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Liam Howlett “We’re grumpy bastards.” The brains behind The Prodigy tells how the band nearly fell apart.
On Monday, The Prodigy’s fifth album, Invaders Must Die, went to Number 1. The band that invented the concept of noisy dance music with rock star attitude are back. But it’s a miracle they’re still together. Following 2004’s Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned, producer and main man Liam Howlett and Firestarter singer Keith Flint didn’t speak for a year. They say there was never any question that the band would break up, but at the time it seemed like a definite possibility. Sat in a West London pub, Howlett says all that’s behind them. Dressed in a leather jacket and a tweed stalker, he looks like a cross between a biker and a country gent. He’s understandably pleased with himself. “It feels like it’s happening again,” he says with a grin. “I feel great.”
The new album has gone to Number 1. Are you pleased?
Of course. More importantly, I know that I’ve written a good album. When we play it, it feels like the band is a band. It feels vibrant and fresh. That’s the most important thing. Whatever happens afterwards is a bonus. All the pats on the back and all that shit, I don’t really care about that.
How is the new album different from Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned?
When it came to making the last album, I didn’t want to write _Fat Of The Land _ part two, much to the record company’s dismay. I thought that was brave of me really. I knew it wasn’t going to be a really big record, but it was a record I really wanted to make. Whereas this new album is basically like, this is the band, this is us, all guns blazing. It’s an album written to take live, to attack. It’s better melodically. It’s a very up record. I didn’t set out to make an up record, because we’re grumpy bastards, d’you know what I mean? If I tried to do it, it probably wouldn’t have worked, but it just came out that way. I believe that if you want to write a good record, you’ve got to come from a bad place. That’s what’s happened to us. We were really hungry to make this record. We were in the right headspace and we really made it happen.
Are you talking about when you fell out with Keith during the making of Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned?
Yes. The last album was written in what was probably the low point of The Prodigy. I wasn’t speaking to Keith. That caused a lot of tension.
What happened?
Basically, what happened was I’d taken a long time to get into gear to write the follow-up to Fat Of The Land. We’d been on tour for four years. I just wanted time off, y’know? Keith couldn’t understand that. Keith’s only got one mode – work. He doesn’t have time off. His head doesn’t allow him to sit there. Whereas I’m quite happy to do fuck all for a year. That’s what I did. I didn’t do anything. Come 2001 I was still happy having time off. I wasn’t ready to start the record, but Keith was chomping at the bit to get going. So he was like, Well, I’m going to make my own record then. So when I finally got my arse in gear and called Flinty, he wasn’t around. He was like, Nah, I’m doing this. I was like, Hang on a fucking minute. This is The Prodigy. This is Number 1. There’s nothing that’s more important than this. But he’d committed himself to his own thing. Because of the type of person he is, he can’t do anything half-heartedly. Which I can respect now. But at the time, that caused a big problem. I was like, Fuck you, I’m doing this, this is what the album’s going to be like. And that’s what happened.
Did he mind not being on the album?
I sent Keith a copy of Spitfire. He said it was like a baseball bat coming out of his stereo and smacking him around the head and asking him, What the hell are you doing? At that point he sold all his studio gear up and was like, I’m back. I was like, It’s a bit fucking late. By that time the record had it’s own integrity. If Keith’s going to be on the record, he needs to be all over the record, not just one token track. It felt like it was finished so that was that.
How long did the argument last?
We didn’t speak at all for a year. A lot of paranoia bred in that time. Keith was doing a lot of gear, using a lot of drugs. We were all quite fucked up at that time. No one did anything to try and help the situation. Someone would say to me, I heard Flinty’s doing this. I’d be like, Fucking bastard. I should have rung him up instead.
Did you ever feel like the band might break up?
D’you know what? It’s weird, because however fucked off I was with Keith I never thought that. We’re brothers, y’know? I knew we’d sort our differences out at some point. I was being stubborn, he was being stubborn. I didn’t think we’d break up. Even with the last record I was still visualising how the tracks could work on stage. I just wanted to make a record that kind of reset the band, you know?
But things are OK between you now. How did you repair the friendship?
Over the next two years we re-built our friendship back to normal. Doing this album was nothing but fun. It was totally cool from the beginning.
Where was Maxim, the band’s other vocalist, when you and Keith were having your rough patch?
Sitting on the sidelines. Maxim came into the studio a bit while I was making Always Outnumbered… but the vibe wasn’t good. By that stage I was just so fucked off I was just like, This is the way it’s going to be. I suppose Maxim might have felt a bit isolated by me as well. Well, I know he did because we spoke about it. It was just a bad time, you know.
Do you think this album is better than the previous album?
Of course.
Do you think it’s better because you’re back together as a unit?
It’s all about headspace. It’s better because it’s an album. The last album was a collection of tracks. This album is an album from a band. People have criticised the last record saying it was a solo album by me. Maybe it was. But at the time I did it, it didn’t feel like it was. The others are still part of that record even though they weren’t on it because they’re part of the band. Even when I was writing the tunes on that last record they were in my mind. But yeah, this record is far superior. This album is the most complete album for us as far as the band goes that we’ve ever recorded.
The Prodigy’s fifth album, Invaders Must Die, is out now on Take Me To The Hospital.
- 04.03.09
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