I read that you guys were working on a new album…
Praga Khan: That’s correct, yeah. Yeah, yeah. We’re going to play one of the new songs today and so I needed to come here [USA] to do the tour, to get into the mood to go back into the studio and finish the album. Finally after eight years, it took me eight years, but with Lords of Acid, I need to feel it and that’s why we need to tour in the summer, like with Murv [Douglas, guitarist] and Kirk [Salvador, drummer], and right before I go to the studio now, lets do another tour. So, we’re really into the Lords of Acid atmosphere to go into the studio.
You’ve said that every album is different from the past ones… What is going to be different about this one?
Praga: Yeah, that’s going to be– that’s always been very important for me and I’m not like a composer whose kicking myself, I always try to take it to the next level. I’m also not afraid, when you have something that’s working very well, like just erase it and start again from scratch and that’s what I also wanted to do with the new album. What we’re going to do is like going to involve the newest gear, the newest sounds, the newest techniques, the newest everything because we want to make the album the best Lords of Acid album ever. And most of, like, when I made the albums in the early days, there was a lot of stuff I had to do in between Lords of Acid, Praga Khan, and other stuff. But now, I’m fully concentrated on this Lords of Acid album. So, for me, it’s a must– we’re going to win the Grammy’s with that album!
[To Murv Douglas, guitarist] Are you involved in the new album, or are you just touring?
Murv Douglas: How do I answer that… Like, the album isn’t even written yet… (laughs)
Well, will you be involved in it?
Murv: So far, you know, it’s been, you know, doing the tours and talking about music and ideas and concepts. And you know, we keep hearing ideas from him [Praga Khan], and we’re like, “This is cool.” And then we think, “How are we going to play this live?” We figure it out. But as far as my involvement in the new album…No, neither is he [Praga], there’s no album yet… (laughs)
Praga Khan: The thing is, that when we play new songs like today, like he’s adding his own stuff on top of it and that gives me inspiration and also Mea [Fisher, vocalist], is doing extremely well on this tour, and she’s an amazing singer. She’s an amazing performer, she’s a great individual, she’s the right personality. She knows how to work the crowd. She knows how to be the front-lady of Lords of Acid, she’s born for it. And she’s also, the good thing about her, is also that she’s also DJ Mea, so she has this connection with the dance community, and for Lords of Acid, that’s very important. We have– it’s always been like a dance kind of band, but with rock influences, and she perfectly fits into that. She’s like a DJ, she loves dance music, but she’s also a rock chick on stage, (laughs) and she’s also a great singer!
Yeah, I was going to ask later in the interview, how have the fans been accepting her, as this is her first tour with Lords of Acid?
Murv: So far the fans have been really ecstatic. Like, yesterday, we were talking at the merch booth to a bunch of people, and all the fans want to do is have fun and party.. What’s so important about that for us, is that’s the whole point, is to have fun and to party. And so if they come up to us and go, “Lets go party! Lets have fun!” We feel like we’ve done our job. They all want to take pictures, (laughs) they all want to get naked, they all want hugs. And that’s fine! That’s the whole point. So for us, that’s exactly what we want.
Praga: It’s good music and having a great time, but the music is extremely important, you know? It’s really– the new album, it’s going to be the next big thing that people want to hear, you know? It’s totally different from anything else, and that’s what we need.
Your lyrics have always been provocative to say the least and always it’s been like a blunt sexuality in it or it could have a complete different meaning with how you look at it–
Praga: We always want, for us it was always important to have the humor in there because you think about sex, there’s nothing wrong with singing about sex, because at the end of the day, everybody’s having sex. It’s probably the only thing we all have in common that we are doing once in a while, you know? (laughs) We’re not all Christians, we’re not all devil worshippers, or Mormons, but we all have sex, you know? And I don’t see a point of why we cannot sing about it. But we sing about it in a funny way…
It’s like a tongue in cheek humor kind of thing, and that’s how we can get away with it because the thing is, take example to the song Pussy, there’s nothing wrong with some pussy, you know? Like, you have a 5-year-old daughter, you can play the song Pussy to your five-year-old daughter because she will think that it’s a funny song about pussy, a cat… And there’s nothing wrong with the lyrics. And the thing is that once you’re getting older, your mind is also twisting, and then it becomes sexual, you know?
