luckyPRICK

Prick Hits The Road

Daily Arts
By Ted Watts
Transcribed by Avenpitch

Kevin McMahon is the essence of Prick. No, not that way. He is the driving force behind the musical entity known as Prick. Adept at creating electronic-type rock not entirely unlike that of labelmates and current touring buddies (along with David Bowie) Nine Inch Nails, Prick's recent self-titled album is a cozy little bit of chaos, running across the darker spectrum of emotions. Take, for instance, the idea behind the band name.

"The definition is up in the air," said McMahon. "It's one of those words that has many meanings. I personally think of it as one that provokes an emotional response or draws attention to something. Prick up your ears, or whatever. But I don't really have a set definition for it as a verb or a noun."

The concept of Prick the group seems a bit equally up in the air, as what it is exactly keeps changing. McMahon explained: "The band was formed after the record. I wrote the songs on the record and the recording of the songs was done by myself and Trent, when he was producing. Trent Reznor, he produced four of the songs, and the other songs were produced by Warne Livesey, and so when I was in the studio it was he and I, whoever the other producer (who wasn't me) was, were the band at the time. Since then I've been trying to get it into a more live fashion. I've started a band and picked members who could get what were really the most important things out of the record in a four-piece kind of sound. Cuz we're a four piece band. We use sampling and we have triggering devices for some of the processing effects we used in the studio, but essentially it's a stripped down band."

The people within the band have been changing as well, even since the shooting of the video for their song "Animal." "The giraffe (in the video) is in my band. And the lizard is in my band. I think the guitar guy is still there. We've had a few changes since going for the live band and trying to see what works on the road and who fits musically into doing this kind of music live, we've had to make some changes, but it's a question of fit. Fit is the word. Someone can be a good musician and not work with another group of musicians doing a certain style of music, so it's kind of trying to find the right fit for the performance of this record."

The band has been working at its live show, and has had little time for frills. "At the moment, we have stripped down production, and pretty much we perform as humans do without too much aid of props. It's kind of hard to be thinking about that right now because building a show up on that level is something one is able to do after being out on the road for a little while. Since on this tour we're the opening act, there's not a lot of time or stage space for us to develop much of a production, other than ourselves. I obviously believe our stage show is worth seeing, or hearing, or else I wouldn't be doing it."

Of course, playing the huge arenas necessitated by the drawing power of this tour's bill both creates an audience and makes it difficult to create as good a presentation because of the size of the concert loci. "That's the challenge, I guess, trying to turn it into a place where you can enjoy music at, more than just being an event," agreed McMahon. "And there's a lot of concern for that as far as the sound and the size of the venues we play in that the people who work on the audio end of things are trying to load up the production end for the music portion to reach as far and efficiently as possible. Considering the size of the places, I think people will be pleased."

All in all, Prick seems well prepared for a tour of such monstrous proportions as this. So go early enough to see McMahon and company's output.