The Making of the Fat of the Land by The Prodigy

[Music]

Monster Shop!

Hello!

Hello.

I'm very excited today.

You're prepared, aren't you?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

For regular listeners that will remember that Chris rarely knows what album we're doing

until we walk into the studio.

Not only are you ready, you're fully prepared.

You've edited all the interviews.

You've got everything ready.

It's like going into somebody's house and they're a real grown-up.

Do you know what I mean?

They know where all their socks are.

Everything's organised.

Everything.

You go in and you're like, "God, what is this?"

You see now, because I've done this, that's gone wrong now.

There's no socks.

I think this is it for the year, isn't it?

You're going to be dining out on this, I'll be going, "Do you know what we're doing?"

And you'll be going, "Do you remember that time we did Proud of the Land?"

So, I have to say, lots of albums that we do.

Obviously, the show is about a celebration of albums.

Because we kind of feel that albums have been lost a little bit, that love of...

I like the word you use on the blog though, iconic.

It is.

Yeah, it's iconic albums.

It's that, I guess we kind of look back to that golden era of when albums were mega.

Do you know what I mean?

When grabbing that CD or the vinyl or whatever it was and it was really important to you.

So, because of that, some of the albums predate us, right?

They're albums that probably meant...

I mean, we did Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin 4 last week.

I really enjoyed that.

It taught me a lot about Led Zeppelin.

It's the strangest thing.

I didn't get Led Zeppelin properly before as much as I did after listening to that and

spending some time reading it and stuff.

But it's been great.

So, some of the albums are albums that we have gone back and discovered afterwards,

right?

Whereas this one, so The Prodigy, Fat of the Land, this was my teenage years.

Yeah, same.

Which is weird because you're a bit older than me.

So, it's weird that we both had that sort of connection to it.

For me, this was...

I mean, this was '97.

Yeah.

So, you were going out, eh?

You were like going out.

You were in the world.

Yeah.

I used to go...

I would be...

I'm trying to think how old I was.

So, I was at school, you see.

So, I would have been like 20...

I'm trying to calculate.

I'm a mathematician and I can't do the...

If I gave you in a formula an algebra, you'd do it.

Oh, yeah.

I could do it in code.

So, I would have been 23.

Yeah.

So, we would...

Bear in mind...

And this was also kind of...

We owned the internet at this point.

Yeah, yeah.

So, we'd been a big part of IRC.

I'd written tons of IRCD codes.

People would spin up these chat networks.

And I'd written half the code.

Yeah.

So, you would join as a user and someone would annoy you.

Yeah.

So, you'd be like, "Oh dear."

Do you know what I mean?

And then you'd like devastate the network because you were 23 and thought you were king

of the world.

But we used to go out, we used to go to the pub on a Friday, come back, and then we'd

all spin up our modems, fire up Quake, and then I'd have this album almost always.

It would be this album and I would spin through it to like two, three, four and a half.

And it would be...

That's kind of what I did.

I'd finished university.

I'd got my first job and I was going nowhere.

Do you know at that point in your life where you think, "I've worked really, really hard

and life sucks."

That's what we used to do and yeah, it was brilliant.

It was such a great time for me and I remember as we're talking about, I can remember that

feeling.

I remember putting my headset on.

I can remember everything because nowadays when you play computer games, you can talk

to each other.

Didn't do that back then.

It was over a dial-up modem.

And it was just me and my dad and as if my dad picked up the phone, that was it.

My game was over and I'd get absolutely massacred.

And so, but your headset was just to listen to music, right?

It was just to listen to music in the dark kind of thing.

And yeah, so this album for me is a huge, the memories are massive.

In stark contrast to Led Zeppelin, where there's no real frame of reference, I don't really

have any.

It's a great record, great album, but this one's full of nostalgia for me.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So for me, it was about, it was a bit of sort of school age and I transitioned from the

point where I was sort of listening to my mum and dad's CDs to like going out and buying

my own.

Oh, HMV.

Where'd you get Woolies?

Where'd you get it?

Where'd you get it?

At our price as well at the time.

At our price, yeah.

Yeah, that was the thing.

So my memory of this record mainly is I got into the prodigy between Jewelry Generation

and this.

Right, right, right.

So I got into Jewelry Generation.

I loved that and they were just about to put this out and they put Firestarter and then

Breathe.

Yeah.

I mean, they were huge singles, but we just started this school radio thing and I was

probably year nine, year 10 maybe.

All right, yeah.

And I was sort of like giving the keys to the room to go, "Oh, you do that every lunchtime.

Go and do that."

And I think they had the impression that they thought I was going to play like Mozart

and children's music and classical, and it wasn't.

It was a combination of like really heavy grunge like Nirvana, like Muddy Banks with the Whishka

and all that.

And then this, prodigy, Breathe was every day because I brought the single and we had

a CD player and I was like, "That's it, that's good enough."

And yeah, just generally quite loud raucous, inappropriate music for the - oh, Happy Hardcore,

that was what everyone was into at the time as well.

Oh yeah, I remember that.

That was the thing.

Everyone used to have these - they were like the cassettes that your nan used to get from

the library.

Like the audio books.

They were like that.

There was that casing, but they were full of these like Happy Hardcore tapes.

They were just like rave, raves actually.

And so they went on as well because everyone was into them.

So yeah, it wasn't in any way appropriate and we were constantly trying to turn it down.

Constantly trying to turn it down.

Reminds me of that.

Oh, so the Alan Parsons thing where he did - oh, Alan Partridge, where he does the Alan

Partridge episode where he's on hospital radio.

That would be you, wouldn't it?

Yeah, it would.

Absolutely.

And yeah, so that was my experience with it.

And just getting lost in the live show because the Prodigy, although they did these fantastic

songs and put these records out and they obviously had that, they had a look and an energy to

their music and all that sort of stuff, but it was watching them live when you went - it's

like metal.

I mean, I'm into the punk rock scene.

I'm into the art of it and the anarchic side of what happened in the punk rock scene.

But yeah, and some of the styles we bring to the Prodigy.

But I don't think Sex Pistols weren't the only thing that happened in punk where it

was good.

There were loads of good bands.

I think in a way Sex Pistols had their own style and whatever, but it was just punk.

The Prodigy, we've taken on so many different attitudes from all over.

You can't really pinpoint it and to say it's like Sex Pistols were punk.

It was part of an attitude, a movement was happening at the time.

We're not part of a movement.

There's no Prodigy movement.

There's not other bands which are Prodigy bands, do you know what I mean?

We're just a band that will stand on our own.

You know, yeah, I was in the reggae - that's my background, that is the reggae scene, that's

where I come from.

I mean, if it wasn't for the reggae scene, I wouldn't be here now because that's where

I learned to MC and that's where I got my vibes of being on the mic.

But you know, I tried everything, I went to punk gigs, I went to psychobilly gigs.

I was into ska when I was younger, hip hop, rare groove, and I've been in the scene, man,

I've been in it, at some stage, but yeah, reggae scene was my foundation.

I mean, I always wanted to do MC in a groove, do my own music and whatever, and I just wanted

to be heard basically.

