When the Prodigy played Coachella for the first time in 2002, they were outlaws. The LP of 1997 of the electronic group Brassh “The Fat of the Land” had exceeded graphics in the United States and announced the interest of underground rave culture, which would turn into an EDM boom here a decade later. They were MTV staples for filthy videos like “Breathe” and “Firetarter”, where the singer / dancer with double Mohawked Keith Flint has traveled an empty metro tunnel, sneering in an eyeliner Kohl and an American flag sweater.
Liam Howlett, the founder of the prodigy, recalled the beginnings of his group in Coachella as “a real British invasion. It was a fairly different festival at the time, “he said. “I remember that he was quite loose and not regulated.”
Twenty-three years later, there was a new aspiration for this time, when dance music embodied libertism and invention. When we go to the club, We want to hear these club classicsafter all.
Prodigy Old-Heads and Gen Z revivalists will be able to hear them (the group is now a duo, with the singer-dancer Maxim and other musicians on tour) Friday at 10:05 pm in the Mojave tent. Howlett spoke to the Times to recover Flint's death at 49 In 2019, the desire for a different era of rave and if AI has a place in the modern raver toolbox.
It must be cathartic to come back by playing great festivals after the death of Keith Flint. Is it emotional to be up there without him?
Just after the death of Keith, we just didn't know what to do. We haven't even talked about anything for years. Finally, we just dragged and one of us said, “I think I'm ready.” We talked about concerts – should we? Can we? We ended up with the same answer, which was essentially that the only way to discover it is to obtain concerts in small rooms. This gave us the answers we needed.
Dude, it was F – Just very emotional. I never felt so affected simply because the crowd was totally with us. It was like jumping from a building. We just didn't know what the F – was going to happen. This is why we had to do. I will never forget the feeling, as the crowd gave us the answers that we should continue.
But I will say that we are continuing is not a tribute program to Keith. We want to honor it and we will continue to do it, because Keith is more than a simple person they have seen on stage. Even if he was not a musician, he was such an important person in the studio as a straight man. When I write music now, he always survives my mind, and it's a beautiful thing, you know. It is knowing that we have more to give. Because this is where I will stop, when I have nothing more to give.
Keith Flint and Maxim of the Prodigy perform live on stage at the O2 Academy Brixton in 2017.
(Simone Joyner / Getty Images)
There is a new desire for the raves of yesteryear – there is a reason why Charli XCX sings to hear the classics of the club. As a person who launched this era, who are the young people who aspire there?
The night is a call to these children. Electronic music is still there. I think it is because, fundamentally, pop producers use electronic music and they dive into it when they make pop records. We consider ourselves at the hardest end of electronic music, and we are quite pure in what we do, even if it is quite mixed. It is a combination of British influences and American hip-hop, but it is electronic music that has always had its place, especially in Europe and England.
When I grew up, I was very lucky, because I grew up in three major cultural movements. I missed the punk because I was too young, but two -color ska, I entered this great time. Then hip-hop came to be another massive thing, then I discovered rave culture. I hope that my son can live at least something like these movements. It is missing a bit now, and I think the blame is completely in social media. Things are not allowed to simmer on the basement, they are not lucky to live there long enough to grow. They are immediately exposed to the public. I think that is the reason why cultures are not more durable.
In addition, you have to experience it in the right physical setting, not just on your phone.
Leaving raves in London and the United Kingdom, we were next to sound systems that trembled your whole body to understand what music can do. Although you cross the phones and watch videos, if you do not also feel it next to a sub-bass, you have not experienced what the frequencies can do to people. I was also very privileged to have this rooted in me very young.
Dance music has always been opened to new technologies, but the music of the prodigy was always very hand. Does AI have a place in club music today, or is it antiart?
I am interested in any technology, but I think it is so dangerous to count on something like that, everything that distances all types of creativity from the person. I think that instead of being afraid, I think an artist can be in the studio, and if AI could be used to shine a light or help unlock an idea, then I think it's a good thing. Regarding counting it to produce, we do not want to withdraw a person's creativity. But I am interested in positive things on this subject, like how it can help educate people.
Your latest album was released in 2018, although you soon have new music. Dance music evolves faster than ever in the modern era. Are the big declaration albums like “The Fat of the Land” still feel possible today?
You must attack it in different ways. Obviously, writing has taken time because of the whole situation. Regarding the writing of new songs, I do not know if it will be in the form of an album or what it is, because we want to be able to get out of music quickly. Taking out an album seems too attracted. So we try to think about other ways to do so so that people can get music faster. As soon as we are satisfied with an air, I want it there.
Obviously, the world changes all the time, there are different ways to bring music to people. It interests me, because between the moment when I finish a song and the moment when it comes out, this period is too long. But I never let anything come out until it is at a certain level. My son is in a group and he sticks right away, and I'm jealous. We want to find the right balance of this.
Does your old music resonate with him?
He is in a guitar group, so there is nothing electronic in what he does. It is a choice he made because he knows that he cannot beat his father. (Laughs) It's very difficult, I think, for guitar groups now, but it is good. Guy, we were there once. It's funny to see everything again through my son's eyes.
The prodigy was the embodiment of a subcultural group which became enormous. At a time when everything is accessible and mache online so quickly, how do you preserve this sensitivity today?
From a young age, the music I loved was not friendly music. It is always something that was weird or that had a little more anger, an attitude or a depth. We are not a political group, but we are a group of people, we are an escape group. I went back to a small studio – mainly like a room. I can do everything, I can mix here. The sound of my last album sounds better than the previous disc, which was mixed in a large studio. I went back to DIY. Too much equipment can increase you, and with limited equipment, your brain must find ways to do things and be creative.
In this room, it is a waste with lots of strange devices everywhere. I am not an artist who likes to watch a computer screen. I put the computer as a band carpet, press a recording, I play for an hour, then I stop and listen to what I have. Something well happens when you play as hard through a real system.
