{"id":437587,"date":"2025-09-20T03:13:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T03:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/437587\/"},"modified":"2025-09-20T03:13:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T03:13:12","slug":"james-murphy-on-the-secret-to-lcd-soundsystem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/437587\/","title":{"rendered":"James Murphy on the secret to LCD Soundsystem"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"LCD<\/p>\n

(Credit: Raph PH)<\/p>\n

Fri 19 September 2025 22:00, UK <\/p>\n

When people talk bout the music of New York City<\/a> in the early 2000s, it\u2019s often guitar music and for very good reason. <\/p>\n

The Strokes. Interpol. Yeah Yeah Yeahs are all bands that sprung from that fertile scene that are just as, if not more, relevant today than they were back then. However, something that gets swept under the rug is the dance-punk scene that, at the time, was just as exciting. After all, it was headed up by James Murphy and his solo project LCD Soundsystem, still one of the most exciting bands of their age. <\/p>\n

At the time, Murphy was one of the biggest tastemakers in the city as the head of DFA Records. He spotted The Rapture and tapped them up to release their immortal debut single \u2018House Of Jealous Lovers\u2019 on the label along with several other acts of the era. Eventually, he began to move into making music himself under the name LCD Soundsystem, kicking off with the still-hilarious crisis of cool \u2018Losing My Edge\u2019. Not for nothing was a 22-year-old James Murphy offered a spot in the writer\u2019s room for Seinfeld. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a tired subject today, but everything about James Murphy was unlikely. A 30-something<\/a> sound engineer, who looked like a lumberjack, becoming an indie-rock icon. Not only that, but doing so off the back of smirking, eight-minute-long songs about scene politics and his own personal shortcomings set to whip-smart dance beats and cheese-wire guitars. Yet, James Murphy always had a firm belief in his creative vision that he detailed in an interview with The Guardian from 2010. <\/p>\n

What is the musical philosophy of James Murphy? <\/p>\n

In it, Murphy proves insightful about his own limitations and his own strengths. Which makes sense, after all, not many un-self-aware people become famous off the back of the LCD Soundsystem track \u2018Losing My Edge<\/a>\u2018, a song about not being cool anymore. However, not many people would have discussed it with the frankness and clarity that Murphy talks about here. \u201cThere are some people who are just plain great at making music. That\u2019s not who I am,\u201d He begins. <\/p>\n

He goes on to say, \u201cHowever, I can succeed at making music that works as dumb body music, but that can also meet someone in the middle if they want to investigate our songs in a deeper way. I know the things I can do: I understand music, and I trust my taste. And taste is important.\u201d This is a level of self-awareness that, as I\u2019m sure you have seen on thousands of occasions, basically no rock star has ever had. Yet one that so many can learn from. <\/p>\n

After all, what he\u2019s basically saying is that one should know what you\u2019re good at and what you like, without merely staying in your lane. Comfort zones are there for a reason, for sure. However, by the same token, if a lifelong fan of ska music suddenly starts believing they can make a classic death metal album without ever listening to the genre, that\u2019s not \u201cdaring musical progression,\u201d that\u2019s an ego trip, which leads to something always worth bearing in mind. <\/p>\n

Anyone can make music. If a band like LCD Soundsystem can become one of the biggest bands of their generation with a man who fully believes that he\u2019s not \u201cgreat at making music\u201d at the helm, anyone can. Truly, anyone can make some of the best music of the century. All it takes is a little self-understanding. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credit: Raph PH) Fri 19 September 2025 22:00, UK When people talk bout the music of New York…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":437588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3936],"tags":[77,148221,269,16,15],"class_list":["post-437587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-lcd-soundsystem","tag-music","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115234446022006203","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}