Hungry For More - The Prodigy

In the end, the band’s fourth album, 2004’s ‘Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned’, was made mostly without Flint and Maxim’s involvement. Despite all three men “putting a lot of energy” into initial recording attempts, Howlett admits he just “wasn’t in the right headspace” to make it work. As a result, the record was viewed by many as his solo project - an evaluation they all disagree with.

“It’s funny,” Flint says, seriously, “you do an interview and these sort of things get brought up and you realise how that album is a Prodigy album, hence I’m a part of that album.”

Any remaining friction was resolved, unexpectedly, by the 2005 singles retrospective ‘Their Law’. Although the group - and particularly Howlett - were originally against the album’s enforced release by former record label XL Recordings, it turned out to be an epiphany. The album marked the first time in fifteen years that the group had actually reflected on what they had achieved together. “We’d never, even in each other’s company, gone ‘fucking hell do you remember when we did this, do you remember when we did that?’“ Flint says. The coinciding tour just added to their new hunger.

“That was the first time I thought yeah man this fucking band’s on fire, like, and it’s a tight unit. We hadn’t been like that since ’98, I think,” Howlett remembers. Flint nods in agreement. “And the new blood in the audience,” he says. “We weren’t just playing to a load of people who had fished out their tie-died hoody and their ponchos and kind of rung up their dealer to see if he still had some E’s left from ‘89. It was fresh blood – and we thought, hang on, people are still getting into this band. It had an energy.”

Energy is something that’s categorised The Prodigy ever since they formed in Essex in 1990 amid the burgeoning rave scene. The band, then a four-piece, enjoyed success from the off. Second single ‘Charly’, with its familiar sample from children's public information films, charted at number three, while debut album ‘Experience’ reached number twelve in 1992. From warehouse raves, The Prodigy continued to work their way further into people’s consciousness with 1994’s ‘Music For The Jilted Generation’, before finally crossing over to the big time three years later with ‘The Fat Of The Land’. To date, they’ve sold 17million records worldwide, an unparalleled figure for a dance act - but don’t for a minute suggest they’ve actively set out to sell any records at all.

“We’re not blasé, we don’t expect to go into the charts but, you know, it ain’t really that important to us,” Howlett says. “All that’s important is people get the music, they’re into it and we can take the tunes live.” Maxim joins in. “Even when ‘Charly’ came out and that went to number three it was the same kind of ethics.” Howlett agrees. “Yeah, we didn’t trip out and go, fuck me we need to go on Top of the Pops, we kept real – and we think we’ve always kept real.”

Howlett even says it was “totally natural” when Flint debuted two Mohican turrets of hair on his head in the infamous video for ‘Firestarter’. For thousands of fans it transformed the singer into a cult figure. “You can’t sort of cruise down Oxford Street with two pink Mohicans one minute and be appearing on MTV the next and not sort of cause a bit of a stir,” Flint smiles. “But, fuck it – it’s all good fun.”

I suspect this is the same approach they adopted on ‘Invaders Must Die’. After initially starting work in the large recording space of a West London studio, the album was eventually laid down in an upstairs room no bigger than a bedroom. It was like the old days again, even down to the point that they decided against finding a new record label in favour of going it on their own. “It was just the right time for us to have a bit of freedom, to go into the studio and be excited about a new venture,” Maxim says. “It was the end of a chapter. Do you know what I mean?”

Flint’s spoon suddenly clinks against glass - he’s reached the bottom of his ice cream mountain. I don’t ask whether he’s enjoyed it because the sugary red flush on his cheeks says it all. On Sunday, The Prodigy begin a summer of festivals in Swindon and I suspect they won’t be taking anything for granted – even the confectionary. Or as Howlett says: “We’ve covered all angles, definitely."