This is the telephone interview that my friend had with Kevin McMahon
of Prick. Thought you might like to look at it.
 
6-30-95
 
Prick has been hailed by many in the music industry as being a unique new sound
that is very difficult to describe.  The best way to give someone an idea of
what they sound like is to physically drag them to a cd player and force them
to give it a listen - which is what happened to me, and which is why I couldn't
wait to get ahold of the disk as soon as I possibly could.  Many people compare
the music of Prick to early NIN, but that comparison doesn't account for the
vocal melodies or lyrical irony that make Prick so unique.  When have you heard
growling keyboards, electric guitar, and distorted drums pounding over lyrics
like "I need to get to know you first!" ('Other People') or "There are no fair
fights" ('No Fair Fight')?  Don't get me wrong though - driving industrial
songs aren't what this album is about.  The album's rhythmic and melodic
variety is diverse, and not only confined to variety between songs, but often
within them as well.  It is not unusual to hear a vast tempo or musical mood
shift within Prick's songs.
        Prick _is_ Kevin McMahon, a veteran of both the Cleveland and LA music
scene for close to 15 years under the name "Lucky Pierre", a band which
garnered a cult following in Cleveland but never progressed beyond the local
scene.  Now there is 'Prick', a new project for McMahon and Nothing records
that is produced partially by Trent Reznor (of NIN fame, like I need to tell
you that), and Warren Livesey (The The, Midnight Oil fame), and the prospects
are looking good that Kevin will finally be making it big.  This month,
Interscope begins pushing 'Animal', the first single from the new album, on
both radio and MTV, while McMahon and crew try to stir up a buzz at the grass
roots by touring with Lords of Acid and My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult.  I
got a chance to see 'Prick' live on their mini-tour with 'Ned's Atomic
Dustbin', and I was blown away.  Their energetic show was a mesmerizing blend
of
electronics and catchy vocal harmonies,so after the show when (then)
keyboardist
Paul Rosseler confided that it was probably their 10th performance or so, my
jaw dropped.
        I caught up to them again via a phone call on an off day for Kevin on
the 'Sextacy Ball' tour.  The raging thunderstorm outside (in Cincinnati) was a
sharp contrast to Kevin's soft, thoughtful voice over the phone (from a hotel
in Memphis), I thought it to be ironically appropriate atmospheric conditions
for the interview with a band which sometimes produces thundering music over
Kevin's unique voice.  Our little talk about animals, sex, and souls is what
follows...
 
 
 