A good example is The Crablouse. It’s like, who sings a song about crablouse, you know? We do! But when you listen to the lyrics, it’s such a funny story, it’s about a crablouse, the adventure of a crablouse, you know? What’s happening, ok you’re having sex and then the whole story– a rubber doll… Like, singing about a guy who’s taking his doll because he doesn’t want his girlfriend anymore because his doll, she’s so much more easy, doesn’t complain, she’s always there. So, he takes her to meet her parents and stuff like that. (laughs)
So, it’s very fun. And doing that, it also allows us to play all ages shows over the years. There’s a lot of bands who try to copy Lords of Acid, but the most important thing they forgot to copy was the humor! Because when you don’t copy the humor, then it becomes extremely perverted, you know? And that’s something they don’t have.
Murv: Yeah, we’re not really perverse at all. I think it’s, the perversity is in the minds of the crowd, but not us. We’re just telling jokes, having fun.
Praga: It’s sexy, it’s sexy. And also, the music is very sexy, but it’s also about having a good time. What’s wrong with having sex? As long as, the thing is, I don’t sing about adults having sex with children or stuff like that, you know, not these perverted things, you know? I’m extremely against it, but like a healthy sex life, what could be wrong with that?(laughs)
You guys have pushed the limits with your music and have opened doors and paved the ways for several other artists, how does that make you feel? Even with all of the copy cat bands out there?
Praga: Yeah, it gives me a good feeling because of so many people, especially when you tour, and Murv, he also knows how to– there’s a lot of bands, like local opening bands that say, “Ah, you’re such an inspiration for me all over the years.” And that’s important, you know? Like, I don’t want to be the “grandfather” of techno, but I want to be the Godfather of techno, that’s better, I think. Because the thing is, most people tell me, “Oh, you’ve been doing this for so long!” Well, I can tell you, when I was sixteen-years-old, no– when I was eight-years-old, the first album I ever bought when I was eight-years-old, was Alice Cooper. The second album was KISS. They’re still touring! And I was eight-years-old and I started to make music when I was 25 and they’re still around…
Like, a couple of weeks ago, I was in Brussels [Belgium], and there’s a café and it also has like a concert venue, and we also had a meeting in the café and I was asking the guy behind the bar who’s performing tonight? He said, “Lou Reed [The Velvet Underground]” I remember that I went to a concert, that was one of the first concerts I ever went to, it must’ve been like, I think 1978 or 79 in Brussels. And there was this thing going on, “Oh Lou Reed is never going to make it to the stage because he’s going to die and he’s in such a bad condition.”
And now we’re like thirty or forty years later, Lou Reed’s still performing, you know? (laughs) Rock ‘n Roll never dies. And it’s all in the brain, how old you are… I’ve been talking to people from twenty-five-years-old, when I talk to them, it feels like they’re sixty-years-old. And I’ve been talking to people from sixty-years-old, they feel like they’re twenty-five. It’s all in the brain.
When you create your music, how do you make it seem dynamic and alive?
Murv: I think it has a lot to do with perspective and the payoff. Like, if the song is going somewhere, and this is just my personal opinion, a lot of people have a lot of different opinions. But like, I think when the song’s going somewhere eventually– a lot of bands write melodies or riffs that have sort of a raising action, right? And it’s sort of like, as an audience member, you want to hear the answer. Here’s the question, is this the answer? And so I think if you can go resolve to a note that, “Ok, that’s the note I was waiting to hear.” And if you can sing the right words “Oh, that’s what I was waiting on them to say.”
