:shock: ................so does anybodycare that we cant read the interview? im suprised, these things are usually promply fixed and posted on myspace or whatever but comon guys i havent read it yet and im sure others havent either

So Liam, what's your opinion about this online music community which has your music as a big source of inspiration?
It's amazing man, I've got a lot of respect for kids who take their time to write music and are into what we do. Like about 16 years ago I did the same in my bedroom with the (roland) w30. It's really cool, I respect that.

What would be your advise to young unexperienced artists who wanna get their music known to the outside world? The internet?
Just be original. The internet does help yea but if you write something original, something a bit different, people will hear that. People who wanna just please other people obviously won't get any further. We need people who mix it up and experiment with new things.

Would you consider supporting bk -recording artists if you see potential in them? Like for example letting them be the support act for a prodigy gig?
Yea totally man. like I said before, if something is really original… like for example on the last UK tour we took some talented bands with us …. but regarding the productional side most stuff I like are actually real bands playing 'live' you know. On that side there's not really much electronic stuff which is exciting to me.

That's a point I made for the relaunch of the site. We are actually looking for artists who wanna take their music 'live' not just the isolated bedroom pc geeks who never go out.
Totally, that's what it's all about. I don't mind if it's electronic or guitar based as long as it has the vibe. It would be quite interesting if I would get involved in producing a guitar band you know, a sort of collaboration. That would be a good possibility…but I'm always on the lookout you know, I'm launching my own label next year.

About your beats, do you still trigger your rythms in realtime for your studio recordings?
Now and then, it depends on what tracks I'm doing. Like I did some elektro tracks that are kinda programmed.

Always Outnumbered sounds kinda more programmed....
Yea, in a way but the next record isn't gonna be like that. Always outnumbered is quite loop based, do you know what I mean? It's almost a bit more dj based. This new record is gonna be more like goin' back to…

fat of the land?
Kind of yea but still pushin' forward you know. It all depends on what track I'm doing: like sometimes when writing beats I just turn the quantise of and play the shit in. Gives it that live feel, you know.

Regarding vocals: you stated in a previous interview that you got some ideas for new track by recording vocals and guitars, on the other hand you also said you didn't record any vocals of keith and maxim yet. How do you work it out then?
We have recorded a few vocals with Keith and Maxim. We're trying some new ways of recording for this album. Even more tradional ways like recording vocals starting from a guitar riff instead of beats. We got some great ideas from doing it like that. That's new for us cos we normally start from a track which is basically about half done.

You use ableton live for the live shows now. Do you use like one audio recording (lineair) or different segments like beats, basslines etc. to play live?
I use both modes of ableton. You've got like this lego page where everything stacks up. Like on 'back to school' it's about 40-50 parts stacked up which you can trigger. Makes it really live, you can fuck around with stuff. Anything can happen at any point but we've got some sort of arrangement now, we mostly use that now. It goes roughly around that.

The live element of the prodigy has become much more defined now with the input of Rob and Kieron…
Yea, it's since ableton really. That helps to get the whole thing more organic. That's mainly the starting point for the new album. As we're doing the new tracks, we're thinking about how we can do them live, you know what I mean?

Yea, do you use live drums in the studio now and do your record them aswell?
Yes man. If you got like a programmed beat, Kieron can play cymbals and stuff on top. Gives it that live kinda feel. He just plays certain parts otherwise it gets too messy. Like the break part in 'back to school' is my bassdrum while Kieron plays cymbals, snare accents and toms.
The idea of the drummer with us is that it integrates in the band, the beats have to be powerful all the time. You can't create that fuckin' prodigy sound with only live drums cos they aren't powerful enough.

Any new equipment you got addicted to recently? I saw a virus TI onstage…
Yea virus is cool, I've got one in my studio aswell… but I'm mostly into older equipment like oberheim, korg ms-20, moog,…stuff like that. When I look for basslines, I always go to the old ones cos they have that fat you know.

I've bought a korg emx recently, I had to check korg cos I've read multiple times that you're really into that brand.
Yea but I'm not really into the new korg stuff. The virus is fuckin' excellent though, it has that digital sound which kinda cuts through, great to put things on top.

