THE Prodigy's Liam Howlett explains how, this time around, he's reunited with frontman Keith Flint and he's even got his Nirvana mate Dave Grohl on board.
Nirvana fan Liam Howlett recreated the distinctive Kurt Cobain guitar riff from Very Ape for the Prodigy's 1994 hit Voodoo People.

Now Prodigy songwriter Howlett has 16 million album sales to his name and is mates with Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl.

Howlett even delayed handing in the fifth Prodigy album, Invaders Must Die, to include some of Grohl's stick work.

‘‘He's the nicest American you'll ever meet,'' Howlett says of the Foo Fighters frontman, who appears on Run With Wolves.

‘‘It's ferocious, that tune,'' Howlett says. ‘‘It's definitely one of the more venomous tracks on the album. It's fast and has a big, evil synth riff that comes in for the hook.''

After 1 1/2 years spent working on the album, Howlett had actually finished the record when a bored Grohl emailed him.

‘‘He'd finished touring and wanted to get in the studio and play drums. He asked how I'd feel about him sending me a load of his drum samples to use,'' Howlett says.

‘‘I was like ‘F---ing come on'. So he went into the studio, laid down all these beats and sent me the hard drive in the hope I'd be inspired. We wrote the track in four days. I sent it back, he redrummed it and here we are.''

That's the way it should happen, Howlett says, adding that Grohl is the sort of person who would just jump on the drums if they happened to be at a festival together.

‘‘He has no reservations about having a good time and doing it for the right reasons,'' he says.

‘‘That's the type of person I like to work with.

‘‘It's an honour to have him on the album. People will listen to the track and recognise his sound straight away.''

The album, Invaders Must Die, will be released in March on the band's new self-run label, Take Me to the Hospital.

Grohl is the only guest, apart from Does It Offend You, Yeah?'s James Rushent.

It's no accident. Howlett invited external vocalists, but he won't name them, saying they ‘‘weren't exciting enough to be on the record, they're on the shelf for the time being''.

For the previous Prodigy album, 2004's Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned, Howlett dispensed with usual vocalist Keith Flint (the menacing voice of Breathe and Firestarter) for everyone from Juliet Lewis to his brother-in-law, Liam Gallagher.

As a very belated follow-up to their 1997 worldwide smash The Fat of the Land, it was always destined to struggle.

‘‘It was the record I had to do,'' Howlett says. ‘‘It was a reset for the band. I'm really proud of that record. It was totally necessary. It caused a lot of confusion but I don't care. We wouldn't be here now had I not done that album.''

He admits the lack of input from Flint was symptomatic of relations in the Prodigy at the time.

‘‘It was a hard time for the band. We'd been through a lot of s---. I wasn't really communicating with Keith. There was some paranoia floating around, some tension. I didn't speak to Keith for a year and a half. We fell out a bit.

‘‘I thought it was a brave move to not write Fat of the Land Part 2. In my head it was a DJ beats sample record. That's what I did.''

This time round Flint and bandmate Maxim are on board for Invaders Must Die.

‘‘It's a total band album,'' Howlett says. ‘‘We can play every track live, which is important to us.''

Howlett says he went back and listened to the Prodigy's rave-influenced 1992 debut Experience to revisit his youth.

‘‘Even though the rave scene had its corny moments I loved that whole London warehouse scene,'' he says. ‘‘There's a lot of inspiration on this new album from that -- the beats, the sounds -- but it's not a retro album. It sounds really fresh. It's a big riff album. Every track is based around a big riff.

‘‘The album is electronic but it's also pretty ferocious. Warrior's Dance is a proper old-school '91-style tune, but still sounds fresh. It's a big Prodigy anthem already and it's not even out yet.''

BUY Invaders Must Die is released on March 2.
SEE The Prodigy, Big Day Out, Flemington Racecourse, Jan 26, $139.50, Ticketmaster; Metro, Jan 29, $77+bf on sale Mon from Ticketmaster.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/ ... 24,00.html

ncie promo shot there

how come the Brisbane Show tickets are only $60???
that's for there show at the Riverstage not at BDO

nice one!

awesome stuff, even tho most of the things howlett says in interviews havent changed for the past 3 or 4 years lol.

I'm surprised that he didn't talk to Keith for a year and a half. That was worrying stuff.

yep man, didn't know that...

ok,i read the ionterview which is very interesting,but now my question is:also if we heard only one track of the new album(apart warriors dance and world's on fire)invaders must die,which is the first single,why there isn't yet keith or maxim?i mean,i don't like the track,but that isn't my point,what i mean is why they started with a track,which has got something of aono period(no keith and maxim on vocals,clubby '80's shitty sound,a bit as "girls"but more shitty).You know?it seems to be a step in back.They were well starting with stuff as world's on fire,beat 55,warriors dance,mescaline.....and now through "invaders must die" i hear somthing completely different.Naturally it's only my opinion and naturally i didn't listened to all tha album,but for me this means a drammatci step to the back,to 4 years ago.

Nice interview.
I really hope that Run With The Wolves will be the TUNE from this album.

I really dont see any similarities with Girls. Not one god damn sound or structure.

I see some similarities, not so much in the sound, but in the vibe. I think that both tunes have that fresh vibe to them. I must admit though, that I was much more surprised when I first heard Girls, whereas I expected something in that vein from IMD (I still was a bit surprised nonetheless). Still can't judge which one is better though.

Nice interview thanks.

Liam and keith kinda fell out.....details please

I doubt we'll hear anymore about this. I'm sure Liam or Keith won't answer any questions about it, they'll just want to put that shit behind them.
Its over 4 or 5 years ago anyway. Main thing is that they patched it up with a bottle of Moet!

keith took his pink glitter marker

im sure it was to do with the direction of the band keef wanted to take it in, liams always had the final word, n i think after firestarter being such a success, keith probably thought he deserved more of a say than liam was willing to allow..

the glitter marker was maxims beef... hehe

they've been hinting at this for a while now. It was a paranoia thin were they stopped communicating for a while. Although they did love the big day out tour in 2002. Apart from that...it was just dark energy and lack of excitement.