The audience– you’re watching going, “Where is this going? Oh…Oh…OHHH, there it is!” And I think that’s what I think about it, I think that’s what you think about it. When you listen to a song, listen to other bands play, it’s like, “I hope they go…” You know where you want it to go… And that’s what writing music and performance is all about, taking it where you want it to go, and making sure it gets somewhere. And everything else is just the delivery at that point. But I think it’s fairly easy if you think of it that way…
But as far as making it dynamic and alive, I think… That is the dynamic– you could– I mean, you could sing a few lines over it, and then all of a sudden, you’re like a tambourine… [mimics sound] “chikachickachickachicka” and suddenly it just came to life, right? You planned that one moment, to tap at the right time, and I think that makes a song listenable and exciting.
Praga: Yeah, you’re absolutely right. He’s my guru…
A lot of bands, they want their fans to feel the iciness or fire through their music, like black metal does… What do you guys want your fans to feel through your music?
Murv: Fun. Sexy.
Praga: Naughty.
Murv: Naughty… Like, I think the music– just as music without all this noise is pretty, at the end of the day has to sound nice. But the message and the swagger, you know, that makes all the difference in the world… It’s not rocket science. It’s just, a lot of musicians make it into rocket science, they add fifteen billion layers and they just keep going and they never change throughout the song, or they do change, and it’s too many changes. the body doesn’t understand, “What is all this stuff I’m hearing?! Get this out of my ear! I’m trying to listen to the vocals…” You know? I think if you just respect the music and respect the focus. And I think we do the same thing on stage, we respect the focus. Like, she’s singing now, we’re not all going to go crazy.
Praga: And it’s also the most difficult thing in the world, is when you’re– like I did a lot of productions work in my life… It’s like when you’re in the studio, to keep things simple. That’s extremely difficult because everything, what you put on there, it all sounds amazing, but the more, it also becomes more and more, you kill the song. And then when you leave things off and it opens it again, but there’s not many bands who understand that.
It’s– sometimes I’m listening to bands and I’m thinking to myself, “There’s like twenty songs running at the same time in the moment!” And that’s really important, to give everything, the bass, the keyboard line, the drums, or the vocals, give it their place in the song, give them their moment of glory. That’s important.
When you’re writing your music also, whether it be the lyrics, the beats, the melodies… How do you feel that you’re connected to it and how do you let the energy of what’s in your mind play out into what you’re writing?
Murv: I think it’s, I think it’s very easy to with start something good, you know? Like if you take– the hard part is finding that one thing that means something to you, even though it means something to you. Like, for me, music means a lot to me, so you can write a song about it. What else means a lot to me? Driving to rehearsal. It’s easy to write a song about driving, how upset you are, right? It’s easy to sum that up, say I hate driving.. Like, right there, “I hate driving.” There’s a message… “I hate driving!” Just keep saying it until the rest of the music sort of builds itself.
Or sometimes, you have a beat in your head. Like, you [to Praga] would tell me once, I asked you when we first met, “How do you go about writing music, what do you start with? Start with the vocals, the lines, the drums…?” He said, “You know, it just depends on what the point is, what the look is, what the purpose is, and you start with what you are inspired by.” And you didn’t say this, but I imagined that you just build around that lightly, because that’s the point. You don’t want to cover that point up, which is something else, you don’t want someone to be singing that point while this point is trying to get in.
Like, you don’t do a lead guitar and a vocal at the same time. You do one and then it stops, then you do the other, and then it stops, and you make it switch off. I think that the feeling that causes all of that, can be very simple. Usually it’s more intense emotions than that. Like, I’m feeling upset. I’m feeling happy. I’m feeling horny. (laughs) Or I have a joke in mind. And I don’t know, is this in line with what you think? Like, I really feel that this part is easy if you let it be. You should let it. Allowing it and letting it is the hard part.
Like, I had a dream once… Someone’s like, “How do you write songs?” And I’ve written a lot of songs in my life, but I feel like anybody can. And I’ve talked to people, they’re like, “well talk to me, I could never write…” I’m like, “What are you talking about?! Yes you can!”
