On the eve of their last-ever gig, MTV News unearths our last interview with James Murphy, who was already contemplating hanging it up.
By James Montgomery, with reporting by Christopher "C.J." Smith
LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy in 2007
Photo: MTV News
In February, James Murphy announced that he'd be retiring his LCD Soundsystem project with a massive three-hour show at New York's Madison Square Garden. Of course, following that announcement — and the subsequent pre-sale debacle, which saw scalpers snatch up tickets to such a degree that fans were left empty-handed — Murphy also decided to play a run of four shows at another venue, Terminal 5 (or, as he put it, "F--- you, scalpers"), in the days leading up to that MSG show.
And now, having run through those shows — which, according to anyone who managed to get a ticket, ranged between "revelatory" and "holy sh--, LCD were so good I seriously had an aneurism" — Murphy and his band are gearing up for that MSG gig, their honest-to-goodness last show ever, set for Saturday.
So, with Murphy preparing to wave goodbye, MTV News decided to take a look back at our last interview with him, which took place in June 2007 at his DFA studio just as he was gearing up to release LCD's second album, Sound of Silver. And, as is always the case any time Murphy sat down in front of our cameras, he was candid, charming and — most of all — self-effacing.
"I really wanted to make the same record again; legally, though, it had to be different songs," he said of Silver. "So, basically, this new one is nine songs [all the] same thing. There's almost like a parallel to each song on the first record. I don't know if people will like it. I don't care."
Of course, people did (they liked the follow-up, 2010's This Is Happening, too), but at the time, Murphy wasn't exactly worried about what people would think of his albums; he was more concerned with trying to balance the load that comes with fame.
"I'd like to make a bunch of albums. ... I'm 37, so I'm going to have to tour less to do that. I'm already old. I don't want to be 'old dude,' " he smiled. "I just like being a person. Going to dinner, going to work, having kids, that kind of stuff. I just want to figure out how to be what I am — how to be DFA guy and LCD guy — in a way I find pleasing. I kind of think people don't know what they're doing. Maybe I have to work on my ringtones or something."
And somewhat inevitably, the conversation finally turned to the very future of LCD itself. And, somewhat tellingly, nearly four years before he'd officially announce that MSG show, Murphy was already making plans to retire the mantle altogether — though, as for what would replace it, he had no ideas. And he was fine with that.
"I think in a lot of ways the band itself, in some ways, it's really simple ... it's just kind of dumb, and it's the same thing over and over to a certain degree, and the guy doesn't sing that well, and ... it seems engaging to me — like, it's something I would like," he said. "I feel like this is a funny thing to do, and it seems kind of missing, so I just kind of keep doing it, until somebody does it better, and then I'll just stop, or I'll just go do something else."
Are you sad to see LCD Soundsystem go? Let us know in the comments.
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