James Murphy Discusses ‘Shut Up and Play the Hits,’ EDM Craze

The documentary chronicling LCD Soundsystem's last show as a band in 2011 has been receiving critical acclaim during the movie festival season this year. 'Shut Up and Play the Hits' will premiere in movie theaters across the country for one night only on July 18. Band leader James Murphy shared his thoughts on the film before its release.

Speaking to Rolling Stone, Murphy was asked what he learned about himself while watching 'Shut Up and Play the Hits.' The music veteran revealed how some scenes made him weary because of the way he acted, and that he faced the dilemma of keeping them in the final cut or not.

"I mean, to make a movie is different than just living your life," he said. "When you're living your life and you do something, it disappears. Your friend might be like, 'Don't say, don't do that, that's lame.' So you can just maybe not say that next time. But when you're making a movie, if you say something that's embarrassing, you're faced with a very important choice which most human beings never have to make, and that choice is: Edit it out or leave it in?"

The topic of the latest dance music craze in today's music scene was also brought up. Led by dubstep poster boy Skrillex, EDM DJs like deadmau5, Girl Talk, Bassnectar and more have become in demand for concert organizers. While the spotlight on the genre is nice, Murphy despises the financial gain that some hope to take advantage of.

"I don't know if I can stand reading another article in some financial magazine about how there's millions and millions of dollars in electronic dance music and how Best Buy is gonna have a dance music festival with a bunch of people I've never heard of with stupid names," Murphy vented. "There's just this like sudden glut – it's sort of like grunge. There's suddenly all of this money, whereas before the explosion of indie rock, you'd been in a band because you're an idiot and that's what you did. But then you could suddenly make money being in a band, and then everybody was in a band."

He continued: "It used to be that a lot of people didn't make much money DJ-ing. It really was not like a super lucrative career, and a lot of people still don't, but some people really make a lot of money, and the whole game completely changes."