.
I would start.
And I would look at stuff.
And think.
That's really cool.
Yeah.
I mean.
I.
You.
And you would see what another programmer had done.
And think.
Oh.
Yeah.
That's.
I'm having that.
And that would.
That.
And then.
So I still do things today.
That.
I thought were cool in the 90s.
And.
Do you know what I mean.
And you think.
Oh God.
It comes through.
Doesn't it.
The influence.
And I think.
Isn't that what makes it special though.
That.
Yeah.
That kind of evolution.
Of.
Of different genres.
And then.
You know.
You might get exposed to it.
And then you might go on to do something completely different.
But take a bit of that with you.
You know.
But that's why a band's so important.
Because.
Yeah.
That's like.
A group of.
That.
Yeah.
And when you bring all of those.
Those ideas.
And energies.
And ethos.
You know.
To a general kind of pot.
Where everyone has the buy in.
Yeah.
You get magic.
Yeah.
And I was thinking about this.
I was driving last night.
And I was thinking.
This really hit me hard.
Existing to it.
And going.
If it was.
If it was four different people.
You wouldn't have the prodigy.
Yeah.
If it was four different people.
You wouldn't have the Beatles.
You wouldn't have the Stones.
You wouldn't have Zepp.
You wouldn't have.
And it really got me going.
These are.
These are like.
Snapshots.
And moments in time.
Yeah.
I think the success.
Which we've made.
Yeah.
It's.
It's brought us together.
But.
From day one.
You know.
We.
You know.
It was a case of.
We just enjoyed.
What we did.
And it goes to a point.
Where.
You know.
It wasn't.
Nothing planned.
As such.
You know.
We just enjoyed.
What we were doing.
And doing shows.
And that's.
That's why we're here today.
I mean.
Also the fact.
That.
We're four individuals.
You know.
We all respect each other's space.
We respect each other.
And I think that's held us together as well.
None of it makes sense.
I mean.
I hate everything.
Apart from getting on stage.
And writing in the studio.
I don't like doing interviews.
I don't like.
Doing photo sessions.
Nothing like that.
I'm not into any of that.
I mean.
I mean it for.
The real reasons.
For the music.
Do you know what I mean.
And performing on stage.
We don't do interviews.
For the other reason.
Where a lot of people do interviews.
Just to sell records.
Do you know.
It's not.
Not on this.
Capitalize on everything.
Kind of type of.
You know.
Trip where.
Groups are.
Manufactured.
They go out.
They have to do certain amount of TV.
Certain amount of interviews.
To sell certain products.
You know.
And push themselves forward.
You know.
We do for the right reasons.
We do selected.
Incredible magazines.
Credible things.
Which are credible to us.
You know.
Because you know.
What we're doing.
And.
We want to draw people around us.
Which believe in the same kind of things.
You know.
It's not you otherwise is it.
Do you know what I mean.
If you're letting people.
Stole you.
Or do your videos.
It's like.
I was speaking to Keith earlier.
About like.
Videos and stuff.
And.
Someone was asking like.
About.
The direction of the videos.
And.
You know.
You don't.
You don't let a director.
You know.
We don't let a director.
Come in and say.
You've got to do this.
Or.
You know.
I've got this wicked idea.
Do that.
You know.
We all work together on it.
Like.
Otherwise.
It's not.
They're not representing the song.
You know.
It's like.
We've.
You know.
We've thrown away.
Tens of thousands of pounds on videos before.
And not used them.
We.
You know.
We've.
Like when we did Firestarter.
You know.
We.
There was another video.
No one ever saw.
It's finished.
You know.
And I saw it.
You know.
I was like.
That's not the video.
I'm not using that.
You know.
Pulled together.
Like.
The video that everyone else saw.
The black and white video.
In like.
Two weeks.
And that was a really good video.
But it was.
It was.
Down to us.
And.
Working together.
And getting a good direction.
You know.
I mean like.
As far as.
You know.
As far as like.
Videos and things like that go.
Do you know.
I mean we've built this like.
Over the last seven years.
Do you know.
Off our own backs.
You know.
Off the buzz.
Four of us.
We've built this.
Do you know.
So we're not going to give it to somebody.
To manipulate.
And totally.
Send it in the wrong direction.
Where we're not.
We don't want to.
You know.
That's.
Everything we do.
Represents us.
And as soon as we start doing things.
That don't represent us.
We're doing it for the wrong reasons.
You can't stray.
And let people.
Yeah.
You've got to do this.
Oh you've got to do that.
You've got to believe in what you believe in.
Do you know.
And stick to that.
I think.
If you stick to that.
You haven't got no problems.
Do you know.
I'm into.
I'm into like anything.
You know.
I'm appreciative of anything that rocks.
Whether it's dance music.
Rock music.
Hip hop.
Anything.
As long as it's got that special energy.
Do you know what I mean.
Is pulling together all those styles.
And spitting it out.
Is like a prodigy sound.
You know.
And like.
There's no other dance bands.
That.
That like.
Were prepared to.
To sort of step forward.
