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On Figurines, Four-tracks and Favorite Bands
Weekly Dig
By Jenn Westervelt
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“He propels from one extreme of the pendulum to another, until liberties and judgments, urges and repression, obsession and guilt, despair and survival leave, finally leave him a wreckard.” This is the life of Prick the Puppet, the main character in Kevin McMahon's post-industrial musical incarnation Prick.

The life of Prick as a band could be considered just as dichotomous. In 1995, Prick toured with David Bowie and Nine Inch Nails, shortly after releasing their celebrated debut album Communiqué on Interscope. For the seven years following, Prick remained out of the public eye, vanishing without a trace.

Fortunately for Prick fans, The Wreckard, McMahon's second Prick album, emerged earlier this year as an online only release. Cleverly subtitled, “Audiojournal of An Unbalanced Aerialist: A Tragicomedy in Fourteen Pieces,” this follow-up album contains some of McMahon's finest work, with processed love ballads emerging from hard-hitting self-mutilations. The Weekly Dig was fortunate enough to catch McMahon for a rare interview before their date at the Middle East later this month.

Why has there been such a long waiting period between releases?

There were some legal things I had to take care of to make sure that the music I was making was mine, free and clear. Also, The Wreckard was being recorded, and I was moving and setting up the Web site. And doing it without any help from the industry.

Could you describe the recording process for The Wreckard?

That's been experimental. I record on four audio tracks and also use MIDI. I don't use any computers. I work with four-track digital audio. I just limit myself to those confines. Everything produced by myself was on four tracks. As far as processing, I used an AKAI 3000 sampler and then put it into digital audio and then ran it through some amps. I don't have any computerized processing stuff or a mixer. It's analog on the fly.

Are you anti-digital?

No. I started developing a style on a limited framework. I'm not trying to be a purist. It leant itself to being a more bonsai type of situation, figuring out how to do it without so much aid.

Has the band been writing together or is it more of a touring situation?

A touring situation. It's tough to find people to play the stuff with. I don't want to duplicate the CD. It would take way too many people and way too much gear. Since I recorded it myself, one track at a time, it was fine to use minimal equipment for the album. But it's very difficult to reproduce that sound live, just on a practical level. Certain things would be better with just a straight band thing with minimal effects, so there's no danger of it falling apart. It will be a different sound live, a little harder, a more pure kind of amplified power. Break into the red. It has a certain distortion; the live distortion is a bit cleaner. I feel confident that I have finally found players who could do what I wanted and play together successfully. It has its own energy. We haven't begun writing together. It's not in my plans. The Prick stuff is one place.

What are your favorite records?

I like early Kinks. I like a band called Tindersticks. Louis Armstrong. My brother's band, the Electric Eels. I got some Tom Waits out here. I kind of like one of the Make Up's albums. I wait for someone to tell me what to listen to. The radio is just annoying. I just don't want to have it on. I watch movies, instead. I would like to get hooked up with an independent film scene and do music for that.

How did the idea of Prick the Puppet come about?

It's the idea of trying to put a face or a name to where this music comes from. It comes from me at some point, but which person? Everybody's got some different people in them. To put my face on it, well, that's a boxed deal. I don't like that. Prick the Puppet is there as an identity, but it has to be moved and led along and motivated by something else. The Puppet tries to cut the strings. The first record is the deliverance, and now he's getting more human. I don't know what the hell is going on, but he or she has my sympathies.