When I hooked up with these guys, there was a blessing in disguise for me because it was

a little bit of anticipation of what was going to happen.

I got on stage, the first ever show, and I thought, "Oh, what's going to happen?"

And I just started chatting lyrics and I realized that everybody in the crowd, I was probably

the straightest person there.

Yeah, I've been drinking and smoking all day, I mean, and whatever, but yeah, everybody else

was off their head and I realized that wasn't the vibe.

But you know, there was a good vibe then, the party spirit of togetherness, it was totally

different, I never experienced it, so I was in a totally different scene, I moved over

to that scene and I discovered something new, and not only did I discover the atmosphere,

but I also discovered Loomis Music and what it did something to me, and it's just progressed

and it's something I'm addicted to.

They're mad, they're punk for me, they were very on that punk edge.

I saw them at Leeds on the same bill as Slipknot and Guns N' Roses, and they were brilliant,

I mean they were, and the thing that is fascinating to me is that everyone just lapped it up,

it was just like, these are the coolest guys ever.

Totally accepted.

Yeah, there was no, whereas compare that to our recent experience at Download where Diantwood

were playing, the metalheads were all like, "No, I'm going, I'm not hanging about for

this."

And you know, it really struck me how different, I mean, I suppose Diantwood are a little bit

different, but I think it was the attitude of the prodigy, it wasn't the music, it was

the attitude of it, it was kind of like, we hate everybody, we're doing our thing, we're

anachronistic.

You cannot control this, we can barely control it, so you can't, it was that, wasn't it?

It was, but it was the punk scene, wasn't it?

For me, that's what embodied them, and I know that Liam's hair was a bit sticky up, like

punk.

Keith.

Keith, sorry.

Andrew Liam's was as well, to be fair.

Sticky up, right, but you know, it was the way the whole band embodied that punk ethos,

that whole movement, if you like, but yeah, they're one of a kind, there were some bands

that, we talked about Greta Van Fleet, someone told me off, talking about Greta Van Fleet,

yeah.

What, because of your comments about them?

They were probably, they were right, actually, they were saying that.

It's just like our little sun bit, where we do a little disclaimer with small writing.

Yeah, to be fair, we've not been bad lately, but we said, I said something along the lines

of Led Zeppelin were influenced by blah, blah, blah, and that was a positive thing, but Greta

Van Fleet were influenced by Led Zeppelin, that was a terrible thing.

Yeah, okay.

And I'll take that on the chin, that probably is a fair thing, but having said that, I think

Greta Van Fleet are so close to Led Zeppelin, that's what was getting to me, but here, you've

got, when we did the blog, I started to look at other bands that were a little bit similar,

and you've got Pendulum, who have got that, but it's that same musical style, they didn't,

I don't think they've got that same punk ethos kind of, it's similar, I suppose, but their

music style is like a Prodigy 2.0, do you know what I mean, it feels like, you can tell that's

where it came from.

It was Prodigy.

Yeah, but it's like their bits have been added to it, and I guess where I was trying to go

with the Greta Van Fleet thing was I don't hear the 2.0 part in that kind of era.

Yeah, here's a carbon copy.

Yeah, so anyway, you know who you are who said that to me, and thank you for holding

us to account, that's very good, thank you.

I want to talk about the interviews, because they're going to be laced throughout this,

but perhaps not in the way that we normally would, in that we normally talk about the

interviews, then play them.

I'm just going to drop them in.

I'm going to drop them in random places, based on where we're talking.

This is like, you've got this planned out, haven't you, this is phenomenal.

Do you know how many copies this sold, this album?

Quite a lot, I'd imagine, but probably not as much as Led Zeppelin IV.

No, no, it sold 10 million copies across the world.

It topped the charts in 20 countries, including the US.

Yeah, wow.

I mean, that's big, isn't it?

Yeah, that's true, actually, because the video of Their Law that I used to be obsessively

watching, was from this Phoenix Festival.

Yeah, I'm sure it was.

It was this particular live performance of Their Law, which was amazing, which I don't

think was on this record, actually.

Their Law was due in generation, wasn't it?

The bit that kind of hit me with this is that they're just like some lads from Essex, and

this is kind of very much like computer music.

Do you know what I mean?

You don't really need a big acoustic space.

These boys would not have been like saying, "Let's save up and go to Abbey Road."

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Do you know what I mean?

They would have been saving up for another Amiga.

Yeah, yeah.

Do you know what I mean?

It's because it would have been that time where computer power was getting powerful

enough to make a difference, and it's one of the things for me for this, it almost feels

like an inflection point where if you think back to some of the other iconic albums, we've

been talking about the studios because they were important, like where Led Zeppelin chose

to record was important, where Pink Floyd chose to record was important, and even albums

like Hysterio by Def Leppard, although it's like super polished and produced, the recording

space was important and the equipment and stuff that they got.

For me this was an inflection point where actually it became more about the software, it became

more about the tooling you were using and how you were using that, how you were mangling

and manipulating that rather than this big acoustic space that you'd spent 10 grand a

week on.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It wasn't that...

As technology goes, it wasn't very far along.

The kind of stuff like what we add into the blog now is some of the software that's been

coming along over the last few years and some of the kind of things that have been developed,

the tools for creating music from a technology perspective.

This is Monstershoprock.com by the way, that's where you can find the blog.

It's looking amazing by the way, Neil, because you're working very hard on it.

Thank you very much.

I've been tweaking and breaking it and using it, and it's getting on there, isn't it?

It looks like grownups are in it now.

One of the dangers of using that kind of primitive tech when it came out is that everything was

mechanical.

Yeah.

There was this danger that everything would be sounding to the beat and quantised.

Quantised means locked into the time, beats in a bar and that sort of stuff.

The thing with this is they very much went after, "No, no, no, we want it to feel like

a band."

This isn't about producing electronic music.

This is a band using electronic instruments and sequencing as their kind of musical palette,

and as a band they would choose to have a guitar, a bass, a drum, a keyboard, a vocal.

This was just part of their ingredients to create their music that their band wanted.

It came through so strong when I was listening to the interviews is this, "This is a band.

This isn't Liam Howler and his mates.

This is a tribe.

This is a gang."

Yeah.

They do sound like that, don't they?

When you see them, it's worth going onto YouTube and searching for some of the interviews because

you can see them.

Their body language and stuff.

They're kind of ... When you see interviews with ... Pink Floyd is a brilliant example

of this.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

They just don't ... They look like they don't like each other.

Yeah.

Do you know what I mean?

You can see it in their body language.

When somebody's speaking, the other one's scrunching their face, some kind of thing.

You don't get that with these guys.

You just get that, "This is also against the world."

Yeah.

It is epic.

Yeah.

It's worth pointing out as well that although we're saying that they use software a lot,

they used analogue as well, so there was a mixture of stuff in here.

I guess my point is that for me, this is a point where software becomes important.

Yeah.

The type of software and what you're doing with it starts to get important.

I think software prior to this would have been used.

It's not that people weren't using computers in the mid-90s, but computers in the mid-90s

were shocking.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It was things like the Commodore Amiga that started to pay attention to sound.

