Scum Dancing

James Murphy is a man at the top of his game. LCD Soundsystem’s superb second album, Sound Of Silver – and lead single ‘North American Scum’ – has met with rave critical notices on both sides of the Atlantic, and looks set to eclipse the success of the band’s self-titled debut.

Additionally, Murphy’s stock as a producer and all-round musical trendsetter continues to grow, courtesy of his work with DFA records. All in all, it must be a state of affairs that the NYC groove technician is mightily pleased with.
“Oh yeah, no doubt about it,” says Murphy, down the line from London, where he has just settled down with a cappuccino in a café. “It’s always very pleasing when your work is received well. But you know, for me, the most important appraisal of a record takes place before it’s released. If my friends are into it and enthusiastic about what I’ve done, that’s really all the reassurance and acclaim I need.”
Murphy certainly hasn’t been shy in expressing his commercial ambitions for the album, recently stating that he wants it to reach the American Top 40. Indeed, the album’s progress is being tracked on LCD Soundsystem’s website, courtesy of a humorous, tongue-in-cheek device called the “Sound Of Silver Billboard Chart guerilla takeover monitor/thermometer.”
“I think us being in the Top 40 would be interesting, because it would point out the way that the charts actually work,” explains Murphy. “The reality is that most high ranking chart places are bought, so for us to gatecrash it would be fun. The other aspect of it is that people would then be forced to play us on the radio, which is a whole other area where success is basically paid for. I think for us to be in the mainstream, to be in the charts and on radio, would shake things up in a fascinating way.”
Last year, Murphy took the unusual step of accepting a commission from Nike to write a song. He eventually handed in the track ‘45:33’ (which, as the title suggests, is three quarters-of-an-hour long), an excerpt from which is included as a song on Sound of Silver, under the title ‘Someone Great’. Did he have any reservations about working with Nike?
“I had reservations about working with a company, period,” replies Murphy. “But the thing was, I asked myself the question: ‘Do I not want to work with a company because I believe it’s ethically the wrong thing to do, or because it’s uncool?’ I then drew up a list of conditions, and I decided that if Nike agreed to them, the only reason not to do it would be because I might look uncool.
“The conditions were that it would be one-off piece of music with no creative restrictions, that it wouldn’t be used in any TV or radio advertisements, and that it wouldn’t be explicitly telling people to buy running shoes. Nike agreed to all of them, so I made the decision to do it.”
The Nike commission is further evidence of Murphy’s wide-ranging influence on contemporary music, both with LCD Soundsystem and in his role as producer and label boss with DFA (where his partner is Mo’Wax co-founder Tim Goldsworthy). It must be quite gratifying to have your work reach such a zeitgeist-defining level of success.
“It would be more gratifying if the music I hear when I turn on the radio wasn’t so bad,” laughs Murphy. “I know people have talked about us being influential and cutting edge and so on, but I don’t exactly hear the DFA sound burning up the charts. You hear the occasional pop single that’s a gem, but there’s still as much poor quality music out there as there’s ever been. We haven’t really affected things too much in that sense.”
Murphy and Goldsworthy are known for producing a very particular brand of pulsating dance-rock, but Murphy strikes me as the kind of man who has very wide-ranging musical tastes. Is he a fan of Arcade Fire, for instance?
“I nearly produced that album,” says Murphy, surprisingly. “I went up to visit them in Montreal with my wife, and checked out their studio and hung out. Unfortunately, I was scheduled to do my record at around the same time they were doing Neon Bible. But they’re friends of mine and they’re my favourite band, so we might work together yet.”
Back on a DFA tip, did he and Goldsworthy envision that the label would become such a big deal when they started out?
“We were always very optimistic, actually,” responds Murphy. “We felt that if we could succeed in New York, that things would build very naturally. We were hearing music in the city that we loved, and we just felt, if we’re into it, and our friends are into it, then why won’t everyone else be into it? So it was a matter of putting the work in and then having faith that it would grow from there.”
