Music365.com has an interview feature with former Prodigy dancer Leeroy Thornhill, who reveals that he's to start collaborating with Eminem and former Specials front man Terry Hall :

"LEEROY THORNHILL has told Music365 that he left the Prodigy last month because he could no longer ignore the solo material he had been working on for the last few years.

And he says he's planning collaborations with Terry Hall, Finley Quaye and US rapper Eminem on his solo album, which he hopes to have out next year.

Thornhill is releasing his first material under his Flightcrank persona on June 12 through Copasetik Recordings. The Twisted EP includes a remix of the title track by dub legend Lee Scratch Perry.

The four track EP contains songs two years old, but Thornhill says "I didn't want to leave them on DAT. They're left pretty raw, I didn't want to polish it up."

Thornhill says the music is material he wrote specifically for his solo career and he didn't take it to Prodigy mainman Liam Howlett. "We've always done our own sort of thing."

Thornhill has previously done remixes for Moby, Shades Of Rhythm, Kool Keith and Southern Fly. "Since the group started I've been doing up a studio at home. I started off trying to do dance music and never got it the way I wanted to hear it."

Twisted is a much more chilled-out record, drawing heavily from dub, trip-hop and reggae rather than the hi-energy dance music of his former group.

"I'm more into that chilled stuff, I like music you can groove to and lock into, where the grooves change only a little bit."

The track Drifter features the vocals of Diane Charlemagne, who sang on Goldie's breakthrough track Inner City Life. "Working with Diane is something I've always wanted to do. I've done three tracks with her and I just loved that track so much."

Thornhill hasn't planned any live dates so far - saying he might gig in "a couple of years". He admitted he had been taking singing lessons and wanted to learn some instruments before trying to take his music on stage.

He's unconcerned that the rough nature of the tracks might preclude radio play. "I didn't want to jump down people's throats as a solo artist. I just hope a few people enjoy it. I didn't go looking for a major record label. I don't want to be the next big thing and then dropped when people don't like me anymore."

He says his relationship with the other Prodigy members has not been affected by hiswalkout. "They don't need a dancer anymore. They want to progress on to the next level. I can see that. And I was confident enough in what I was doing. All I can take from it is good."

Thornhill says he's looking forward to watching the next Prodigy live shows from theother side of the stage.

As well as recording, Thornhill is appearing in the 365TV production Mark Owen's Celebrity Scooters, a programme travelling around the eight venues of next month's Euro 2000 football tournament in Belgium and Holland via scooter, with celebrities including Reef, ex-Eastenders actor Joe Absolom, Napalm Death's Barney and Nick Heyward.

"It's been brilliant, I'm back out there on Saturday for Amsterdam." Thornhill is something of a scooter fan too - he owns a Lambretta along with a few other bikes, including a racing Ducati once owned by former Prodigy colleague Keith Flint.