If you were doing stuff on PCs, the sound was appalling.

It was awful.

You had to go and spend a fortune on hardware and stuff to make it work, and synthesizers

as well.

Most of it was 16-bit, I think 32-bit was kind of coming through at this point.

It wasn't fast enough, there wasn't enough storage, so you couldn't deal with stuff in

like 24-bit and high resolution because it just wasn't in the storage space.

They were really cutting edge, I think, in where they were.

I don't sit down with an idea of a soul and then think, "Yeah, I'm going to do that, I'm

going to do that, and I'm going to go in the studio," and then it all happens.

It's all in the studio at that particular time.

I go in there, start messing around, just start messing around with maybe some drums

or some loops on the sampler and stuff, and just get it rocking, and just basically try

and keep it sounding really funky and hard, because a lot of people, when they use electronic

instruments, they get into the trap.

Some people like it, but a lot of people get into the trap and they think it's got to be

mechanical, because it's written on a computer, a lot of people think, "Yeah, it's got them."

They can't put the funk into it.

I think one of the cleverest things when you're writing on electronic instruments is to have

to get some kind of groove in your song, so that's what I try and do, I try and get funk

back into the computer, but keep it tough, not like disco, more like just the swing of

the groove, and just keep it solid and hard.

I guess that comes from sort of late '80s hip-hop inspired by bands like Public Enemy,

stuff like that, and just keep it good attitude, good strong attitude all the way through the

tip of the songs.

Some people say that my music are not songs, but I heard last week, I heard a band in Slovenia

covered Brie, the heavy metal band did a version of Brie, playing it on guitars and drums,

so that was quite interesting to hear someone else do my song.

Every song is different, but really it's the same idea behind every song, it's kind of

like maximum impact every time.

When I'm in the studio I'm kind of really fussy, I've got a sound in my head, and until I get

the sound or something really close to the sound, I'm like no it's not right, it's not

right, and yeah you're right, it could take, sometimes it does take a couple of weeks to

get the right sounds, but when it comes out it's got to be right, I'm like that definitely.

Usually I get things down pretty quickly, I've got beats, if I lay beats down maximum

early and Keith want to hear beats, they want to hear things, they can get a vibe off of

if it's a vocal song or something, it's like poison, literally I laid down just the beat

for poison and within like a couple of hours we had the vocals sort of worked out and stuff,

it was just jamming, so usually things come together pretty quickly, it's just the odd

elements that take time.

The ST, Atari ST, that was the big computer that was used for this kind of stuff was the

Atari ST.

Yeah, well they did the same thing, so they followed on from what Commodore did where

they had, this is going to get a little bit nerdy, but in fact Apple have gone down this

route today, so if you think about a normal PC it's got the CPU and it's got RAM and it's

got disc and other bits and pieces, and then you plug in cards to go and do stuff.

Well what Commodore did with the Amiga was they had the CPU and then they had these discrete

like specialist bits of silicon that did sound and did other tasks, so you were offloading

a lot of that onto these like dedicated bits of silicon, so you could run really high resolution

audio and it wasn't slowing the computer down, and that was the big shift, that's why the

Atari and the Amiga were huge at this point for this kind of stuff, because way before

you got 3D graphics cards and stuff on PCs, these kind of things, they had those chips

on, so you could do that kind of stuff.

And they were cheap as well, they were affordable, where PCs would have still been pretty expensive

in the early 90s, you'd have been like two, three thousand quid.

Yeah definitely, because Pro Tools kind of wiped the floor with everything in terms of

studio stuff as it progressed, as it went on, but right back here, some of the bits

of software that people were using were things like Cubase or even Logic, but it wasn't Apple

owned by that.

He talks about Propellerhead Reason when I looked at this.

I thought Reason was a bit later, but no that's cool, Reason's excellent, so that's

a rack based system, and Logic, I guess they would have had that in the studio, and Logic

would have been sitting on a Mac, but yeah, I just think it's fascinating, that history,

for me this is that point in time where it's not a toy anymore, it's not people playing

and being experimental, this is just a core part of how you do music at this point.

Any studio you'd have gone into in 97 would have had this soft, perhaps not to the extent

that the prodigy used it, but yeah, they'd have been around, they'd have been available.

Yeah exactly, so like I say, Pro Tools and Logic and all of that stuff is kind of a big

part of it, and I think you can hear it, it's that point in time where comparing the production

of this against Led Zeppelin IV, do you know what I mean, that big shift in, it kind of

thumps, it's got this kind of slab of noise that hits you, and the compression, and do

you know what I mean, all of that stuff that's being used in the instrument tones as well

that they're choosing, and I love on this album as well how they, so I think it's, I

want to say diesel power, but at the beginning, the drums, when it kind of kicks in, the reverb

that they've added to make it sound like it's in a room, and yeah, I just think it's excellent,

really is a cool album for digital production, you know what I mean, I think it's excellent.

Should we play a song?

Yeah.

Or should we play an interview?

No, I think we'll go diesel power, I've probably already put some interviews in.

If you have, great, well chosen.

But I think diesel power is the one you just spoke about that, so let's hear that.

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If I made the snare sound like a biscuit tin, everyone would be talking about me.

Everyone would buy my album if it sounds terrible.

Do you see what I mean though? It's just this evolution. There's people, isn't there? You talked about this all the time.

It's just people. They're just humans in a studio.

And then they're like, "What should we play?" And then you play what you want to hear.

At that point you play what you like and what's kind of cool to you at that point in time.

It's that evolution of influences and experiences.

It's really difficult to be rage against the machine and anachronistic and all this kind of stuff when you're a billionaire.

I was driving home the other night. They came on and it was the Maggis Farm.

I don't know what the song's called. It might be called that. I don't know. I don't want to work at Maggis Farm no more.

I can't remember.

I was listening to it and it came on. It was on Radio 1.

I was driving home and that came on. It was a rock show. It was a really good rock show.

Do you know Radio 1?

Yeah, they do. Who is it? Who doesn't know?

I don't know. But it's absolutely brilliant. It was a brilliant show.

That came on and I was driving home and it came in. It kicked in.

I kind of didn't know what it was for a bit until he started singing.

I was like, "Here we go. Here we go. What's this? Someone's got it. This is the new song."

I was like, "Oh, it's Rage. Fair enough." But then I thought, "They can't really do that anymore."

They can't.

Tom Morello's really good at this because he's really clever.

He's saying that if you...

We should do a Rage one.

He's basically saying if you think that we've changed, you've not been paying attention.

He said that we never said that you shouldn't be successful and you shouldn't have money.

And you shouldn't charge $500 for a ticket to Sia.

We never said that. What we said was you should question things.

Don't take things at face value. Don't be manipulated. Challenge.

It was really interesting to listen to him, I guess, justify.

But they're on that journey too. It's really different.

You talked about that point in time. Imagine Guns N' Roses. They're all living together.

They're in downtown LA. They're having the best time ever. They've not got a record label.

They all go out to work. They dick about.

The stories are phenomenal about them getting sexually transmitted diseases,

getting so embarrassed about going to the doctor's every other day

that they found out they could get the same medication from the aquarium next door

because they're treated for fish. So they would go and buy it in bulk.

