Keith Flint is many things: singer for the Prodigy, dog lover,
the man whose first appearance on British television institution
Top of the Pops scared children and an avid motorcyclist.
What he is not is someone who is shy about stepping forward.
As the English trio kicked off their ongoing world tour for
their fifth album - Invaders Must Die - last September, the
tattooed and peroxided vocalist took to facing down anyone who even
wondered if time and age was catching up with a performer whose
signature track remains the frenetic 1997 hit,
Firestarter.
''Some writers say, 'You're getting on, you're an energy band
known for your show, you're all approaching 40, have you still got
it?','' says Flint, who recently reached that milestone. ''I say to
that member of the press, 'Here's my pass - after the show, you
come and tell me if I've still got it. If you can bring 10 people
who say, 'Listen man, you're showing yourself up and so are the
other guys', then I'll listen.''
A theatrical pause, then: ''No one's come backstage with a bad
word to say.''
Driving to the studio from his historically listed Essex home -
a mock-Tudor house he has restored with his Japanese wife - he's
upbeat but not given to musing. It's more than 20 years since Flint
met Prodigy founder Liam Howlett at a rave and offered to dance in
his live show (Flint's fellow MC Maxim Reality, aka Keith Palmer,
joined in 1992) - and he takes the band seriously.
''How do the new tracks sound? It can only sound one way with
the Prodigy - vicious, banging and, yeah, incites a riot,'' Flint
barks. ''We're always working. It's what we do. With the touring,
it's nice to take our energy from stage and keep the studio
environment bubbling over.''
The Prodigy were last in Australia about a year ago, previewing
the furious hip-hop-derived beats and twisted synths of Invaders
Must Die at the Big Day Out.
Releasing albums so infrequently - their previous title was
Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned in 2004 - the Prodigy
tour each disc extensively. They now return to Melbourne for a
headline show and a key slot on the Future Music Festival after 115
gigs in 30 countries.
''The band is in the best place it's ever been,'' Flint insists.
''All aspects are positive. We've remixed a few of the older tracks
and we're just keeping things fresh for ourselves by making sure
that when a track starts to sit alongside another track, it
provokes a new way of hearing it. In the past three or four shows,
we've remixed [1994's] Their Law, so that's cool for the
crowd and also a buzz for us.''
It wasn't always so harmonious. Rather than Flint and Palmer,
Howlett used various guests on Always Outnumbered, Never
Outgunned, creating a rift that threatened to break up the
trio. At the time, Flint was depressed and indulging heavily in
alcohol and narcotics. He's now clean and sober.
''The band had a fallout of sorts, no more than brothers do, but
we're tighter now than many husbands and wives,'' he says. ''We
realised that what was setting us apart was people who had a
passion for seeing something great crumble. That's where
Invaders Must Die comes from - they were invaders; they were
infiltrating the Prodigy.
''We're very powerful characters and we all have a job to do
that we all do very well,'' Flint says. ''Liam, for example, writes
the music and we're happy to say that he's the main man. We want to
show people that we understand that he writes the music but none of
us doubt our positions.''
For such a distinctive figure, Flint is committed to the group
ethos, peppering his sentences with ''we'', not ''I''. Each of his
answers is about buttressing the group's standing. He's not
boasting, just a true believer.
''Our only reward is the last show we played,'' he says. ''We
tore it up, made all the other bands look silly and we left. That's
it. That's us.''
The Prodigy play their own shows at Horden Pavillion (Sydney) on Wednesday March 3, Hisense Arena (Melbourne) on Thursday March 4 and Newcastle Entertainment Centre on Wednesday March 10. Plus shows at Future Music Festival in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide.