“All of a sudden I got asked to play shows in England,” Murphy tells Spinner. “It was supposed to be a one-off thing where we were going to play weird stuff and never really be a band.”

But watching Murphy onstage is like watching a world-class conductor — there is never any question that he’s in control. He likens his album writing process similarly.
“I may be flattering myself here, but I see myself as a Scorsese and my bandmates are all my De Niros — they’re involved in the script early on. Unlike typical bands, we escape the regular infighting and bruised feelings. It’s sort of like, ‘I don’t want to have to be in that meeting.’ OK cool, let the director deal with that stuff.”

The latest album, ‘This is Happening,’ continues where ‘Sound of Silver’ left off, infusing disco, funk and house with indie rock sensibilities. Murphy justifies his streamlined sound experimentation saying, “You’re perpetually chasing that same alchemy, you’re never really done. It’s like cooking food — you’re not going to cook meat and then never cook meat again. Making music for me is like an endless way of trying to play the stuff that you like.”

So, if everything is gravy with the crew, then why the recent news to put an end to the band?

“LCD Soundsystem has become a full-time job, which is fine. It’s a great full-time job, but I like to be able to do other things such as coming up with ideas and pursuing them,” Murphy admits. “I have a notebook filled with ideas. Forty seems like a pretty good [age] to be getting into that notebook.”

Murphy surely won’t be able to completely avoid the spotlight, but he assures that he has “no plans to be in a supergroup with a bunch of clowns from other bands from the last ten years. I just want to be making music from the same place but not being in the business in the same way.”

While Murphy insists he’ll be spending some of his time “eating with friends, making records for them and coming up with great ideas,” he expects to have plenty to work on — like more movie soundtracks, like Ben Stiller’s recently released ‘Greenberg,’ ecologically sound rooftop vegetable gardens and abstract sound installations for the New York Subway. There is no telling what new directions the man might take in his early LCD retirement.

Putting his most successful project to rest comes with some relief. “It was always hard to say, ‘I would love to go on that tour with you but I have to meet with city officials and talk about that weird subway installation.'”

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