That's amazing.

But that point in time where they're all dotting on the floor, drinking Night Train.

Do you know what I mean?

Is that where the song title comes from?

Yeah, it was a wine, I think.

White lightning. That's where the lightning came from.

Really quickly they get signed, and then they've got millions.

And now they're in apartments, and now they've got cleaners, and now they've got whatever they want.

And then they go into the studio.

There are people now in a different state of mind, in a different state, so you get different songs.

You get the Illusion albums rather than Appetite.

Do you see what I mean?

You talked about that bottling the magics. Why did they not just go in and do another Appetite?

Yeah, because they're not there anymore. That was a snapshot in time.

That's really interesting, isn't it?

I think that's why music's so important, because it's a way of capturing that.

And there's not many things that do that in this world. I don't think, anyway.

I think you're right. I think we've waffled too much. What's next?

I don't know. There's been interviews in this. I've dropped them in. You won't have noticed. It's been really subtle.

This is really unnerving. I don't know what's happening behind anything before and after me.

I think we need to play Narayan or Narayan. I don't know how to pronounce it, but that one.

Can I just add a public service announcement while we're talking about this?

Don't name your children after Prodigy songs. End of announcement.

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If you believe the western sun is falling down on everyone

If you're breaking free and the morning's come

If you would know that your time has come

If you believe the western sun is falling down on everyone

If you believe the western sun is falling down on everyone

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I feel another energy and I feel a power grow

I feel another energy and I feel a power grow

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I feel another energy and I feel a power grow

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If you believe the western sun is falling down on everyone

If you're breaking free and the morning's come

If you would know that your time has come

If you believe the western sun is falling down on everyone

If you believe the western sun is falling down on everyone

[Music]

I feel another energy and I feel a power grow

I feel another energy and I feel a power grow

I feel another energy and I feel a power grow

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I feel another energy and I feel a power grow

I feel another energy

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I feel another energy and I feel a power grow

I feel another energy and I feel a power grow

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Energy in a show is very important, you know

I think when you start to talk about it, it becomes like

You start to explain it and you don't really need to explain it

It's like we're not into boring shows, you know

We don't think we need to sort of sit here and explain why we react to what we do

I mean, you know, it's like if I was to punch you in the face

And you started to cry or you start to go "Ahhh" at her

I wouldn't say to you "Why did you do that?"

You know, it's your natural reaction

And our natural reaction to play music loud on stage is to let off

To the music, you know

It's like a natural reaction that's caused by what the music does really

And like, so that's really all that really needs to be said

It's like, I think, you know

Audience, it doesn't mean great to us, you know

Where we come from is playing in small environments, more intense

You know, club atmosphere

And, you know, we won't forget that

We always go back and venture into that as well, you know

And, you know, we always keep it at a level where

It doesn't get to a silly stage where people at the bank can't hear, can't see

You know, so we recoup it at a decent size

If we're playing big venues, we, you know

I mean, obviously with festivals, when you're playing at a festival

When you've got loads of bands there all day

I think that's cool, but I think that when you've got a really big venue

I don't know, over 10,000 people

You've got to put a sound system in that's going to be loud

Otherwise people will go back home and then we get the show, you know

It's like when we go on tour in England, we have the biggest sound

You know, there's no other bands that go out with the biggest sound system than us

You've got to, if you're going to play those venues

You've got to be able to give a show to the people

But, I mean, we're not, we're not totally

I mean, me personally, I'm into venues that are around 5,000, 4,000, 5,000 people

Well, that's cool, that's a good size

Because you can get the energy across, keep it real

And it's not like, it doesn't lose it as you're going near the back

You know, it's all pretty much the same, good energy

It's like, you know, I keep joking about Brightside

And going and doing these gigs and going and doing these covers gigs

And then I kind of, you know, talking about that stuff about music early

And being in bands and all that

The bit is like, why do I keep doing this?

Why do I keep doing this and going out and playing this?

Because there are other things that I can do with my life

Then going, I know it's a bit of pocket money or whatever

But it got me last night, I went to play at someone, someone who I know's partying

Like last minute, I went, look, we're doing a party for a birthday

You're about, can you come and do a set?

I was like, I could do it the night off really

But then I thought, no, no, I'll go, you know, it'd be cool

And actually it was a wicked night

And it wasn't to begin with, because everyone was there

Sitting, having their beige, you know, buffet or whatever

And then suddenly, people started to get up

Wanted to get a bit drunk

Yeah, yeah, yeah, got up and started singing along

And then suddenly the guy, I think it was the guy whose birthday it was

Came up to me and went, do you know Traffic by the Stereophonics?

And I went, yeah, I do, and I'll play it now

And this guy, me and him, we had this kind of like connection for a few minutes

And he was loving life, you know, and all that

And I was going, oh, that's why I do it

You know, I do it because every night is different

I might play Brightside 450 million times

But every experience of doing that

Might create that moment of connection with someone

Yeah

You know, when everyone's having a great time

It does, though

And they lift everyone up

Music does, doesn't it?

And listening to these interviews made me think that

Going, that's why I do this, because that's why they do it

They do it because it lifts themselves up

Yeah

And it lifts other people's up

And then people have the shared experience together

And I was going, yeah, that's why I go out and play Brightside

It does, it connects people, doesn't it?

Yeah, yeah

And music is weird, I use music a lot

Like this week's been pretty tough at work

It's been, we've had redundancies

A whole bunch of stuff happening

And it's been a bit unpleasant

And I started my week listening to

I guess like normal stuff that would be

Just the kind of normal albums

And then I think it was on Tuesday

I was just like, this isn't working for me

Do you know what I mean?

It was just bouncing up, I wasn't engaging with it

And then I grabbed a Dillinger album off my vinyl rack

And stuck it on

And it was just, this is what I needed, this is it

And it's weird how it

Not only can it adjust your mood

But sometimes your mood adjusts to what you like

So there are some days where I'll listen to

Incredibly dark and heavy stuff

Unless you're in that frame of mind

And there are other days where

You'll perhaps not be feeling brilliant

And I'll put on a pretty reckless album

I've got to say, so Taylor Momsen

She doesn't get enough credit

I've listened to her albums this week

She's an amazing voice

Absolutely amazing

She should be talked about in reverence

She's phenomenal

I don't know why she's not

Why not? Tell me

Because she was in The Grinch, you see

It is, isn't it?

It's because she was in The Grinch

It's because she's a skinny blonde girl

And she was from Disney

Which is brilliant

She is awesome

Stop listening to this now

And go and listen to Pretty Reckless

Because she's phenomenal

And you can find on YouTube

One of her acoustics

She does these acoustic things sometimes

She's just got an excellent...

Anyway, I forgot what I was going to say now

Yeah, the bit of...

Because I find normal conversation, believe it or not

Because we're doing the podcast

You're the same as me

I find conversations like small talk awful

I don't like tedious people

I don't like boring people

What I mean is you can't go from not knowing somebody

To being able to have a reasonable conversation

Yeah, yeah, yeah

Without having to do the...

Do you like cheese?