It's really expensive though for a guy like me.
Well yea… I got it for nothing (laughs)

You always stated that puristic club music and ibiza culture isn't really your cup of tea. On the other hand you've played quite a lot dance festivals like dancevalley, I love techno, mayday,… Do you see them as a challenge?
I gotta be honest, I'm not a big fan of that type of festivals but… I still think it's really important to play those cos it's like reminding people we are still here. If we'd only do our own shows, we'd never reach new audiences cos only the fans would come. Like for example I didn't like dancevalley at all cos it's too commercial but we can't do the same all the time. In america we play a lot of shows with rockbands aswell. It's kinda happening for us there cos we do those gigs. We're just lucky we can play all sorts you know. Like download festival was fuckin' chaos and the day before we did Isle of Wright. Two totally different gigs but both were good in their own way.

Do you have any favorite electronica artist at this moment? Or don't you listen to electronic stuff?
I do listen, absolutely. I like 'justice'. Alot of french stuff I'm not really into cos it's not really tough… but Justice is fuckin' nice ya know. It's got the groove, it's got that kinda attack. They're doing something different even though it's quite clubby. People think I'm not into four to the floor but it's about how you do it. When they do it, it sound like discopunk. I've done a couple of tracks like that. It can't be breakbeat all the time.

You've also played this kinda military new fill with a sort of bouncy, stomping beat tonight…
Yea, four to the floor is good sometimes. It's part of a new track we're doing. We're working on it at the moment.

What about the new skatrack you mentioned in the interview with nekosite?
Well, all the ideas are still work in progress. The record kinda takes it own direction for a bit. Then I listen to what I have done and I do some other stuff. It keeps sort of moving around. After maybe like 3 months, we have about 20 tracks and we'll pick out the ones which are really strong and work those ones out till we have like 11-12 tracks. It won't be out till next summer though cos it needs to be great.

Will there still be occasional gigs?
Yea, but like after november we might take 4 months off. There's no point in keeping touring cos people have seen this show for like the last year.

Yea, the setlist has been the same for a long time now.
What can we do man? We wanna come back with like 5 fresh tracks and Bang! The only way to do that is to go away and come back again when it's done.

Regarding the new live tunes: why do you bother about the opinions from people on internet forums?
Cos I'm passionate. Sometimes when I'm flickin' through things, I'm like honest to myself. I should just say: 'whatever'…but I'm really into my band, do you know what I mean?

Do you feel the urge to respond those comments?
Yea, always (laughing), there are some funny things going on there. I always read 'em, especially when I'm in the hotel. Because I care, you know.

Do you see yourself performing at the age of 50+, sort of like the rolling stones?
I don't know if I'd be alive when I'm 50, I don't think that far ahead man. We keep going if the buzz is there and at the moment there's some great communication between the band.

I think Rob is an excellent addition to create that buzz.
Yea, rob will be on the new album. If we keep this vibe goin', who knows what will happen…

Do you still play videogames Liam?
Not so much cos I have a little boy now. When I'm at home, I haven't got time to do that. But when he's older, I'll probably play again (laughing)

So the launch of the playstation 3 won't delay the new album?
Is there any tomb raider? (laughing). No, the games won't delay the new album this time.

Any chance you would release some of the reworked old songs you played during the their law tour? I'm thinking of break and enter and jericho…
Possibly…( Liam talking to his manager now) Hey mike, Thomas gave me a good idea here. You know about this album I'm doing. We could set my remix of break and enter on there and jericho aswell. (Liam talking to me again now) If we won't release them, I'll put them on the internet for free. Just like those 4 tracks I've put on there, that demotape. I forgot to say that they're not mixed, just straight out of the w30 in mono. That's why they sound a bit 'small'.

You still have those tracks sequenced in your w30?
Yea, on disks. I've recorded them 2 weeks ago. In fact, I had to go back to my old house for that. Looked into the storage in my garage and there they were. Just had to press play.

Any chance we'll hear solo Liam Howlett material after the prodgy era? More chilled material like: 3 kilo's, climbatize,…?
I don't think I will mellow out. I have my own label next year so I'll wait and see what happens.

Your own label?
Yea, I'm planning things forward you know. Keep on the lookout for exciting things to happen.

Are you thinking about doin' like a soundtrack for a game or a movie?
Yea, we've done a massive remix of warning for a film. Not the vocal version, the vocal version may or may not be on the album. We haven't really made decisions, all we do now is focus on writing, getting as many tunes as we can.

