PRICK Turns 20!




The debut PRICK album was released on CD & Cassette 20 years ago today (or possibly in January... we've got two conflicting dates, and the February date gave us more time)! Where does the time go? To mark the occasion, we decided to group together a bunch of things from that time, some definitely seen before and some possibly not seen before.

FIRST

We'd like to redirect you to our interviews with Andy Kubiszewski, Chris Schleyer, and John Malm Jr., where they each talk about their involvement with the album. I hadn't read them in a while myself, and it was nice to take the trip down memory lane again.

SECOND

We tried to secure a new interview for this occasion (which I've been referring to as “P20”), but unfortunately were not able to. However, we did get part of an incomplete interview back from Warne Livesey. While posting all of what we have (not much) wouldn't really feel right, we did think that pulling at least a quote or two out of it would be great, so... here's the main bit about his involvement with PRICK from Warne:

How did you and Kevin cross paths?

Like with many projects, the first I knew of this was an approach by Kevin's manager and record label expressing interest in working with me and sending through a collection of demos. I think Kevin and the label thought I was an appropriate choice because of my work with The The and also the Foetus stuff, which was an influence on NIN and Kevin's music. But also the two Midnight Oil albums I had produced by then were internationally successful.

What were your first impressions of the Prick material? Was it even called "Prick" then?

Yes, it was called Prick and I was immediately struck by his music's intensity and originality. Kevin had also already recorded some of the songs with Trent Reznor and those tracks sounded awesome. So they were looking for someone to do the rest of the album and it seemed like the production styles would be a good fit. I very much liked that Kevin was trying to take an original and progressive approach to sounds and instrumentation, which has always been a very important part of music for me. But of coarse he also had great songs and a really strong and original voice.

Often times, a producer "steers the ship" or at the very least has some say in the tracks that an artist will complete. The six songs you produced for the PRICK album - Riverhead, Animal, I Got It Bad, I Apologise, Crack and Makebelieve - how many demos/tracks did Kevin originally bring to the sessions and how did you decide what tracks would make the cut?

I can't recall exactly but I think there was about 20 or so ideas demo'd in some form or another. Some complete songs and some snippets. And, as I have already said, he had cut some of the songs already with Trent. I think I had a good idea of which demos sounded the strongest to me and when Kevin came over to England and we started making the record, we worked on the songs and fairly easily came to a consensus on which tracks would be the best for the record. There was a few that didn't make the cut, but Kevin really liked, which then formed the start of the second record. In a sense, the producer does 'steer the ship'. but not in a dictatorial way. It is very important for the producer to understand what the artist is about and to deliver the best representation of that in the recordings. So I try to get in-tune with an artists vision and 'steer the ship', so to speak, to that destination. It was a lot of fun making that record. We had a few musicians come in and play, but the vast majority of the time was Kevin, myself and Richard Norris (the engineer) in the studio experimenting with any and every way of making unusual noises. Probably the most extreme of which was at the legendary Manor studios when we had a keyboard sound being fed out to an auratone speaker which was duct-taped to the end of some 4" plastic drainage pipe, that in turn was suspended from the ceiling by ropes and swung around the room, the result of which was being recorded with several mics. It was a sort of mad person's version of a leslie speaker on crack.

We know Warne's a very busy guy, and we truly appreciate that he was able to get to some of our questions before having to jump back into his latest project. If we ever get a more flushed out interview, you know we'll post it.

THIRD

Andy Kubiszewski shared with us a few photographs he had from the PRICK recording sessions with Warne. Here we have Andy, Chris & Kevin's arrival at Paddington Station, and a few shots of the recording process at The Manor with Warne.
















FOURTH

Someone (not us) has uploaded some live video of PRICK from 1995 to YouTube. It's clearly a VHS transfer of questionable generation, and it's rather dark, but it's absolutely wonderful for what it is. It's the only show out there right now, as well. For those of you who saw PRICK in 1995, this will jog some memories. But, for those of us who didn't get the chance to see PRICK in 1995 (like myself), this is a great opportunity to see a live show that would otherwise be lost to time. We recommend watching it in the highest possible quality setting



FIFTH

How about a few more videos? This collection consists of all interviews. First up, it's an interview with Kevin on MuchMusic, conducted by Sook Yin Lee. I really miss this version of MuchMusic.



Second, we've got an interview with Kevin conducted by MTVs Kennedy. Very “ting-y” sounding, but watchable/listenable.



Lastly, we've got a few blurbs/mentions for PRICK on MTVs “Superock”. It looks like this may have been part of a bigger segment on Nothing Records.



SIXTH

...and on that note, let's watch the “Animal” video.



SEVENTH

I've recently transcribed a radio interview conducted in 1995 with Kevin, Chris & Sebastien (so, I guess I did get a “new” interview after all). It cuts in, so I'm missing the beginning of the interview. I'm also not sure who conducted the interview. If I ever figure it out, I'll certainly list proper credits. I believe this is the first and only time we get to see/hear what Sebastien had to say. Full disclosure: I had a hard time in a few spots transcribing Sebastien.

PRICK WBER 90.5 FM Radio Interview with Kevin McMahon, Chris Schleyer & Sebastien Monney

EIGHTH

The folks over at “I Die: You Die” recently took a look back at the 1995 PRICK album, being that it's turning 20 and all. The article is a conversation between two people, discussing the pros and cons of the record, and what made it, and continues to make it, a great album. Check it out here.

Well... that just about wraps up everything we've got. After you're through reading and watching everything above, why not put the album on to place the proverbial cherry on top?

And last, but certainly not least, a wholehearted thank you to Kevin for making this amazing album in the first place.