Yeah

Yeah, I like cheese as well

And then you have that for ages

And then it's like, oh god, I'm still rude

This conversation, I want to punch myself in this

But then...

Because you and I met

Because our wives are friends

And they were friends

And we met at the Bourne Gate in Anslo

We used to hide in corners, didn't we?

Yeah, yeah, yeah

Don't talk to me

Think of like, you know, Gemma would say, oh, Liz's husband's coming

Oh, you like Neil?

Yeah, as soon as you hear that

He likes things like that

Oh my god, I'm not going

I'm not going to like that

I was the same

She was like, oh, you're like, I don't know, when?

Will not

Yeah, there we are, podcast

Don't tell me who I like

But interestingly, and then segueing back to the prodigy

Because we're doing that

They're like that

I don't care what your music industry thinks

I don't want the small talk

I don't want to do TikTok videos

I don't want to do anything

I mean, they weren't a thing back then

But you know what I mean?

They were like, I am not doing that photoshoot

If I don't want to do it

The thing about the video, the Firestar video

I don't think I included this

This is a part of the interview

Where they're talking about the Firestar video

And like the record company had this one made

And they went, it's shit

It's awful

And they spent money, like the 10 grand, maybe 15 grand on this video

And they went, we're not doing it

It's rubbish

It's not us, we don't want that one

And then they went and did the iconic black and white in the tunnels

That was it

Which was insane video

That was it though, wasn't it?

That, for me

Because they stopped

Before that, there was some music

But you didn't know who the people were

You didn't know who the prodigy were

And after the Firestar video

You know what I mean?

When somebody mentioned the prodigy

That's the video

For me, I think probably for most people

That is it

That's the prodigy

That's the video and they're the people

And then all of a sudden you've got a connection with them

And you know who they are

You know what they stand for

Do you know what I mean?

It's excellent

And they're talking here about hating doing interviews

It's kind of like, we want to make music

We want to do live shows

We want to go in the studio

We don't want to do anything else

And very similar probably to Led Zeppelin, I would say

Connecting them back to last week

Because they said the same, didn't they?

They were like, we want to make music, we want to do live shows

We don't want to talk to journalists

Which is weird because when you're listening to an interview

And all the interviews were found were French

So they must have gone to France to raise their profile in France

So they had to do some interviews while they were there

But both of the interviews that I found were from France

And it's just a weird thing where they're going

We hate the journalists whilst doing an interview

It's a bit awkward

It's like, oh god, I don't know what to do with that

I don't know where to put that

Thanks for that

But it is interesting

You were talking earlier about

You said earlier about you use music at work

But you used the Prodigy song as well, you were saying

Oh god, yeah, I'm going to get in trouble for this

So when I was, long story short

I ended up doing public speaking

I'm a mathematics software person

I don't like people very much

And I was sent to do a job and I didn't want to do it

And so I did a bad job of it

And my manager at the time got in trouble for it

And we had our one-to-one and she basically said

Look, I'm making no bones about this

I'm really angry with what you did

And I know that you don't like large crowds

And I know you don't like people

So I'm sending you to TechEd in Berlin

And you're going to deliver this talk

She said you know more about it than anybody else

You're going to have to train the speakers anyway

You might as well go

This is a punishment, you are being punished

The second, I have to add this

I've only ever been punished at work twice

So that was the first time

The second time I was sent to Birmingham City Council

Genuinely as a punishment

Anyway, so I got sent to do this public speaking thing

And actually it backfired a little bit because I really enjoyed it

I didn't like people but I found that I liked that flow

I liked that environment anyway

So I did that for like 10 years

I was out doing that kind of stuff and I was really enjoying it

And they would ask if you wanted any music played

So people would stream into the hall where they would be

And in some of these cases there wouldn't be a few thousand people

There were really big massive conferences

So it would take like 15-20 minutes for people to stream in

And they would play this crappy music like radio-friendly light rock

Or they would just play this music

And then you could have your bit just before the last few minutes

They would say hey you can have what you want on if you like

Smack my bitch up

And I would be like oh I don't know what to play

And the thing is you had to have copyright for it as well

So you had to go to them and say yeah this is what I want you to play

And here's my letter of I've got rights to use this

And I wanted to use Klimatize to come onto it

I thought that's pretty cool, there's no background music, no vocals in it

And I really loved it at the time

So I thought how can I do this?

So I got my friend to write me an email

Saying that he was from the record company and that I could use the music

So what I did was I had a USB stick and then on there there was a PDF

That said Neil can use this song

He got you out of PE

And then I used to get to the side where I would walk in and you would get soundchecked

You would do tech check and I would hand the USB stick to them and say can you play this

And they did for years and years

I'm getting loads of trouble now so I've got the prodigy's record company going to come after it

But it was great, it worked really well

You would play something

Trying to think of good examples of what they would play

But it would be really inoffensive kind of rock music

And then it would fade down and then there would be a gap because this faded in slowly

The other one that I really wanted to use was Orion

From Metallica

The sound guys knew what that was

But they didn't know what this was

It was bizarre but nobody picked up on it

That I was quite clearly blagging

But anyway I loved it, I love climatises

It's just such a good

I love the build the way it kind of goes

And it kind of just swirls doesn't it

It's this kind of eyes closed, headphones

It's such a great song

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The guy disrespected the album, he said it was crap you know

Which is fair enough, that's his own, he's got his own point of view

I later found out that he spent 10 minutes

Blicking through the tracks

That's the way he reviewed it, he spent 10 minutes

He had 10 minutes to quickly review the Prodigy album

You flick through each track

Obviously listening to about a minute of each track

And assess the whole album on one listen

Which is something you can't do

The thing with my music is like

It will grow on you

Obviously if you're into the band

You might like it straight away, but a lot of what I do

Comes back, and not throw away songs

And some bands write music that's just totally

Obvious on the first listen

You'll listen to it and you'll understand it the first listen

And by the next bar of listens

You'll know the song inside out and you're bored of it

Right away, but a lot of what I try and do is

It's kind of stuff that will grow on you

As you listen to it more

Kind of like, that we might hang around for a bit longer

You might sort of forget about it and then hear it somewhere

And then you think oh yeah that's a track I did listen to on a Prodigy album

And you go back to it

So I mean there's a lot more longevity I think in what we do

Because also we don't lock things down all the time with lyrics

I see, the only analogy I can put it in is

A lot of groups are just like a simple mint

What you suck

And Liam's music is more like a mint with different flavours and different layers

The more you suck the more you get into more different flavours

And you listen to his music and there's different things in there you hear every time you hear it

Every time you listen to it you pick out different little things

I can't remember hearing that noise in there before

And that's the good thing about his music is it's got different layers

It's not just one layer and you hear everything in one go

I think that's a key thing, the start of that last little piece there was

Liam talking about someone who'd done the album with you and just flicked through it

And then tried to do a review

And the thing is that this was the time where

You bought an album, you saved up your money, you bought an album

And that was the album you lived with for probably a month

And there was no other music

The reviews did matter but also you built up that relationship with the record over time

So you might listen to the same thing on loop 20 times

And it's at that point you understand it

I mean, 'Riding the Line' we recently put 'Lifeboats' out

It's gone really well hasn't it?