I had a dream once, I was dreaming my band was going to go on stage and we were playing and we suck. My instrument’s broken and everything’s bad, right. The band that’s on stage that I’m watching is great. They’re great! It’s the best song, I’ve never heard anything like this in my life, and I wake up, and I steal that song. It was in my dream, it was mine…(laughs) So, I wrote a song without even having to try just based on purely, emotionally that I wanted to hear. So anybody can–
Praga: Yeah, the thing is that, the same thing is extremely important. You don’t even have to be a musician to write a song because– it’s true, it has nothing to do with each other. I’ve been working with the best musicians in the world. Like (inaudible name, sounds like “Dilanchi”), the girl who’s always with Eric Clapton and all of that. She’s an amazing musician, amazing. But she cannot write songs. It’s impossible for her because she’s a machine. Because she’s been a “concertorium” like, where you study music, like robots, you know?
She can play like two sequences at the same time, which is impossible to do, but extremely easy for her, but don’t ask her to write a song. Because a song, I can write– the thing is you can sing a song. It’s like, “Ok…” I can make up a song in no time (starts singing) “How does it feel to be na na na na na nooooooo….” Ok, that’s a song. I don’t play it, but I sing it and at the end of the day, most of the time, the vocal line is the most important thing. And you don’t need to be a musician to come up with a great vocal line.
You sing something, it sounds amazing, and you have the right lyrics to it, then you can have the best musicians surrounding you, and it doesn’t matter because the song has to be so good that when you take just like an acoustic guitar, you can still play the song, you know? It’s got to be the same song… You have like a dog playing a harmonica, it’s the same song. It’s like, two different things: songwriting [and] musicians, two different things, completely.
And also in the studio, there’s a lot of people in the studio who don’t even know what music is all about, they cannot read music… But most of the time, because they cannot read music or they don’t have to deal with the rules in music, they make the most crazy things! Because (inaudible name sounds like “Dilanchi”) will never do it because, like when you play music, it’s also a little bit nuts you know, like with the mathematics. She will never do something that is out of control because they learn to be like everything used to be right all the time and everything structured.
And that’s when these young kids come in with these crazy programs and they start programming the most crazy shit. And it’s amazing because they’re not musicians, they’re like computer freaks. But, I tell you… Black Eyed Peas…you don’t need to be a musician to make the Black Eyed Peas or Lady Gaga. You don’t need to be a musician to make that music. Very easy program. But yeah, there are the vocal lines, it’s easy to sing along, everybody remembers it. But it’s up to different things.
And also, I tell you, one last thing about it, we sometimes have young singers and then there’s people who take these singers in the studio, in their studio; they put on a beat and I ask them, “Can you sing something on top of it?” Ok, they start singing something on top of it… And then they register the song under their name, the producers. It’s not their songs. It’s that little girl or the crazy kid that came in with that vocal line, that’s the song, you know?! And they say, “Yeah, we will give them the lyrics,” but it’s not only the lyrics because they’re signing the melody, it’s the music, it’s everything.
How would you describe your journey you’ve taken through music?
Praga: Journey? The thing is, is that I’ve, I can only talk for myself of course, but I’ve been always extremely open-minded when it comes down to music, and it’s also very extremely important because when I was like a kid, it was, in those days, it was like mutts, and this was like at the “Mutt and D-Rex,” the glam rock, you know? Ok, I enjoyed it a lot and then there was punk and rock. I love punk, I love rock, then there was new wave, there was a lot of stuff with new wave that I really liked, then there was techno coming out, I love techno. I love Korn, I love Red Hot Chili Peppers, I love Lady Gaga.
The thing is, that looking back and when I talk to people who are my age and I know when we were young, they’re still listening to the same shit! For the last forty years! And then I told them, “There’s been so much that’s been going on and you all missed it! You missed new wave, you missed punk, you missed it all because you’re still listening to Genesis or you’re still listening to Yes or these bands…” But they listen to it and then for the rest of their lives, they keep listening to that same collection! And whatever happens, they just don’t give a shit, they just don’t care!
