Neko: Over the last year you’ve played quite a lot of live shows. The year actually started when you started touring for Always Outnumbered last October, which Liam wrote pretty much on his own. At the time, was that more difficult for you to kind of adapt to these new materials, whereas maybe now where you’re working all together on new material.

Maxim: What do you mean, actually performing it?

Neko: Yeah when you look at the live show.

Maxim: Not really, no. Like I’ve said in numerous interviews it was important for us to go back in the studio and reconstruct those tracks, but once we did that it was totally cool. I’ve always stood by that point. It’s important for Keith and myself to put our personalities in the tracks rather than just tracks be written and us not having any kind of connection to them. Obviously it was a difficult period when that album was written. The contact between us wasn’t really as close as it was on previous albums, being on the road and whatever. So Liam was in the studio writing the album on his own. I used to go down to the studio and see what he was doing, but because we weren’t touring during that period it didn’t really grow with us, it just appeared.

Neko: Do you think it’s easier or different now when obviously you’re in more contact now when Liam is writing new stuff when you’re actually straight there?

Maxim: Yeah it’s a lot easier now, that’s what I’m saying. Once you’re on the road, and once you’re in the flow it’s a lot easier, things just evolve slowly, do you know what I mean? Whereas that album just kind of appeared on my doorstep… like “here’s 12 tracks”. Even though certain tracks I did see him develop in the studio as Liam was writing them. But it was just like formulated in a different way than it works best really. And how it works best is when you’re on the road and you’re touring and things just develop slowly and tunes develop while you’re trying them out in the set or whatever. And then you add little bits and you’re like, “oh that bit was good, let’s try that bit again”. And that’s the best way tunes develop really for me.

Neko: One of the tracks that has developed over the last year is Back 2 Skool. You brought it back about a year ago, and it’s changed quite a lot. At first it was just you doing your vocals and now it’s become quite different with Keith also, and it’s on the Their Law The Singles album. Is this one of the tracks you think has evolved quite a bit?

Maxim: Yeah, I mean that was like an intro track, wasn’t it?

Neko: Yeah.

Maxim: I think it was at Reading or something.

Neko: Yeah it was the “Leeds intro”, that’s what it was called.

Maxim: It was just like a small little intro, but it kind of slams. And then we just introduced it slowly, and I can’t even remember how it actually got into the set to tell you the truth. I think we were just using it as a little link in the middle of the set but it kind of dropped really well and obviously it developed into what it is now. And even in the last couple of days we did, I don’t know if you noticed, on the end of Back 2 Skool Liam slows the beats down now and we’re just working on something different at the end there. So it’s still developing now.

Neko: Dead Ken Beats is another track you’ve been playing live for about a year.

Maxim: Oh yeah.

Neko: How’s that one evolving?

Maxim: It’s not! (laughs)

No, it’s kind of like thrown in the set, taken out. Thrown in, taken out. Thrown in, taken out (laughs). It’s such a strong tune you know, but we can’t really find the right hook to go on it yet and it just needs that one hook. Sometimes I think when you analyze tunes too much, if you try too hard, and try and force a hook on it, it never happens. Sometimes you just have to leave it and let it develop itself.

Obviously I do some lyrics on there but they’re not really the lyrics for that tune… they’re just lyrics which kind of fit on it at the moment, do you know what I mean? But we need a strong hook on it really because it’s a strong tune.

Neko: Do you think now that you’re playing smaller venues again it’s going to give you more of a chance to experiment a bit more on stage than when you’re doing the big festivals?

Maxim: Yeah, it’s better. The first two shows… did you come to the first 2 shows? [Oslo and Copenhagen]

Neko: Yeah, I came to Copenhagen.

Maxim: Yeah, because I did see you, you were on the right hand side wasn’t you? Or I mean the stage left. But yeah I love doing shows like that you know because it is a totally different performance. And you don’t have to work too hard trying to cover the stage so you’ve got more time to think and you can experiment and mess around with the lyrics and the tunes and maybe try different things out on the smaller stage. Even smaller venues, like a 1,000. I love doing venues like that. Plus, for me at the moment, I can’t really move that much because I’ve done my leg in!

