Audio LCD Soundsystem
North American
Scum Podcast RSS The Exclusive MP3.com
Interview Podcast

For James Murphy, what started as a few remixes and 12-inches turned into the movement that keeps on ticking.

The LCD Soundsystem frontman had long been toiling away in a variety of bands before he and Mo' Wax co-founder Tim Goldsworthy launched DFA Records in 2001 with a few electro-fueled, punk-disco singles that turned heads and filled dance floors.

Now Murphy is set to kick off a lengthy North American tour in support of his second LCD Soundsystem album, North American Scum, a record chock full of tracks that feature Murphy's deadpan, almost monotone vocals--equal parts sardonic and ecstatic in tone--over an array of electro beats that draw from everything from Krautrock to acid house.

Before heading out on tour, which kicks off at Coachella later this month, Murphy chatted with MP3.com about the new record, the need for both isolation and normality to retain sanity, and his desire to eventually build a DFA studio on a farm in northeaster Pennsylvania.

Hey James, how's it going? I am sitting in an office now on a very nice looking leather chair. Wow, leather, huh? Yeah. I think it's leather, or it's pleather. Stepped up to the big time. Yeah. Stepped up to the big time with my pleather. Sweet. Let's talk about the album. When did you begin the process of writing and recording? Was this a long time in the making? No, some of the songs were kind of just floating around in my head for a little while. But the recording began in earnest in April, about a year ago. I worked on it for about five weeks, but it was broken up a little bit, I went to South America for a couple of gigs. But I worked for about five weeks in the spring and then worked again for about five weeks in the fall, I took the summer to do a couple of remixes, did a DJ tour, did the [iTunes-only] "45:33" track for Nike and then came back and finished the album. Is it the kind of thing that you like to build in some of the breaks on purpose to kind of put your mind in other places for a little while? Yeah, this was a bigger break that I had expected, but yeah, I do like to build in time off from things any time I can. It's a luxury that you often can't afford, you know, because you're busy and sh** has to get done. But, I do like having a little perspective to re-think about it, especially since I was definitely stressed out for the first half, which was up at a farm. I was a little isolated and stressed. And the second half I did in New York and I was in a really good headspace.

But making a record is incredibly nerve-racking for me. I put a lot of pressure on myself. Sometimes the pressure is good because you're not taking it lightly. But on the other hand it's sometimes the rattling monkey in your head that goes, 'This sucks, this sucks, this sucks,' and you start second guessing yourself. To take a break from that is really helpful. Gives you a little perspective. Yes. You've expanded the sonic palette a bit on this record. Did you consciously set out to go in some different directions? Yes. I did the first record and I'd already done some 12-inches, which you can be really focused on and just put all your energy into one or two songs. And then I was doing remixes, you put all this energy into one song and you don't have to write it. When I did the album I kind of left the songs alone, the first album. When I listened to it later on, I feel like I kind of didn't use a lot of the production stuff that I normally use, on purpose. I kind of tried to leave it be a bit.