Murv: That’s when they get old.
Praga: Yeah, and then you meet them like forty years later, “I was listening to this yesterday…” And I go, “You’re still listening to that shit man?! It’s so long ago, everything’s changed!” You know? There’s a whole new world out there… (laughs) It’s like that. And that’s why it’s important to be open minded and also like with Lords of Acid, we were extremely open minded with our music, that’s how come that we have– now everybody’s talking about dub step, ok. Listen to Voodoo U, 1994, that’s dub step! On Voodoo U, there was Marijuana in Your Brain, that’s rave…
But the thing is, because we have this humor and this open view, we can do whatever we want. Like, when you listen to the new song we have now, it’s extremely funny, but also very edgy, also music-wise, extremely, on top of what’s happening now, latest programming, latest everything… You cannot do it when you’re like only, it sounds extremely Spinal Tap, like when you have these guys… I would never-ever do.
Like, I was working for Mick Jagger. This guy, he’s making– because of Rick Rubin, I was working in LA [Los Angeles]… Rick Rubin, he said to me, “Yeah, you have to come down to Downtown LA because an artist who is working there wants to meet you… Mick Jagger.” “Ok.” And then Rick Rubin, he played one of my songs, but a very, very, very loud techno song.. And I was standing here and Mick Jagger was standing there… Rick Rubin, he was like bumping it up and Mick Jagger, he was like, recording a very sentimental song at that moment. So we stopped the recording and Rick Rubin said, “Come and listen!” Jagger was behind the desk with all that noise! But he was very polite, but he said to me, “Mmmm….This is going too far for me.”
But at that moment, I’m thinking to myself, “Ok, you’re a rock band, I remember 1974, the first time ever I went to London and at that moment, it was a comeback of the Rolling Stones. 1974. Now they’re still making the same shit, you know?! I could never-ever do it because then it feels like a zombie. It’s like you’re never going to die and you’ll always make the same song over and over and over and over again. That’s something that I cannot understand, I just can’t understand it, although I have a lot of respect for these guys. There’s people like Madonna, David Bowie, I respect them more because they take challenges, you know? They know what’s happening, they’re living in this world.
What part of your journey has been the most enlightening?
Praga: There was this one moment that we were in the studio with Rick Rubin and then everybody was phoning me and Perry Farrell [Janes Addiction], I didn’t even know who it was… “Yeah, this is Perry Farrell, I want to congratulate you with your album!” And there was Flea [Red Hot Chili Peppers] on the phone. There were all of these people that phoned me, but I was sitting like a complete idiot in Belgium in my living room watching Dallas on TV or something like that and all of these famous rockstars (laughs) phoning me from LA telling me how amazing the album was! But I didn’t really realize, you know? I listen to it now, I can understand because it was like, how do you say…
Murv: It was new.
Praga: Yeah, ahead of it’s time, you know? It was like, we were the first band to do a combination of the dance and the rock guitars and all of that. That was quite an experience. And there was this one time, it was the only moment that I had it in my career that I was in dance music that I launched a trend, like a world trend.
It’s a strange story because I was living in London, I was living in Belgium, then I had a bet, I made a bet with a guy from the record company in Belgium. I said, “I will make sure that I have a hit in six months from now. Six months from now I will have a Top 40 hit in London.” He said, “Well, you’re never going to make it.” I said, “I will.” Ok, I moved to London and I went clubbing all the time… Clubbing, clubbing, clubbing, clubbing, you know? To get into the vibe. And a certain moment, there was this guy, he had– his name was Chucky, and he was a famous DJ in Heaven, it’s a very famous club in London, and I was talking to him behind the DJ booth, and I said to him, “Chucky, I don’t experiment a lot with drugs because I’m quite a coward when it comes down to taking drugs because I am always afraid of going to put something strange in my body and I’m going to die or something.”