 
K:  Hello?
M:  Hey, what's up? {long, boring introduction} How's the Sextacy Ball tour
going?
K: Um, well, from my standpoint, it's kind of...strange.  I don't think think
the crowds that are coming are too familiar with our material, but they
seem...ya know, it's like going to a rave or a dance even more than going to a
music cocert.
M:  Yeah, that's the kind of stuff Lords of Acid play...but I was going to ask
if it's kind of odd for you to be paired with these bands that are kind of...I
don't know, decadent, when your songs like 'Other People' aren't exactly in the
same vein.
K:  Well, the thing was I um...the information I was given when we started the
thing off made it seem like it had the potential of being an informative thing,
rather than a totally exploitive thing...which I'm not saying that it is...
M:  But you thought it was going to be more a 'safe sex' kind of thing?
K:  Well, I don't know why I didn't think sex was going to so involved
(laughs).
 I thought it was going to be more from just the theoretical, philosophical
arguments of freedom of speech, and putting those into tangeable physical forms
kind of gets represented in blow-up dolls and stuff like that.  Yeah, I don't
know how much its turned out to be what I expected it to be.  But at the same
time we have our part in it, which is the only thing that we really have any
kind of control over, and keep that to be something that is my own thing...I
don't know how much I can get upset about it at this point.
M:  Do you have one band you think you'd fit perfectly with if you went on tour
with?
K:  I don't know...I see myself as fitting...maybe different songs with
different people.  I'd never really considered how this band or I would fit
with another group.  I think of myself as being alone, although there are going
to be tours where we open for other people, and vice-versa. I don't
know.  That's why I can't concern myself too much about it, because once I get
into that then I get...you can really start to lose control, and lose focus of
what you're doing. 'Why did i get involved in this?  It wasn't to go out and
scout bands, and it wasn't to make judgements'.  If we're doing a tour of our
own, and we decide to have local bands open - which i think would be a good
thing to do because it puts the spot on the local group, but that can also
backfire if I don't go out and research who the local band is...I didn't get
into it to have that kind of responsibility.
M:  Well, you spent a lot of time as the local band in cleveland,
 as "Lucky Pierre".  I'm curious to know why you changed your name when you
became Prick?
K:  It's the name for this particular album, whether or not it's going to stay
that, I don't know.  It's not supposed to have two names on it, like a
self-titled album, I wanted it to have only one so it was just that album
itself.  I don't know whether or not I'm going to stick with that or change it.
M:  Did you write any songs specifically for prick when you went into the
studio, or are most of them from your catalog of songs you've written
throughout your life?
K:  The name was decided upon after I had the songs written.  But, a lot of
these songs are things I did with Lucky Pierre, I guess maybe five of them
are...half older and half the newer stuff I didn't do with a band.  So I guess
in a way it was stuff for Prick only it didn't have a name at the time.
M:  Did your older songs like 'Communique' and 'Tough' change a lot when you
re-recorded as Prick or are they the same?
K:  'Communique' is the same just because I've recorded it 4 or 5 times and it
has a similar lack of control that I like to keep.  For the most part what I
consider the essence of the songs is there, from the first time I was doing
them to the last times, including the live stuff.  But when you're in the
studio and you have someone else involved being the producer, you both make up
the band in the studio, and things are going to change if they're going to have
any kind of life to them.
M:  Was it a challenge at all to have two different producers, and try to write
one album?
K:  For me it didn't seem like there was a problem there.  It worked pretty
well because the songs were finished in my mind, so I had something that I
could refer to in my own mind...I don't think it's even apparent on the record.
M:  It's very consistant, I mean it's consistant in that every song is
different and unique, but it's all still 'Prick'.  I mean, I couldn't tell if I
didn't have the inlay card who produced what.  When I saw you play in
Louisville, before the show you kind of went off and spent some time alone.  Do
you have a ritual before you perform before playing a live show?
K:  No...there's just too many environmental changes (on tour), and I usually
have things going on in my own mind.  Maybe that's where the ritual occurs
rather than performing some kind of pre-ceremonial or pre-performance type
thing.  I think about things, but there's no form...unless there is, and I
don't even know about it, which may very well be.  It seems like they say "ok,
you go on in a half an hour."  and then it's "OK Let's go!"  and the time in
between gets lost and so exactly what happens, I'm not sure.
M:  Well the live show, when I saw it was excellent.  My only criticism is that
you didn't play all of your songs!  How did you pick your touring band?
K:  I have a different drummer now...and...Chris Schleyer is still playing
guitar (Chris played on the studio album)...
M:  Is Paul still playing keyboards?
K:  No.
M:  You've changed it up quite a bit then!
K:  I think some things just weren't fitting, it wasn't so much a question of
musicianship as it was...
M: Different personalities?
K:  It wasn't as basic as that either.  It was just kind of what is right for
this music and to do this stuff live requires a certain kind of technique, and
some of it wasn't happening.  It's hard to say because I'm not up front but
it's feeling like it's gelling a little better.  The mix is coming together,
and we'll have to see with time.  Since it wasn't a group that was recording,