And this time I wanted to kind of integrate the two because I didn't have a second disk of 12s you know, to include with it. So I wanted to kind of integrate like, the remixes and the 12s into the album a little bit more and like, push the production a little bit farther. So I did it in two phases. I did one half or so [of each song] at the farm, where I had done the whole album at last time. And then the other half I did in DFA, which is where I do the 12s and the remixes. Where's the farm? Western Massachusetts. Are you originally from up there? My family's all from up there. But that's not why I did it. I went there simply because of the studio. It's a farmhouse with just a farmhouse and a barn studio. There are two studios and I like the farmhouse. And they cook for you, and they're incredibly sweet. It's like, a really good experience. It's nice, you know, you wake up and all you have to do is go to the studio which is in the next room. Which is a very different experience than being in New York and you're running a label and you're distracted and all that. I mean, in New York, I wake up at my house, which I love to be at with my dog and my wife and it's hard to get up the energy to leave it. But my next step is to somehow build a studio where I live. Balance those two things. Yeah, the studio, because I like to go to work in the studio for 3 or 4 hours and then go hang out with my wife for an hour, and you know, sit outside and have coffee. When you've been working for a long time you have that moment where you want to just appreciate the day, you know, and you can do that for forty minutes. Whereas if you're working all day in the studio in the basement, and then you know, the only thing you can do is go up to the office. I wind up not really enjoying things quite as much. Yeah, I can imagine it's a little hard to find that balance between the isolation that you kind of want to achieve a little bit with the work, but also the isolation brings a whole bunch of other issues like you said earlier, it brings a little extra stress. That you can't distract yourself. That you can't you know, go for a walk with the dog or hang out with the wife, or just do regular old stuff. But that's next. I would love to have a farm. That would really make me happy. I'd love DFA to have a farm studio. That'd be cool. Yeah. Of our own, Yeah. Would you want it in western Massachusetts? Northeastern Pennsylvania. Oh, okay. Not far from New York but far enough away. Exactly. Gotcha. I wanted to ask you--there was a lot of buzz last month about your talk of possibly hitting No. 1 on the Billboard charts. The Billboard numbers were so low, Dreamgirls was at the top with like 66,000, and you thought, what if everyone that bought the record--around 65,000--bought the new one all in the same week? Yeah, it was more just funny than anything. But I like to talk about these things and I like to take them seriously. I didn't try by taking on ads and doing all that sort of stuff, I just was curious to see what would happen if you actually just talked to people about it, kind of openly. You know, yeah, that's what's interesting to me, you know, I like the sociological experiment of involved in being in a band. That was the fun part. When I saw the sales numbers then, I was like, 'I could do that.' Obviously it keeps you fed and it keeps the work coming in, but how important are record sales to you? They're not. And here's the thing, I have to kind of keep a balance of it, because on the one hand, this isn't really how I make my living. I'm lucky, I have several ways that I survive, I DJ and I produce and I have a label, you know? It allows me to act kind of with impunity in any direction, because nothing is my whole life. Like, if the band fell apart tomorrow I'm fine, I'd go DJing and do remixes and I'd make more money. And if I can't ever DJ again it's okay, I can keep producing. You know what I mean? It allows me not to be compromised, because I'm not like, looking at my wife and saying, 'I'm really sorry honey, I can't do this, we're f***ed.'" I'm never forced between those type of things.

On the one hand, I prefer not to sell a lot of records. I enjoy riding the subway, I enjoy being pretty anonymous in the city filled with much more famous people. I just enjoy it, and I like going to record stores. I like going to like, dance music stores, and maybe someone behind the counter knows who we are, but is not like real freaked out about it, and is totally cool. I kind of get to feel like we're colleagues and we can talk about records and they can recommend things. And I like that experience, you know what I mean? I like the life that I have right now, I think is really, you know, nice and balanced and stuff. And I wouldn't want to get rid of that. Sure, yeah, a sense of relative anonymity. Yeah. But on the other hand, one of the reasons I tried to not just be a boutique thing, and one of the reasons I signed to EMI and have tried to be a pop artist is because, when I was growing up and music was kind of dire at times, you'd get things like Laurie Anderson, you'd see her in the old Superman or on TV. And it gave me hope, and it was really kind of exciting.

I would like to at least make an attempt providing some form of alternative, or hope to like, you know, suburban kids. And you don't get to suburban kids simply by being the press darling, by simply being the cool guy. You get to them by being kind of pop, by being on the radio once. So, I'm interested in that but other than that, it doesn't really do anything for my ego, I don't feel better about myself. I'm married to a better-looking woman than I ever should be married to, so I'm good. Call it a day. Yeah. I'm happy. So you have a tour coming up. What will the setup be this time? Similar to the past, we'll have my friend Matt who's our tech and plays on half the songs, as well as an extra person. But it's pretty much the same. Phil Mossman had to beg out for this tour, he's got daddy duties. And Tyler Pope, the bass player had to beg out because !!! put that record out about the same time. So we have different people playing those two positions, but otherwise it's pretty much the same. Okay. And then you're off to do the European festival circuit this summer? Yeah. We've done that for the past five years. What's that like? Some of them are really fun. Some of them are really grueling. Some of them suck, it really just depends on the festival. But we have pretty good [time] slots, and I've been really careful about making sure we don't have crazy long drives and make sure we have good slots in the festival so that we're not like, you know, playing at noon. Yeah, it makes sense with that many dates. Okay, is there anything else on your plate with the touring, the album, the singles, the label? I'm trying to make new songs, new dance music for every single, because I didn't want to just put out old stuff because the record's been sitting there. I'm working on a song today, and I just continue to make music because I feel like I'm on a pretty good roll. So, I'm really happy about stuff. So we'll see, the next year should be good. I'm kind of excited to start putting records together faster. Gotcha. Well, James, we really appreciate the time. Best of luck on the US tour and the European festival craziness and we'll talk to you again soon. Thank you. All right, take care man.