So, I said to Chucky, “This ecstasy thing, so what does it actually do to people? He said, I’ll show you.” And he put it on, like a very, very heavy electronic body music track, like (mimics sound) “boom, boom, boom, dun, dun, dun, dun, do, do, do, do,” and the club was like all deep, dark. And then, he said, “Watch what’s happening now,” and then he launched and rose everybody off their feet, there was piano coming out (mimics sound) “doo, doo, doo, dun, dun-dun-dun, dun… Everybody scream!!!” And the audience, they all went crazy! They were coming out of this dark field into this piano thing and they all put their hands up in the air and I said, “This all is fucking great! That’s what I’m going to do with my new record.” And then I made the new record and it was under the name, Digital Orgasm. The record was running out of time, so it was an extremely heavy record with an extremely happy chorus!
So, it came out and it sold, I think, in the first week, it sold 240,000 copies. And everybody was like crazy about that record! And then in a split second, it was like everybody was doing that! Prodigy started doing that, Moby started doing that, everybody was like copying! I started copying myself at that moment because I injected it with a poison, it was like the same formula, (mimics sound) “dun, dun, dun, dun, duh” and then the piano, “ahhhhh”
So it was like a hit formula! It really worked, it had everything to do with ecstasy! And that was like one of the moments that I was thinking to myself, this is– now I changed like the whole scene, you know? With an idea that came from, ok, a DJ, he showed me, but he didn’t do it, but he showed me what ecstasy was all about. But I translated it into my own music, that was amazing! But that was awesome. We went on top of the books, we went on everything with that crazy record! It was really strange.
What about you [to Murv], how would you describe your musical journey?
Murv: After that story?! You know, it’s funny when he said about being open-minded, because I have this theory, that I should say “yes” to everything. Somebody offers me something to do, they want to work with me musically– they want to have a studio that we were rehearsing at, with an amazing recording set up, and anytime anyone wants to do anything, I always say, “Yes, sure!” And what I’ve found is that 9/10’s of the time, I overbook myself, I go “Yes, I’ll do that. I’ll do that. I’ll do that. I’ll do that.”
I have to go to a different job that is totally unrelated to that too. And a lot of people cancel, right? And then the one that’s left, I end up going with, and it’s like, I’m glad I said yes. Even though I had something else booked, it was like, I’m glad. And I think my journey has been being totally open to everything, it comes across as, “I’ll try that. I’ll try that. I’ll try that.” You know? And then, the people I meet as a result, are really cool.
Praga: Murv is also, he’s like also, someone who is really open for– he has an open view for music and that’s important, you know? Because you can only take that next step when you’re not narrow minded, because when you’re narrow minded, you can never get to that next level. Like, the next big level because you’re going to be blocked and narrow minded or, “hey, it’s my world!” I know a lot of bands who are like doing, also in electronic music, like they’re doing an album, and then it works and then the year after that, they do another album, the same, because it works, you know? “Lets do other merchandise. Lets make different t-shirts, but lets make the same album.” One year later, it’s the same thing! They keep going on like that for ages. I cannot do it! Because then you’re narrow minded. And that’s the good thing also about Murv, he’s open minded and then when you’re open minded. It’s not that weird that we’re coming from the electro scene that we’re listening to Korn or to Nirvana or whatever, you know?
Murv: I agree, that’s so important because when you go to the studio, like you write your song in advanced. You write it at home, in your bed with your guitar, keyboard, or whatever, right? You get to the studio and record that, you listen to it and go, “I have to change it, I have to start over.” And I might forget the guitar, replace it with a pin-dropping sound, or I’m going to replace it with another sound because I can already hear– unless you’re like into your thing and stuck on it, that’s a lot of people I feel have that problem…
Praga: The thing is, I had an argument with a guy once on TV in Holland. Like, you know, there’s a lot of guys who are a big fan of themselves, like they don’t have a lot of fans, but they’re their biggest fan. (laughs) But this guy, and he said to me, he said– I was telling him about being open minded, listening to other people, blah blah blah… He said, “I don’t listen to other bands. I’m not influenced by nothing!” [Praga Khan] “Ok… Great… You have a TV?” [He says], “Yeah.” [Praga], “Do you go to the supermarket? Do you listen to the radio?”
