Tricky: ‘I was less nervous going to prison than I was getting on stage’

‘I’m still the kid outside the chip shop’ … Tricky. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

You have previously asserted that Maxinquaye was ruined by its success and turned into a “coffee-table album”. Having revisited the album for its upcoming deluxe reissue, what are your feelings about it now? VerulamiumParkRanger

I can understand why it did what it did at the time because there was nothing around like it. Years ago, when I was getting frustrated that some people didn’t understand it because it went coffee-table, someone told me: “Tricky, people will catch up with you. You’ve just got to wait.” Now I’ve done 16 albums and when young kids come to my shows, the stuff they talk to me about is Angels or Pre-Millennium Tension, not Maxinquaye. If I listen to it now, it sounds dated, but if you don’t think your older music sounds dated, you’re standing still. Universal made me enthusiastic about the Maxinquaye Reincarnated reissue because they just let me work [on it], and they’ve released my reworkings, which is amazing because these songs are not commercial vehicles. It’s made me less anti-major labels.