It's gone amazingly

But somebody got in touch and wrote and said

"I liked it the first time but after the 15th time I fell in love with it"

And it's like that's it

You have to spend time with music, you can't just do it once

For me that's what albums have always been

There's always been a special thing about albums

You get the album and there'll be a reason

You look back at the albums in my CD collection

These are all back from the late 80s and 90s

There will have been a song that I heard that pulled me in

'Firestarter' would have been the one

And you think that's it, I want that

Because the rest of the album is going to be like that

And inevitably it's not

So you get it and you're like

There's a few good tracks that I really like

And then there are 'The Growers' on you

The new Linkin Park album

There are some bangers on there

Real big singles that just pull you in

It's only a short record which means it's brilliant

But it's got what would be album tracks on there

They grow on you over time

And we try and do this in the social

So quite often I'll post and say

"What's your favourite Metallica song?"

But you can't pick the big singles

And it's kind of trying to dig at those

Like you say those songs

Because they pay you back

They're the ones that last

Those big singles, they overplayed 'Sandman' kind of thing

For me they get difficult to listen to

Not quickly but they get difficult

They're like "Oh I've heard this so many times"

You need a big break before you can come back to them

There are some songs that, I don't know

They take you a little while to learn to love

But then they're just there

You can have them on repeat forever

They're just these songs that run and run and run

And you're dead right, absolutely dead right

There was one thing that I wanted

Because we've been going for 85 minutes now

Which is crazy

It is, it's crazy

Do you know how long podcasts are supposed to be?

20 minutes

If anyone gets this far

We're the podcast equivalent to the Prodigy

We don't follow the rules

We don't know

If anyone gets this far

I bet Kendall will get this far

I wanted to talk about guitar

The use of guitar on Prodigy records

Because that was a key thing

They had Gizbut from Janis Stark

Who used to come in and do guitar parts for the records and stuff

And then went on tour with them

Because the guitars are analogue

They're actual guitars

They're not like midi

They're real

And I think that's what adds to the kind of

Firstly the punk ethos

But secondly the band ethos

The light, yeah yeah yeah

That's a really good point

Because it's not every song that guitars used in

But there are some real key moments

With the Prodigy music

And that was all I wanted to say today really

Shall I fact?

Yes

I've not got that many facts

But I've got some facts about this album

So I will fact you

Released date 30th June 1997

That means it's old

Yeah yeah yeah

But actually you know when I said earlier about

The machines used, the ST and all that

It was after that

So that would have been probably the earlier part of the 90s

So the later part would have been

You were getting into the kind of Pro Tools

Was probably around

Yeah it would have been

This would have all been sitting on

The Logic and Cubase was a little bit more developed

And on PCs maybe rather

I think this would have been sitting on Mac Pros

This would have been the cheese grater style Mac Pros

I reckon anyway

But that would have been Logic

But I still reckon they would have had Amigas

I reckon they would have had Amigas and STs

Still kicking around at this time

Maybe at this time

Certainly at home

Like when they're doing this kind of stuff at home

Because they were still really really powerful at this point

Runtime 56 minutes 21

That's the proper album length

You like shorter ones

I like the longer ones

It's long isn't it

10 tracks recorded at Earthbound Studios in Essex

Produced by Liam Howlett

Probably as you would expect

I mean they're still putting stuff out

It was Invaded Must Die a few years ago

And that kind of stuff

And obviously we sadly lost Keith

Which was sad

That thing you sent me the motorbike

Him doing the ride

He had the Ducatis out

He was going around the tracks

You've got to find that on YouTube people

People listening

Just take time out of your day to find those videos

It's still good isn't it

You just don't expect it

And he just turns up in the paddock

Where?

Mallory Park

Mallory Belsey

Mallory is just like 10-50 miles from where we are

So I've raced at Mallory

It's a brilliant circuit

And watching him

I remember watching him

He was doing it

It was late 90s or 99 or something like that

The video

And I would have spent

Certainly the late 90s and early 2000s

I would have been on that circuit load

And he

Just watching him go

And having the mechanics

Initially just going

Oh he's going to kill himself

And then

You can see it on their faces

No you can ride

You can see it on their faces

Because he turns up there

And it's just

What I loved about it was

He was

He was just so thoughtful

And you can see the look on his face

It's just like

Tell me

What am I doing wrong

What do I need to change

How do I get better

And it's just so, so good

I think he's

Yeah, excellent role model

Yeah, yeah, yeah

Apart from the hair

I mean if you want to have the hair

I haven't got that hair

So I can't do that

What else did I want to cover?

Sorry you were talking facts

And I've caught you up

Right after probably the first facts

Yeah, no

I was lost

Album artwork has a crab on it

Designed by Alex Jenkins

It's also got Herman Goring quotes inside it

How did you know that at all?

For me, it was something that popped out at me

And it's something about

Would you rather have butter or guns?

And it's from the Nuremberg stuff like that

Very punk rock

Yeah

Right, very

Like if you did that on an album today

You'd be cancelled

And no one had ever heard of you

Probably did you do it in the 90s

And it's

Do you know what I mean?

It's edgy and cool

So different times

And I don't think they were saying

Everyone should be a Nazi

I think it was very much in a way that

Stand up to this stuff

Do you know what I mean?

This is not cool

Liam Howlett

Keyboard synthesiser sampling and programming

Keith Flint vocals

Maxim Reality vocals

Keith, wasn't Firestarter the first one that Keith was on?

Yeah, because I think he was sort of mainly just dancing before that

Yeah, yeah, yeah

And then he did the vocals on that

Like a Bez kind of Maracas role

But yeah

So I think for me, Prodigy came alive

It was Firestarter

They were great before that

But Firestarter was the bit where the public connected to them

And it became massive

Because I don't recall the MC stuff particularly before that

No

So you had Maxim as sort of the MC role

And then you had Keith as this sort of like vocalist

Or it's like a, you know, kind of coming in

Frontman

Yeah, yeah, yeah

It's that frontman

You need a frontman

You need somebody who's going to

I was thinking you need

For a band

Yeah

For somebody to absolutely truly connect to

I think you need that

Yeah

We talked about recording sessions

Were done at Earthband Studios in Essex

Took a few months

With Howlett meticulously crafting each track

Combination of digital and analogue

To create the sound of the album

Which is really interesting

Mackie 32 track mixing desk apparently

Good old Mackie

Synthesiser was a Korg prophecy

And it was done with propeller head reason and logic

Yeah, it's all very solid state

All that

There's not much valvey stuff there

You know, like, what do you think about

It's hard sounding

Yeah, yeah, yeah

It's digital, isn't it

Yeah, there's no

Yeah, there's no harping back to

Yeah

Soft glowing valves in the corner for that one

And then

It's interesting here

During the recording process

Liam decided to re-record

A bunch of parts using analogue stuff

So they did it all digitally

And then decided to go back and re-do it

And add the depth and stuff like that

Which I think is super cool

Commercial Performance sold 10 million copies

It was top in the charts over 20 countries

Which is just phenomenal

Other stuff that happened in 1997

Give me a fact from '97

There's some really big stuff that happened in '97

I've no idea

I wasn't paying attention

Really

Composed myself, I can do this

Where did we stop?