And like.
Bring the attitude.
To the dancing.
You know.
No one.
You know.
And there's a few people around.
Trying to copy what we're doing.
You know.
But.
Like.
People always remember the originators of like.
I think if you're blinkered.
And you just make.
Traditional dance music.
So to speak.
You know.
There's no way that energy has that same.
Attitude in it.
As.
Prodigy music.
You know.
I'm into like.
It makes it alive.
You know.
Aggressive music.
You know.
It's still positive.
Even though it's aggressive.
It just like.
Makes the whole thing become alive.
And sort of.
Just so mechanical.
And like.
Do you know what I mean.
I'm just really into that side of things.
You know.
The music stirs something up in you.
Do you know.
It makes you come out.
Do you know.
And.
That's the reason why.
We are.
What we are.
Because.
We come out of ourselves.
I mean.
And I.
You know.
Like.
Yeah.
If.
Like.
Ten years ago.
You asked me to go on stage.
And MC on stage.
I'd be just walking up and down the stage.
You know.
And I wouldn't be doing nothing special.
Because I wouldn't have.
You know.
But the music's done something to me.
It's brought something out of me.
Do you know.
And it's.
You know.
It's tapped on something inside of me.
It's.
It just made me come out my shell a bit more.
And you know.
You can't front me when I'm on stage.
Because that's what it does to me.
The thing that I'm talking about the most.
And you know.
I have to apologize to Paddy.
Because I really rant at him about this.
But it's like.
The thing of like.
Music's really important.
Yeah.
You know.
Music is.
The probably one of the most important art forms.
There is to me.
Because.
In no other.
Space.
Do you get.
With the exception of perhaps film.
Yeah.
But in no other space.
If you like really good film.
Not the.
You know.
The painted by numbers stuff.
You get on bloody telly.
The stuff.
The.
You know.
The capture.
And the essence.
Captured in one spot.
Yeah.
And the creation of something new.
Yeah.
From this essence.
Well.
There's nothing like it.
And actually.
There's something about.
The bands where.
Because as you said before.
I used to like.
Knock 'em out with every band.
There's a band.
I was doing something.
You were in every band.
When I first met you.
You were in like.
Someone said to me.
Oh.
Chris is in that band.
No.
For me.
That was about helping everyone.
That was.
Yeah.
But where I've landed.
Sort of this last year.
Or a couple of years.
Is this idea of like.
No, no.
I'm going to do one.
Yeah.
And I'm going to put.
Everything I've got into that.
Yeah.
It's.
I think it's fascinating.
When you.
See.
Um.
So let's take Metallica.
For.
For an example.
And you go back.
To.
Like my favorite Metallica album.
Is ride the lightning.
Right.
Today.
I did.
I've got a 40th anniversary.
Pressing.
Yeah.
I've got the.
I've got an original first pressing.
When I never play it.
It's in already.
Are we?
I'm sorry.
I'm too scared.
To play the first pressing.
In case I damage it.
Um.
Because they're so expensive now.
But I've got the 40th anniversary.
Repressing.
And it's beautiful.
And I.
I play it.
Like at least.
Twice a week.
I go.
Whip it out.
And I play it.
And I absolutely adore it.
Um.
It's got a radically different sound.
To.
Um.
And Justice.
And Master of Puppets.
Yeah.
And.
Um.
When you.
Have these Metallica conversations online.
You always end up with that.
I like the first four albums.
Yeah.
Don't like the black album.
Don't like anything afterwards.
Don't like this.
Don't like that.
They sold out.
It went all commercial.
And blah, blah, blah.
And.
You know.
Hasn't the internet exacerbated that?
Oh.
It has.
Yeah.
That you've got to have an opinion.
Yeah.
I.
I totally.
Totally.
Get.
That people like.
And prefer different albums.
Like.
I would take.
Lightning over the black album.
Like.
All the time.
Every time.
I think it's.
Like.
Ten times a better album.
I.
Absolutely adore the album.
Um.
But.
I don't think that.
They sold out.
No, no, no.
I think that this is just.
Um.
You know.
A.
Bunch of.
People.
That are growing up.
You know.
Like.
And you hear Kirk.
Say this.
Quite often.
From Metallica.
It's quite.
Like.
When I do the solos.
From Master of Puppets.
Mm.
That doesn't sound like music.
To me anymore.
I.
Just remember.
Where my fingers go on the fretboard.
Yeah.
I kind of don't hear.
I've played them.
Thousands.
Yeah.
And it's not.
It doesn't feel like that anymore.
And you think.
Well.
If you went into a studio.
Why would.
You wouldn't do that again.
Right.
Yeah.
You would do something different.
You'd be like.
Well.
I've already done that.
And it's boring.
Yeah.
You know.
It's like.
That's kind of the way.
When.
When I'm writing.
When I'm looking at projects to do at work.
I kind of have done that before.
I don't want to do it again.
I want to do something different.
And I think that's kind of where.
Like.
Some bands do that.
They evolve.
But that's as the people evolve.
Yeah.
