After 25 years, millions of album sales and countless festival headline slots, what’s left for The Prodigy’s Liam Howlett to say? Plenty, it seems..

Words: Ralph Moore

Like the best elements of his band’s music, pioneering Prodigy producer Liam Howlett doesn’t hold back. It’s been this way since his band first rampaged onto the electronic scene back in 1990. And in the 25 years since the band formed, they’ve sold over 20m records, released five chart-topping albums and, as an incendiary live force, have continued to headline major festivals worldwide. Always eager to wrong-foot at the right time, they even allowed ‘Firestarter’ to be used in Danny Boyle’s opening ceremony at 2012’s summer Olympics. As erudite as ever, Liam’s come to right a few wrongs and also to discuss their new album, the riff-driven ‘The Day Is My Enemy.’ Listen and learn.

As a band, you’ve come a long way without doing certain things. You refused to do Top Of The Pops, for example. The market comes to you.
We decided very early on what kind of band we wanted to be and how we wanted to come across. TV isn’t the best environment for us – none of us wanted to be stars. But it wasn’t a rebellious statement – it wasn’t a stand-off. The only thing we ever did was a show called Dance Energy. At this time I was 19, we were just standing around and I ran out of patience. I was like, “Bollocks!” and went over to Janet Street Porter [the producer] and said, “I’m going”. She was shouting, “You can’t go!” and eventually it all calmed down and we did it. But we’re not dinosaurs, we understand the way the industry has changed. Certain things come along.

Like the Olympics opening?
Yes. Danny Boyle phoned me up in the studio. I knew he was a fan of the band as he’d tried to get me to do something for The Beach years before. It took ages to convince me… I wanted to know what people would be doing and so Keith and I went down. I felt like the band was important enough to be there. I was proud, man! Only me, Keith and John Lydon actually took the time to go there. I’m very careful about what we agree to do, but I could see Danny being hands-on like I’m hands-on. The worst thing would have been watching and it ruining my night, but it was amazing, man. We were in good company.

And now you’ve made a new album with incredible anger and intensity.
I don’t think it’s angry. This is the music I write, and it sounds right to me. Over the years, I’ve been visualising how it will sound on stage and I know what dynamics I want. People respond to riffs and beats, but I’m not an angry person: I hate false anger. Teenagers have every right to be angry, but people see through that a mile off. I’m not someone who listens to music at home: I use music to wake me up. ‘Invaders’ was the sound of us getting back together, but it wasn’t a full band album like ‘Fat Of The Land’. This one is live-driven and sounds right.

How close are you with Keith and Maxim beyond the stage performance?
I can’t describe our relationship except to say they are my brothers. Me and Keith had some proper rows making this album, but then the dust settles and you never think of it again. Maxim is more the mediator, the wise one. We’re not going out to eat every week; I live in London and the others live in Essex and we’ve all got families. But equally if I rang the lads up and said, ‘Let’s go out on Friday’, we’d do it.

We’ve heard that Keith bought a pub – isn’t he teetotal?
He is right now! Have I been there? Yes, it’s near Chelmsford, out in the middle of the countryside. I’m not a pub-goer but I love it.

We hear you’re into cars?
I’ve always had cars, but they’re the same ones I’ve had for years. I’m not a racer. Mainly I just love being in the studio, and I always want to write stuff. I rinsed my brain doing this record, mentally and physically, but it got better when I flipped to working at night. I would hang out with my missus [during the day] and at night, go to work. There’s something cool about working at nighttime: it’s when interesting things happen. All our gigs and all our inspirations are always at night.

We asked Twitter for some questions and here’s the best three. First, what would the 19-year-old Liam think of the Liam of today?
He’d think he’s a right miserable cunt! I am the same person, though. I’ve always been a control freak. I believe it’s important to have a vision of how you want a tune to be, the artwork and so on, and that hasn’t changed. I’m the same person, but with a wiser head on me.

Will there ever be a Prodigy B-sides collection?
I know the fans want to hear this, but it ain’t pushing my buttons. It’s only going to come out if it’s exciting me. I’d rather record new stuff than mess around with old stuff.

Is ‘The Day Is My Enemy’ in the top three albums you’ve made?
Yes! It’s my favourite album that I’ve made. When other bands say that they’re bullshitting, but I know it’s the best all the way through because of the consistency and how it represents us. The other albums had big hitting tunes but ‘Jilted’ is too fucking long! That pisses me off. And ‘Fat Of The Land’ has killer tunes but it ain’t consistently strong.

Where do you hear new music now?
It comes to me. I’m not standing in clubs – my clubbing days are done. But it’s my job as a producer to listen. With this record, it was important to listen to music. But I didn’t have to ‘tap into what’s going on’; that’s for the likes of Madonna! The Prodigy is Public Enemy and The Sex Pistols with rave. It’s the same ingredients in the pot. You want it to sound fresh, but that might come from a production technique. You want something that pokes its head out! Not that formulaic shit.

You were in Ibiza at the end of last season – was it what you expected? There’s a song about it on the new album.
It was better! [Performing] at Ushuaïa, we were in control of everything, the light and the sound. I didn’t go to Ibiza in a positive frame of mind; I wanted to play my music to people and I wasn’t sure how it would be, but I had a good time. The gig was great, but the most the fun was after the gig, I took some friends and we stayed in a nice hotel and saw a different part of Ibiza.

I was pretty impressed with Ibiza, it’s gone upmarket and kicked the shit out. As for the track, it’s not a diss – it’s a narrative about what we witnessed. A wake-up call. Of course, not all DJs are like that, I know that – but are you happy to listen to a pre-mixed set?

How much, if at all, do your early experiences inform what you do now?
I believe you are what you’re made of. The way hip hop and punk are instilled in me, I can’t change the way I am. Going to Raindance in the pissing rain and the car breaking down – that’s what this album’s about. ‘Destroy’ sounds old-skool, and it is! But I’m not someone who just thinks all the old tunes are better. The band has kept me young.