Neko: When did that happen? On this tour?

Maxim: Yeah, in Macedonia. I was having this massage, and this guy was stretching me and I don’t know what he’s done. He just snapped something in my leg (laughs). It just started to swell up and it hasn’t gotten any better.

So I’ve just been struggling all this tour. The worst thing will be if it gets to the point where I say, “ok maybe we shouldn’t do these dates”.

Neko: With the big UK tour coming up…

Maxim: Yeah so it’s kind of like I’ve got a couple weeks literally hopefully to get better. The thing with knees is there’s nothing you can do about them really. You just have to let them rest. So who knows? But yeah you know, performance wise I haven’t really been performing as I’d like to. So in a way being more static gives you more thinking time. It gives you a chance to; you know, experiment vocally and try different things out.

Neko: Do you think doing your own stuff has influenced the way you do Prodigy? In the way you might have experimented more with vocals, or something like that?

Maxim: Nah not at all (laughs). When I write lyrics or when we do stuff with Prodigy it’s a totally different thing than when I do my own stuff. But the actual delivery is quite similar. I like to always use double entendre lyrics, things with two different meanings and stuff. I kind of brought some of that vibe into the Prodigy. When you use less lyrics they have to be a bit more obvious and a bit more instant. If you’re writing a song you don’t have to make a point really straight away. But when you got one line, two lines in a tune they have to be instant. So I suppose it’s a bit harder really.

Neko: Is there any particular track in the current live set that you enjoy the most, or kind of a favourite of yours?

Maxim: Yeah, Spitfire. Spitfire is the ultimate track at the moment. It sums up the band. That’s exactly where we are; the sound, the vibe, you know? It’s like every tune has its moment and represents a time, and I think Spitfire just kind of represents us in this particular time. Just like when Firestarter was released, that was us at that particular time.

Neko: Which other old tracks would you like to bring back currently?

Maxim: Umm… well we can’t bring back too many old tunes because they’re too fast! (laughs) We’re not going to be able to keep up with them! (laughs) But there’s quite a few fillers you know like Benny Blanco, maybe things like that. We’re going to bring that back for the singles tour.

Neko: That’s cool.

Maxim: I’d say the singles tour is going be good once we get all the tunes in and stuff. Doing the old tunes… umm… don’t know how we’re going to get Charly in (laughs).

Neko: Liam said that as well actually.

Maxim: What, that he doesn’t know how to get Charly in? (laughs) I’m thinking that Charly and Everybody In The Place… they’re just so fast! Start The Dance you know, that’s going to be quite easy to do. As you know we do a bit of it already. Think we’ll do a longer version. And we’re going to bring in Break & Enter as well… and Jericho. So hopefully… Jericho we’re going to do tonight.

But I won’t be doing much (laughs).

Neko: I’m always missing the good ones, aren’t I?

Maxim: You’re not coming tonight?

Neko: No, I’m in London.

Maxim: Oh dear... well we’re hopefully going to do Jericho tonight. But yeah I think it’s good to bring old tunes back. But obviously the key is not to just bring them back the way they are, but to freshen them up a little bit. It makes it interesting for us as well.

Neko: What do you think about the tracks on the singles album – disc 2?

Maxim: Ahh… disc 2. The live tracks and stuff… Spitfire Live. There was another Spitfire… but I’m not too sure. When I listen to live tracks I always think, “I can do better” or “there’s better live tracks out there”. You know what I mean? I’m never happy with live tracks.

On recordings, I always listen to my own voice. I suppose most artists are like that. But I always hear myself on live tracks and think, “ah we can do a better recording than that”. In a way it would have been good to have something like Radio 1 kind of tracks or versions on there, but obviously that’s a lot later. Bit too late for that. But that kind of version is just a lot tighter. But no, I’m quite happy with the tunes that are on there really.

Neko: How do you feel about the remixes that have come out as singles?