You go to the supermarket, there’s a song playing through the speakers, you know. When you put on your car radio, there’s music coming out, you’re always influenced, you know! If you don’t want to be influenced, you have to put things in your ear and shut off from the world and then you can say, “I’m not influenced” But don’t go out, don’t go to a shop, don’t listen to the radio, don’t watch TV, don’t listen to the birds. You’re always influenced. Of course you’re influenced.
Murv: I think it’s really important when you record– someone records themselves, and then they don’t like they hear, you need to be honest with yourself, right? You don’t like what you hear and you go– and then you’re in that zone where like, if you’re in the crowd and you’re listening to a song and you go, “I know where this should have gone.” And the band didn’t do that, when they should’ve done it right after that note, right? And you can do the same thing with yourself! Like, “You know I should’ve gone– Ok, not I get it. Now I know that’s the wrong sound, I’ll use this sound.” And it’s like, once you start, I think the hardest part is people starting. But starting is easy, you just come up with something and you lay it down, and see what happens, and then go, “No…” And I’ll fix that. You fix it! You fix it!! You can fix it, you know?
Praga: There’s nothing wrong with being influenced, there’s nothing wrong. The only thing that is wrong is like to copy people, that’s wrong. I had this thing going on with The Chemical Brothers, with [the song]Hey Boy, Hey Girl, which is a complete rip off from I Sit On Acid and I had this argument with them backstage at a festival in Europe and he said, “Yeah, yeah, I got influenced. We all get influenced.” I said, “Ok, I don’t have a problem with being influenced, but like, a rip off, that’s not being influenced, that’s stealing!” That’s something else. I don’t have a problem with influences, of course you can listen to it, I can learn from anybody, but you don’t do an exact copy. You cannot do that because that is stealing. That’s something else.
What you said in your last answer was interesting… How do you know when a song is ready to be released as a track?
Murv: I say that it’s never ready, but at some point, it’s right. You know, it doesn’t have to be perfect you know? It’s like you can always go back and redo it, redo it, and redo it. A new piece of recording gear, a new microphone came in; I can use that mic and redo this again. But, you know, I think in your mind you have to have like, there’s some elements I need to have in this song, I know this song needs certain elements, it needs to go a certain place and not take too long, or maybe take a long time to get there, who knows. But you have to have a plan of like, after you started, like it’s really easy to critique the sound once you’ve started.
Once you start making a song, it’s very easy for everyone to go, “Well, here’s what it should be.” And that’s what you do, “Here’s what it should be.” And when you get that, “It is what is should be.” You listen to it again and go, “You know what, that’s good. It’s not perfect, I missed a note here… There’s one thing… I don’t care, it feels nice! And I’m going to leave it and it’s done.”
I don’t know, that’s just me and I’m not– I haven’t done any major personal releases, I’d like to hear what he has to say about that, but I think you get to a point where you go, “This is good. I like it. It makes me happy. We’re going to move on.” And then, you may find later, “You know what, I’m not going to use this song. (laughs) We’re going to use these other songs!” But without doing that song, you wouldn’t have done those other songs. So, it’s like, I think it’s done when it feels good.
What do you think? [To Praga Khan]
Praga: Yeah, it’s exactly the same, it’s never finished because when you lsiten to it, like two minutes after you finished it, you’re going to say, “Aww, shit.” But you can work for the rest of your life on that one song, and it’s also, like, most of the time, a good song, you make it in no time.. And you have a song and you’re working on it. “Ok, it’s good. But it’s not good enough.” You’re working, working, working, working, working, and it goes like, 
“ewww….” And you know what you have to do, just throw it away.Start from scratch.
Murv: You know what, I heard someone say, and I forget who it was, but what’s the producer’s joke. What is the cure for a shitty sounding snare drum? And the answer is a hit-single. (laughs) It doesn’t matter if it sounds like shit if it’s a hit, you know?
