luckyPRICK

Let It Bleed

Live Wire Magazine
Transcribed by Laura

To look at Kevin McMahon, one wouldn't think that the introverted,
soft-spoken man seated before you would be capable of the intense
anxiety and barely suppressed rage that is encompassed on his album,
Prick. While it is not made clear whether Prick is merely the name of his
album or if it is the moniker of McMahon's current project as well(his
answer depends on his mood when the question is put to him), it is
crystal clear that the basis of this project is one of constant
contradiction, as well as a healthy dose of double entendre. A good
example of this is "Animal". The recently released single off the
album. Upon the initial listening, one can find references that are
undoubtedly anti-fur. Listen to it again and images of drug dependence
emerge, underneath those images is a tale of maddening sexual
attraction. It is not often that someone masters the art of twisting
words quite the way Kevin McMahon has, or uses that art effortlessly.

"I do mean for the songs to have more than one meaning." McMahon
states, "it really comes very naturally to me, its a gift from someone
or something, I guess. I notice that it happens in alot , I could be
writing about something on the surface then the words just click into
something else. I don't really strive for it, it wouldn't happen if I
did."

The album which is on Nothing records, took a year and a half to
record and spanned nine studios, internationally. "I kind of like
recording in lots of different places." Kevin explains, "you can take a
song that has burned itself out in one studio, listen to it somewhere
else and it sounds different. You can get a whole new idea that you
wouldn't have gotten otherwise. It gives you a fresh perspective."

The diverse recording conditions also gave new life to songs that
were peviously released with Kevin's prior band, Lucky Pierre. Kevin
shares the merit for resurrection of melodies with the album's
producers, Trent Reznor and Warne Livesey. "I really wanted the both of
them to be producers on the album." He says, "it was great from the
beginning because they didn't have to do it. Their attitude wasn't like,
'let's just make the record and get out.' both of them were working on
it 'cause they liked the music, so there was a really good camaraderie.

The song "communique" was recorded and released a couple of times, but I was never really happy with the way it came out. I like the song so much I redid it again for this album with Trent in New Orleans. It
seems like I write songs, but they're not really finished until they
reach that final apex. It's kind of like painting. Painters just keep
on pulling out their canvases and putting more paint until they think
that it's done. The problem is sometimes-if they go to far- they fuck
it up."

Because of Lucky Pierre, McMahon's musical ingeunity was highly
regarded in Cleveland. Unfortunately, the band never really made it out
of Michigan. Seeing that his success was doomed to be severely limited
unless a major change was made, he decided to pack up and move to Los
Angles, where it finally got on track. Much like Trent Reznor, all the
songs on the album; music and lyrics, where written by Kevin alone.
This left him with the same problem that his old friend had in the
past: he needed to piece together a band for touring purposes.
fortunately, in L.A., musicians are plentiful, but finding one's with
Kevin's form of integrity proved more difficult than he thought-but he
thinks he has the problem licked;maybe.

"In L.A., sometimes it doesn't even matter what your sound is." He
sighs,"I had people that were just concerned about what label the band
was on and what TV show we were gonna be do. Their priorities were not where I wanted them to be and I was a bit worried, I mean, I had to
get something together for a tour, didn't I? Going out on stage alone
just wouldn't be very convincing. I still don't know what is gonna
happen with this band, I'm not even sure if it's going to be a long
term thing. It's difficult when you play someone elses songs, you can
do it in two ways: you can play it like a session musician,or you can
live the music, like you were involved in the writing. If the people
who are in the band now can make there parts breathe, that would be
better for all of us. It's wierd right now because no one really
knows each other - there all different people. We'll just have to see
what happens."