And where some bands don't.
So.
You know.
You've got bands out there.
Like.
Like Exodus.
And Overkill.
Who.
Prong a good example of this.
Where they've kind of.
They've slammed the same stuff.
It's the same style.
Yeah.
Because they still enjoy it.
Yeah.
But that's them.
That's their.
And I don't think anybody's being.
Like nefarious.
Or.
You know.
I don't think Metallica set out to.
Be commercial.
I don't think they.
I mean.
I'm sure Lars probably had a little bit of a.
You know.
Big.
I want to be really successful.
But.
If I made the snare song.
Like a biscuit tin.
Yeah.
Everyone will talk about me.
That will do it.
Everyone will.
Buy my album.
If it sounds terrible.
But.
Do you see what I mean though.
It's like.
It's just this evolution.
It's people isn't it.
Yeah.
You've talked about this all the time.
It's just people.
They're just humans.
In a studio.
And then they're like.
What should we play.
And then you play.
What you want to hear.
At that point.
You play what you like.
And what's kind of cool to you.
At that point in time.
So.
It's that evolution of influences.
You know.
It's really difficult to be.
You know.
Like.
Rage against the machine.
And anachronistic.
And all this kind of stuff.
When you're a billionaire.
Do you know what I mean.
There's a difference.
I was driving home.
The other night.
They came on.
And it was the.
Maggie's Farm.
Yeah.
I don't know what the song's called.
It might be called that.
I don't know.
But.
I remember.
And I was listening to it.
And it came on.
It was on the.
Radio one.
Oh.
It's a radio one.
Driving home.
Yeah.
And that came on.
Yeah.
It was a really good rock.
You know.
Oh.
Radio one.
Yeah.
They do.
Who is it.
It's absolutely.
It was a brilliant show.
And.
That came on.
And I was driving home.
And I went.
And it came in.
It kicked in.
And I kind of didn't know what it was for a bit.
Until he started singing.
And I was like.
Here we go.
What's this.
Someone's like.
This is a new song.
And then they put it.
And it was like.
Oh it's rage.
Fair enough.
Yeah.
But then I thought.
They can't really do that anymore.
They can't.
Tom Morello is really good at this.
Yeah.
He's really clever.
But he's saying that.
If you.
We should do a rage one.
He's basically saying.
If you think.
You've not been paying attention.
Okay.
Yeah.
And he said that.
You know.
We.
We never said.
It's not.
You know.
That you.
You shouldn't be successful.
And you shouldn't have money.
Right.
And you shouldn't charge $500.
For a ticket.
To see.
Yeah.
We never said that.
What we said was.
You should question.
Yeah.
Things.
Right.
Don't take things at face value.
Don't be manipulated.
Challenge.
And it's.
It's really interesting to.
Justify.
But.
Yeah.
But they're on that journey too.
Right.
And you know.
It's really different.
You know.
You talked about.
That point in time.
Well.
Imagine.
Guns and roses.
Yeah.
They're all living together.
They're in downtown LA.
They're having the best time ever.
They've.
People.
They all go out to work.
They.
Dick about.
They.
You know.
They.
I mean.
The stories are phenomenal.
About them getting like.
Sexually transmitted diseases.
Yeah.
Getting.
Getting so embarrassed about going to the doctors.
Like.
Every other day.
That.
They found out they could get the same medication from the aquarium next door.
Because they treated for fish.
So they would go and buy it in bulk.
Oh God.
That's amazing.
But that point in time.
Where they're all like.
Dossing on the floor.
Yeah.
And you know.
Drinking night train.
Yeah.
Do you know what I mean.
They.
They are.
Is that where the song title comes from?
Yeah.
Oh wow.
It was a wine.
I think.
Yeah.
White lightning.
Yeah.
But then.
That's where a bride the lightning came from.
Then they get signed.
Like really quickly.
Really quickly.
They get signed.
Yeah.
And then.
They've got millions.
Yeah.
And now they're in apartments.
And now they've got cleaners.
And now they've got whatever they want.
Yeah.
Right.
And.
Then they go into the studio.
That's a different.
Yeah.
There are people now.
In a different state of mind.
In a different state.
So you get different songs.
You get.
You know.
Yeah.
Totally.
It's.
Like you talked about that.
Bottling the magics.
Like why do they not just go in and do another appetite?
Yeah.
Because they're not there anymore.
Yeah.
Different people.
Yeah.
That was a snapshot in time.
Yeah.
That's really interesting isn't it?
It is isn't it?
I think that's why music is so important.
It's phenomenal.
Because it's a way of capturing that.
Yeah.
And there's not many things that do that in this world.
I don't think.
Anyway.
I think you're right.
I think we've waffled too much.
What's next?
I don't know.
I've dropped them in.
You won't have noticed.
It's been really subtle.
Happening underneath him before and after me.
I think we need to play Narayan or Narian.
I don't know how to pronounce it but that one.
It's really good.
Can I just add a public service announcement while we're talking about this?
Don't name your children after prodigy songs.
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from Metallica.
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