Maxim: The remixes… the Pendulum mix and the…

Neko: Yeah, and the Out Of Space one.

Maxim: I think the remixes are really good. I was expecting something a bit different to what the Audio Bullys did with the Out of Space mix, but my favorite remix is the Pendulum one. It’s a drum & bass style with an electro feel. Pendulum are really good and I like their latest single too. I think the video really fits the tune.

Neko: How did you enjoy the video?

Maxim: It was good. It was cool because the whole idea was not to be in it really. And it kind of came across right. It was more like um… obviously because it’s a remix tune it’s not totally about us being in the video. The concept of the whole tune… ‘cause you know the tune is quite a like “moving tune”, It’s kind of like a movie soundtrack tune, I think. And it was important to have something that represented that, whether it was a car chase or whatever, and I think the director picked the right thing there. Now I was glad I wasn’t in it really. It was the quickest video shoot I’ve ever done (laughs). That’s my acting debut as well… not very good as you can see (laughs). No it’s cool, I’m really pleased with it.

Neko: What was in the bag?

Maxim: What’s in the bag?

Neko: Yes.

Maxim: My bag?

Neko: No, the one at the end… the prize.

Maxim: Oh… don’t you know?

Neko: No.

Maxim: It’s drugs (laughs).

Neko: Is it?

Maxim: I didn’t even notice a bag at the end.

(laughing)

Neko: Everybody’s wondering what was in the bag.

Maxim: Whatcha mean?

Neko: At the end you know when Sharkey runs up, she gets a bag, it’s a prize.

Maxim: Yeah but it’s money, isn’t it?

Neko: You don’t know.

Maxim: Ah…

Neko: It’s a mystery.

Maxim: We’re gonna have a sequel. (laughs) To be continued…

Neko: Ok looking forward to it. Just one last thing, you’re quite involved in the whole website stuff. Are you quite involved in also the whole, you know, what’s on the website, and that kind of stuff?

Maxim: Kind of go through phases, you know. We all try to get involved. You know we’re not really like website people, are we? As far as technology goes I’m probably the most connected in that way to computers. I mean Liam’s become more and more computer orientated now. But I remember years ago when we’d try to get him onto Logic. It would be like, “come on man you’ve got to get Logic”. And he’d be like, “no, no”. But like now he’s more computerized. But Keith’s not really that inclined you know. But we try to get our input in on the website stuff. We kind of just relay the information to Theresa and she puts things on there. But it’s more important just for the fans, you know what I mean? To give them something back. It’s important I know to try and update it and whatever (laughs). You know that’s the hardest part for us!

As you know because obviously you’ve got your website and whatever, you know it’s kind of like… we wanted to let people know… because one of the things is when you see things in the media and so forth, and people read about certain things that are going on in the band “the band’s splitting up” or “they’re not going to do another album”. It’s kind of important that the fans see it, hear it from the horse’s mouth. That’s the whole idea of the website really. Let people know what’s happening, and just put it up there to give the real information, and keep it fresh. That’s the reason we updated it and slightly changed it again.

And we’re going to have this thing where we can actually take pictures on the road and put it on the website.

So you can send it from your phone, no matter where you are. And I’ve got this phone, this Nokia phone at the moment… this bad phone. Although you probably see I’m never off it. But it’s good to take pictures on the road and then we can put them on the website and the fans can see exactly what’s happening on the road, do you know what I mean? (laughs) So don’t be surprised if you’re on there! (laughs)

But you know you can send it straight to the website and it’s up there like instantly, rather than having to wait to get back home and putting it on. So hopefully that will be in place in a couple of weeks. And also we can send texts and videos as well. Little clips of videos and stuff. So literally as we come off stage we can be like “this is the crowd, we’re in so forth and so forth” and put it straight up there you know, instantly.

So yeah I suppose websites are quite important, especially in these times where everything is quite global and everything is so instant and the world has just shrunk. Russia doesn’t seem as far anymore, Lithuania doesn’t seem as far, Australia doesn’t seem as far. People can get in contact with you really quickly. So world wide it’s important to have a good website.