Princess Diana

So yeah, Princess Diana, 1997

Albums that were released in '97

Big ones, OK Computer

Was that the same year?

Yeah

Urban Hymns

Reload by Metallica

Sensucht by Rammstein

And Cryptic Writings by Megadeth

So it was a...

That's a big year for music, isn't it?

Isn't it?

Yeah, it's interesting I think

Because I wouldn't have thought '97 was a big year for albums

But actually, bloody massive

To be fair, every year in the '90s was, wasn't it really?

It was the decade of albums, really

Yeah, it was weird, wasn't it?

Because you'd got the death of a bunch of bands

Like, there are...

You had like Slayer and Metallica and all of these

There were a ton of bands that were huge in the '80s

Yeah, that sort of downturn, yeah

They just were appalling

And then the Hair Metal stuff disappeared

So you had big bands like Poison, Warrant and Guns N' Roses

All of that's just a...

So if you were a fan of that genre and that scene

By the '90s would have been, like, you would have written it off

Yeah

But there are albums that just changed the world

OK Computer absolutely changed the world

I mean, you wouldn't have had...

And that's a really interesting one

Because it's like the opposite of this, isn't it?

So this was like using digital technology with some analogue-y stuff

To humanise dance music a little bit

And OK Computer was sort of the other way around

Where it was using the band format

But then they brought in things like samplers

And kind of electronic influenced instruments

To kind of give the analogue band the digital edge

And that's really interesting

The way it was recorded was fascinating as well, I think

So yeah, really interesting that one

I want to talk about song meaning a little bit

So they got a tonne of grief for Smack My Bitch Up

Because you're not allowed to do that

No

Not allowed to do that

Great video

The video was naughty as well, wasn't it?

Yeah, but it's really interesting

So Hal is in interviews where he's talking about this

Essentially being taken out of context

It just means like doing something like just passion

That's the only thing that you want to do

And that's where it came from

And Breathe is talking about the pressure and competition

So it's about the pressure to perform and to be successful

And what that does to you

And so that was really interesting

And then Firestarter was that kind of punk rock rebellion

And stuff in there

So it's really, really cool

And I think their lyrics are often overlooked

And I think the song structure is overlooked as well

They're pretty, pretty cool

They are songs

Yeah, absolutely, they are

It isn't just dance music

And I suppose that's what adds to the band thing, isn't it?

I think so, yeah

There's songwriting here

It's not just rave, is it?

It's not just rave, it's not just about a big drop

And flinging your hands in the air

There's some really cool stuff in there

Influences, do you know, this hit me a little bit

When I was researching the influences

But Public Enemy, Nirvana and Wu-Tang Clan

They kind of talk about as influences

And you just think, yeah, kind of

It's got that kind of dirge-y, Nirvana-y kind of vibe to it

Definitely

Yeah, Liam in that one earlier was talking about

Being inspired by that kind of New York acid house scene

Yeah, yeah, yeah

Sorry, the garage scene, sorry

Yeah, the Wu-Tang Clan and then Public Enemy

I think it's interesting

Artists that were influenced by them

Pendulum are just a given, I think

They, for me, are like Prodigy 2.0

They kind of took that blueprint

And then were just like, oh, we're going to build

Our stuff on top of that

I think they're, again, excellent

And then Skrillex and the Chemical Brothers as well

Yeah, of course

You just wouldn't exist without the Prodigy doing their thing

Yeah, and there was all that stuff after that

There was Orbital, there was, I mean

Yeah, of course, yeah

They were kind of at a similar time

And then even Daft Punk, I suppose, to a certain extent

There's probably a bit there

And those sort of French electronic bands

We should probably do

What was their first, Daft Punk did

Discovery

Is it Discovery?

I can't remember

Anyway, yeah

They've done a couple of iconic ones, haven't they?

They have, haven't they?

But again, the kind of stuff that's accepted across all different genres

Yeah

Very, very big movie was released in 1997

About a boat

About a boat?

Titanic

Titanic

I remember saying I would never watch it

And I was tricked

Because my girlfriend at the time put it on

And it looks like a documentary at the beginning

Doesn't it?

You like documentaries

And I like documentaries, so I went and said, oh, this is really interesting

And then before I knew it, I was sucked in

Yeah

I didn't like that

It was the fastest-selling UK dance album

It was in the Guinness Book of Records in 1999

Cover art we talked about

It features a quote from Herman Goring

Yeah, yeah

Which was, again, really interesting

And then, yeah, Keith Flint's vocal debut

So Firestarter marks Keith's first lyrical contribution

It's been used in a bunch of media and television

So it was used in the Wipeout 2097 game

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah

I loved that

Yeah, it was great

So many clones of that Wipeout game

Excellent

'96, that came out

It's in the track Mindfields is in The Matrix

We're going to play that in a minute to finish us off

Ooh

Yes

But that was, yeah, that was '99

It's in Event Horizon

Great film

Charlie's Angels, full-throttle

Scary Movie 2

Wow

A lot of placement, a lot of sync

It's got that kind of thing there, hasn't it?

It's that kind of, do you know what I mean?

There's something

There are some albums that don't get used in media and TV

Yeah, yeah

And this one's massive

I mean, I cut the stuff short for the blog

There's just so much of it

So many, yeah

Yeah, reviews at the time were a bit mixed

Again, it's one of those albums where people were like

People got it later, almost

It became legendary

I think Changed Their Minds

Yeah, yeah, yeah

You know, review

Well, it's like what you said earlier

Skip through it

Skip through it, not really my thing

Then all of a sudden, the entire world comes alive to it

And they go, oh, maybe I got that one wrong

Yeah, I'll go and change, I'll go and edit that

Yeah

Still, they produced albums way, way up to

Like, they did Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned in 2004

Invaders Must Die in 2009

Yeah

You know, obviously Keith died in 2019

But the band is still active, they're still doing stuff

Yeah, absolutely phenomenal, I think

Easily classifies as an iconic album

Yeah, yeah, definitely

I think that's probably it, it's done

What should we do next?

I don't know, let's play minefields

And then let's talk about what's next

Okay

Let's do that

Let's do that

Dangerous

Open up your head, feel the shock

This is dangerous

I walk through my bedrock

[Music]

Dangerous

Open up your head, feel the shock

[Music]

This is dangerous

Knock your head, feel the shock

[Music]

This is dangerous

Minefields are watching headlock

This is dangerous

The head feel the shock

[Music]

This is dangerous

Minefields are watching headlock

[Music]

This is dangerous

[Music]

This is dangerous

Open up your head, feel the shock

[Music]

This is dangerous

Open up your head, feel the shock

This is dangerous

I walk through minefields of rock

This is dangerous

Open up your head, feel the shock

This is dangerous

I walk through minefields of rock

[Music]

I walk through minefields of rock

[Music]

[Music]

I walk through minefields of rock

[Music]

[Music]

This stuff is really good, you know, and it's different to my stuff, so that's really cool.