it's something where I have to feel some things out and make some mistakes in
judgement, or maybe some corrections in judgement as it were.
M: You've got 'Animal' coming out as the first single- there is a whole
page add on the back page of CMJ
this week, and I just saw the video, and I was curious to know if you're at all
into animal rights...is that a part of you that is in the song or is that
just...
K:  Am I involved in the club?  No.  But is my consciousness there?  Yes.  I
find it difficult to get involved in organizations.  Not that that's probably
not a good one, or that type of thing is beneath me, I just mean it from the
standpoint of my ability to socialize...it's kind of limited.
M:  So are you a vegitarian?  Is this something you're active in with your
personal life or...
K:  It's a theoretical thing (laughs).  I don't go out an rip wings off of
birds right now.  I think and wonder about things a lot, and I at the same time
have a strange awareness that I'm an animal also, at least partly I guess.
What I think mostly about is the interaction...the marriage of the intellect or
spirit and the body, and how that is unique to us.  But at the same time, I
don't know.  Maybe it isn't.  Maybe there are different levels of this kind of
'intelligence meets body' in the animal kingdom.  And so since I don't know, I
think it's a good thing to wonder about and not close your mind to it.
M:  Sounds like you've thought a lot about this.  What was it like shooting the
video, because you have a LOT of animals in the video.
K:  The animals we did at an animal ranch.  A couple raised most of them, and
there was a tent built to do the set.  Actually, after viewing 6 hours of
animal footage I basically wanted to have the video be the skin texture of the
elephant's ear for three and a half minutes or however long it is (laughs).
Then I decided to show some shots of the other animals, including myself.
There's no sense in dressing in a feather cape and hopping on that perch for
nothing! [you gotta see the video]  To me it brought some of the irony which I
can't articulate in other ways than in music, except that felt like it did it
for me.
M:  Do you know if the video has been released to MTV yet?
K:  I think that they are going to get it next week...July, whenever that is.
And whether or not it's going to be aired...I don't know how all of that MTV
business goes.
M:  I think it really does give a lot of insight into the song.  Was it mainly
your concept?
K:  The majority of it came from the director (Erick Ifergan), and when I was
 looking for directors I got about 100 different reels and watched quite a few
 and actually was getting so depressed that I was going to submit myself to
this kind of exposure...but I came across a couple of directors who I liked and
he was one of them.  He does a lot of work in Europe and as far as I know
hasn't
done any American music videos...so when we talked I got some kind of
treatment, and we talked about it at that point.  For a while there I was being
depicted as slithering around in snakeskin in the mud, but I thought that was a
little too rock and roll.  The idea to do what I did in the video to me is a
bit more of a statement from my own on the whole rock thing.
M:  Are you pleased with how it turned out then?
K:  Yeah, I think it turned out OK.  I haven't really watched it since it was
edited.  I figured that it would take so long to get on MTV or get to
television or wherever these things go, it would be better for me not to keep
watching it, otherwise, like everything else I'd just get really sick of it or
hyper-critical...dread that I ever did it.  I was comfortable with it being
partially absurd, and partially comedic, and partially subject to the music,
and I think that there are good shots of animals.
M:  Do you mind if I ask what inspired the song other people?  {thunderclap}
You'll have to excuse the thunder, we're having a pretty big storm here.  I
don't know if you can hear it at all...
K:  It sounds like the television.
M:  {More thunder, REALLY LOUD!}  Now that was probably right across the
street.
K:  Well, go to the closet!  {Laughs}  Other people was inspired by...I forget
{laughs again}.
M:  Is it a general thing?
K:  Yeah, it's just a general thing.  Just the mentality of one person having
the need to get to know someone first before any kind of physical contact or
actually any kind of contact, and another person who feels it's a vehicle to
get away from where they're at and it becomes so casual that interacting is
just another thing, like walking down the street.  That kind of thing where you
have judgement on both extremes, is, no matter how well it's substantiated it
seems to me that it's impossible to really choose a right and wrong way for
other people.
M:  Cool.  So where do you want to see 'Prick' in  a year?  Do you want it to
become something really big or do you want it to stay a small cult following
around the country?
K:  I doubt that it's going to get huge, because I don't think that a lot of
people want that kind of music to be like Prick music is.  But if all of the
sudden everybody did, I don't think I'd be upset!  So I'll just do what I do
and wherever it goes...I'll just keep on going from there.
M:  You're skipping over the midwest and East coast dates of the tour...do you
have any plans to tour again when this is all over with?
K:  Nope, no plans.
M:  Well, thanks for the interview!
K:  Thanks for the call, man!
M:  Good luck!
 
 
mark purvis
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this interview will be printed in hard copy in the new 'reverb' magazine out of
champaign-urbana (this issue focusing on synth and industrial music).  If you
would like a hard copy of this issue, please write starmode productions at
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or myself at the address above.
 
LOVE PRICK!
 
 
--
Forwarded by:
They get you in the mouth, those girls
 -Kristin Hersh
 
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