Prior to meeting Goldsworthy, Murphy had suffered a series of artistic near misses. He played in indie also-rans Falling Man, Pony and Speedking, as well as Sub Pop act Six Finger Satellite (whose guitarist, John McLean, now releases excellent records on DFA under the name The Juan McLean).
Remarkably, in 1992, Murphy just missed out on becoming a writer on Seinfeld, when a trip to LA and a meeting with a friend of a friend saw some material he’d written end up with the show’s producers. Failing to anticipate the show’s success (“I was still just a stupid musician smoking too much pot”), he opted to continue with his music career.
As it turns out, a certain Belfast artist was instrumental in facilitating the first fateful encounter between Murphy and Goldsworthy.
“We met when we were working on a David Holmes record,” reflects Murphy. “It was funny because we probably weren’t two people who you would immediately assume would get on. Tim’s this quiet, thoughtful English guy with a really intelligent take on dance music, and I’m an indie rock dude from the American underground. But we just found that we had this shared aesthetic, and it was a case of finding the band that embodied our ideas. That band turned out to be The Rapture.”
With the LCD Soundsystem/DFA sound recognised as being so cutting edge, does Murphy ever worry that the moment will come when he’s considered passé?
“Tim and I have actually talked about this,” he answers. “I mean, it’s bound to happen. What’s amazing is that we’ve got this far without there being a backlash. It seems like every time something comes along that looks like being the big new musical trend, it gets forgotten about. But like I say, it’s inevitable. Fortunately, we’ve built an underground bunker and filled it with supplies, so that’s where we’ll be when people start turning against us!”
Over the past few years, DFA have attracted interest from artists of just about every description, from mainstream pop stars to left-field dance and rock acts. When Janet Jackson heard the initial vinyl-only release of The Rapture’s ‘House Of Jealous Lovers’, she got in contact with Murphy and Goldsworthy to suggest a collaboration. There was even an abortive recording session with Britney Spears, of which Goldsworthy commented, “With Britney we had absolutely no way of communicating. She didn’t know anything that we knew.”
Last year the duo released two remix compilations, which showcased their work on tracks by artists such as NERD, Gorillaz, Nine Inch Nails and the Chemical Brothers, amongst many others. They were also recently commissioned to rework Justin Timberlake’s US No.1 single, ‘My Love’.
“A lot of those remixes get commissioned out of New York, and we know a lot of people in New York, so it’s not that strange that we’d end up working on a Justin Timberlake song,” says Murphy. “But what was unusual about it was that the guy who asked us to do it said, ‘I want this to sound exactly like a DFA tune.’ Like, he had his own idea in his head of what we sound like, and he made it clear that he didn’t want any deviation from that whatsoever. I mean, you’re basically talking about self-parody. But we didn’t want a bust-up or anything, so we came up with a track that was satisfying to both sides and left it at that.
“We generally enjoy doing remixes. For a start, it’s about the only time that Tim and I get to meet and discuss music these days. But also, you’re playing around with dance music, and dance music is supposed to be fun. So we try to be as adventurous as possible and enjoy the process as much as we can.”
For my money, the only contemporary producers who have matched the DFA for consistent excellence have been The Neptunes.
“Don’t forget Timbaland!” insists Murphy. “I do like The Neptunes, although maybe lately they’ve started to forget about where they started out. I think as a producer and as a musician it’s important to keep in touch with your musical roots. But yeah, they’ve certainly worked on some fantastic tracks over the past few years.”
I conclude by mentioning LCD Soundsytem’s storming set at Electric Picnic a couple of years ago, which was second only to Arcade Fire in its brilliance.
“That was a really fun show,” acknowledges Murphy. “My ancestry actually goes back to County Cork. They were part of the generation that fled from the Famine, which is where the majority of Boston Irish come from. I think we’ll make it over to Ireland a couple of times this year, and hopefully we’ll manage to slot in a DJ set as well. I certainly hope we make the trip, otherwise my family will kick the crap out of me!”
Sound Of Silver is out now on EMI.