Do you still own a ferrari f40?
No, my dad crashed it against a tree (laughing) I don't have any cars at the moment… except a dodge charger 1968 like in 'dukes of hazard' but mine's black. It goes fast in the straight lines but you can't take corners with it.

Are you satisfied with your life Liam, are you a happy person?
I'm a happy person yea but I'm always hungry you know. When you get too happy, you get lazy. Everyone should fuckin' listen to that…like all the tunes I've written are good but some of them can be better, I can learn of them. I'm always trying to write better ones.
Succes isn't everything, it never went to our heads cos we always were a unity you know.

I've asked a Belgian journalist about you guys and he said that the guys are a bit full of themselves, a bit arrogant,…
Good. We are clever guys you know, we look at people when we sit there. When they ask stupid questions, we can be the most arrogant people. I can sit down with someone all night when they're into it but if someone's trying to be clever, I'm like fuckin' hell…

I guess you're not too keen on Belgium since you've put that article about seat beach rock on your old site.
No, I like Belgium. Maybe we've done some not so good gigs there but… the only place I'm not really into is Scandinavia. Regarding France, I don't really have an opinion cos we only have done like 5 gigs there. I like the eastern Europe countries like Ukraine cos it's right at the beginning there, really exciting.
Everytime we come here ( Russia), it's a bit more westernised. The country has also relaxed a bit. The first time we came here in 1992 I think, we had to queue up for like 3-4 hours to get out of the country. But we've seen it progress over the years, it became more relaxed.
Do you know R & S records? It was a Belgian label from Gent with this kinda ferrari logo. Really great, they were probably the greatest label for techno back in the nineties. CJ Bolland was on there.

You had some problems with him, didn't you?
Yea cos he ripped poison off. (track 'sugar is sweeter') It's a shame cos he's a good guy really.
The guys who did the memphis bells remixes were Belgians, you've heard of that?

Yea, those 5000 mixes, right?
Yea they to came to us with that idea. They said it's like Andy Warhol, you get the track and people could like paint their colours. Different drums, different things,…
They were a bit ahead of themselves I think. I didn't quite work out like how they wanted it to be… but it was interesting. People didn't quite get the point I think but it's important to do things like that. This wouldn't be possible in the 'fat of the land' period ten years ago.

Regarding the live gigs, do you actually look a lot to the crowd to see what's goin' on?
I'm aware but I gotta keep my eyes to the equipment sometimes.

Do you look at specific faces in the crowd?
Yea man, I usually see about 3 or 4 rows out. Sometimes I recognise faces in the crowd.

When I'm in front, it sometimes feel like you gonna die, things get really bad.
Fights? Yea, I've seen them. You see like fuckin' swirms of people all getting mad, I love that…but not really in a limp bizkit kinda way. Sometimes violence is good but people really hitting each other…that's like fuckin' stupid.
Our goal for the next album is to write music that just fuckin' ignites the crowd, we haven't got time for some mellow shit…well, maybe 1 track or something.
Like the tent at download was so fuckin' packed. It was quite a still gig because people couldn't really move a lot, it looked like a big tornado moving.

Do you know t. raumschmiere? It's like german elektro rock 'n' roll.
No I don't know. Sounds good, can you write that down for me? I'll listen to it… you know people who are saying electronic music is dead, are talking shit. People just believe what the press is saying. Electronic is well alive man, it changes.

I see you like drawing (Liam is drawing a moustache on a prodigy poster) Is it true you've had a graphical education?
I won' t call it an education, more self taught. I would probably have been an artist if I didn't do music… but I'm really into moustaches this days (laughs)
We are actually involved in the artwork, not technically but…like this dirtchamber cover, I saw this milecounter on a tank in Essex, it was like a place with old tanks and planes. It was like the year 1999 tickin' over to the new millenium.

The crab on the fat of the land, whas it your idea aswell?
Yea, it was like the king of his territory you know, king of the beach. They are really small in real life but really powerful. We thought that's how we were back in the days. In that time it was like Oasis and all those fuckin' massive bands. We were like a small band but really powerful. We've had like 5 different ideas before but then I saw this picture of the crab and we changed it.

Thanks alot for this interview Liam, much respect.
(done in Moscow, 24 september 2006 by Thomas from streamblenda and Nathalie L.)