For the Prodigy, Liam writes Prodigy music, you know.

I mean, I write tunes, but I couldn't write the tunes what Liam writes.

You know, it's just a vibe of my own. It's a totally different style.

I would be able to capture the energy what Liam captures in his tunes, you know.

So, you know, I mean, we all get a buzz out of, you know, when Liam, you know,

we're dying for him to get back in the studio, you know what I mean?

Because, like, you know, we get a buzz when he says, "Yeah, start a new tune, go around,"

and you're waiting for something to give you a buzz.

You know, something's going to be something there for you, something new, you know.

So, you know, that's going to come.

The guy disrespected the album. He said it was crap, you know, which is fair enough.

That's his own. He's got his own point of view.

I later found out that he spent ten minutes flicking through the tracks.

You know, that's the way he reviewed it. He spent ten minutes.

He had ten minutes to quickly review the Prodigy album.

You know, so you flick through each track, obviously listening to, like, about a minute of each track,

and, like, assess the whole album on one listen, which is something you can't do.

See, the thing with my music is, like, it will grow on you.

I mean, obviously, if you're into the band, you might like it straight away,

but a lot of what I do comes back, and not throw away songs.

You know, some bands write music that's just totally obvious on the first listen.

You know, you'll listen to it and you'll understand it the first listen,

and by the next bar of listens, you know the song inside out and you're bored of it, right away.

But a lot of what I try and do is kind of stuff that will grow on you as you listen to it more.

Kind of like, you know, that we might hang around for a bit longer.

You know, you might sort of forget about it and then hear it somewhere,

and then you think, oh yeah, that's a track I did listen to on a Prodigy album.

You go back to it. So, I mean, there's a lot more longevity, I think, in what we do,

because also we don't lock things down all the time with lyrics, you know.

I see. The only analogy I can put it in is a lot of groups are just like a simple mint, what you suck.

And Liam's music is more like a mint with different flavours and different layers.

The more you suck, the more you get into, you know, more different flavours.

And you listen to his music and there's different things in there you hear every time you hear it.

Every time you listen to it, you pick out different little things.

Oh, I can't remember hearing that noise in there before.

You know, and that's the good thing about his music is, you know, it's got different layers.

You know, it's not just one layer and you hear everything in one go.

And I think that last one there sort of, you know, delves into what I was talking about earlier,

that idea of like you have to listen to things a few times and there's gold in there.

You know, there's moments in there that you might miss the first time.

For me, it's listening multiple times, but in different places and different spaces.

So often listening through speakers or headphones or in the car, you kind of get a different vibe sometimes.

Do you know what I mean? It's definitely for me.

And also listening at night or in the morning.

Do you know what I mean? Listening at different times of the day.

I find music and acoustics and sound, I just find it absolutely fascinating

that exactly the same cut of a song sounds different in the morning and in the afternoon.

And it has a different impact on you if you're in a calm state of mind or if you're frantic and really busy.

Do you know what I mean? And I don't know. I just think humans are dead good.

So what we can do next? Well, there's a few things I think we should do.

You've got a big list. Shall I go through some of the things on my list?

And we could do a poll. Yeah, we should do that. I think that worked really well last time.

Did we actually obey the poll? Yeah, we totally did it.

And we did this one because this one was in there as well. This one was the second.

We have been promising this one for about six months though.

Yeah, we have. There's a few that I think that we should do that are kind of, I think, really obvious iconic albums that we've talked about.

So one is Rumours by Fleetwood Mac. I love that. I love the stories behind it.

I love the people involved in it. And I think that's just a...

Yeah, I just think it's an album that kind of deserves some attention from us and it fits very nicely in our iconic category.

Another one is Paranoid by Black Sabbath. And yeah, I think that again is one that...

I don't know. We talked about Black Sabbath a lot, but I think that it's one that we...

I don't know. It just feels like one that we should do really well.

It feels like going back to like the nucleus of something when you do that, doesn't it?

It does a little bit. It's the beginning of something.

It's the beginning of Drop D. That's where, I mean, it's like tons of all metal kind of all just kind of came from...

I mean, it's not that it wouldn't have existed without Giza Butler. I don't know whoever came up with that, but phenomenal.

An album. I'd love to do Rolling Stones album.

Yeah, and they're another... Like Led Zeppelin, they're a band that I appreciate and love and the stuff I like.

But I don't profess to kind of get them as much as I prefer to get some other bands.

My two favourites are Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed from the Stones. I'd love to do Let It Bleed, I think.

I'd love to do Rush. Don't like Rush. Just say I don't like Rush very much. I kind of find that I just struggle with it.

They're a band that I just don't connect very well with and I'd love to fix that almost inevitably when we do these deep dives into iconic albums.

I leave with a renewed connection if it's an old album, and if it's one that I've not connected with previously, then it almost always builds.

Understanding and learning and listening to it always helps.

You don't want it on vinyl.

Yeah, so something like Moving Pictures or Permanent Waves would be good. I would very much love to go and do Goo Goo Dolls, but no one seems to love the Goo Goo Dolls. It's just me.

Still can't buy it. If anyone's got a copy of Superstar Car Wash on vinyl and would like to sell it to me, just drop it.

It wasn't in your five pack.

It was in my five pack, but that's sealed and still in the cardboard box. So I've left it.

Others that I was thinking about were Downward Spiral by Nine Inch Nails.

That's come up a few times on the blog, actually.

It has. That one is really, really good, I think. What else did I come up with here?

Jagged Little Pill was one that came up.

Jagged Little Pill, Counting Crows we could do.

August and everything after, maybe.

Yeah, or Recovering the Satellites.

So Jagged Little Pill was one that came up, which I think would be really good.

We could do more metal-y stuff, System of a Down, Toxicity.

I'm just kind of streaming through my list.

And there's a bunch of older thrash stuff that I would love to do as well, but that's probably for later in the year.

Alice Cooper, Welcome to My Nightmare, which I thought would be really good.

Kiss is a bunch of Kiss albums. I don't know where we would begin that or where we would kind of set the iconic bar for it. It's quite hard.

I think I just want to ask Dan.

Yeah, Dan doesn't exist. But that would be really cool, I think.

So yeah, there's tons. I'd love to do a Tool album. I think that would be really, really cool.

Just before you start recording, you said, "Are we ever going to run out?" And I think the answer is no.

Yeah, Deftones, R.E.M.

There's just so many great ones. I will come up with a list of four.

There's too many for a poll.

I think, though, I like the idea of kind of Rumours, Jagged Little Pill, that kind of-

Yeah, those level of iconic commercial wealth, good sellers.

Yeah, I think that's kind of where we should go a little bit next. We've done hair metal stuff. We've done some heavy stuff.

I like the idea of going-

Something for our mainstream friends.

Yeah, let's do. We've not done mainstream stuff for ages, have we? Let's do some mainstream friend stuff.

Yeah, cool.

And we'll do a poll. Thank you for listening. Kendall, just tell us what we got wrong on Monday. That would be cool.

And yeah, we'll see you all next week.

Love you, bye.

Love you, bye.