(Credit: Raph PH)
Fri 19 September 2025 22:00, UK
When people talk bout the music of New York City in the early 2000s, it’s often guitar music and for very good reason.
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.
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 ‘House Of Jealous Lovers’ 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 ‘Losing My Edge’. Not for nothing was a 22-year-old James Murphy offered a spot in the writer’s room for Seinfeld.
It’s a tired subject today, but everything about James Murphy was unlikely. A 30-something 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.
What is the musical philosophy of James Murphy?
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 ‘Losing My Edge‘, 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. “There are some people who are just plain great at making music. That’s not who I am,” He begins.
He goes on to say, “However, 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.” This is a level of self-awareness that, as I’m sure you have seen on thousands of occasions, basically no rock star has ever had. Yet one that so many can learn from.
After all, what he’s basically saying is that one should know what you’re 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’s not “daring musical progression,” that’s an ego trip, which leads to something always worth bearing in mind.
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’s not “great at making music” 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.
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