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Prick This Once: Kevin McMahon Finds His Muse
Scene Magazine, July 27 - August 2, 1995
By Mark Holan
Transcribed by Robert Ferent
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"I'm working on new songs... and old songs," singer/songwriter Kevin McMahon says by phone from his home in Los Angeles. “They’re all the same. It’s a constant blur of radiant melody.”

McMahon, the former Clevelander who fronted Lucky Pierre and Broken Man in the ‘80s, has returned to the music scene with a project called Prick. Signed to Trent Reznor’s Nothing Records last year, Prick released a self-titled album earlier this year. Reznor has been a musical collaborator of McMahon’s since the days he played keyboards in a latter-day version of Lucky Pierre, and McMahon, once again, enlisted the aid of Reznor for the recording of PRICK.

But first there’s something that McMahon needs to get off his chest.

“So tell me,” McMahon begins, “why’d you guys give me such a terrible review?” There’s a long pause, and then he adds, “But I didn’t read it, so that’s OK.”

Don’t they say that you’re not supposed to read your reviews – positive or negative?

“Well, I don’t know if they say that,” McMahon replies, “but I certainly have been avoiding them. I’ve heard that there have been a few nasty ones, and that one was supposed to be at the top of the list. But that’s OK. That’s in the past. Far be it for me to bring it up today.”

Time marches on, and the Prick record is finally getting airplay around town on WMMS and WENZ. Both stations are playing the moody “Animal,” and McMahon is grateful for any airplay he can get.

“I got the idea for Prick when I first got together with Trent to do some recording,” McMahon recalls. “It was before any record deal was together. I got together with Trent to see if we could make good music together. We both liked what it turned out to be, and it had the working title/name of ‘Prick’ on the tape.

“I was going to take it to (record labels). But as it turned out, I just ende dup going with the Nothing label. I really didn’t have to come up with a name after all, but it was too late. I already had it. I was stuck with it.”

So he doesn’t even like the name?

“No, I do,” he replies, “but I didn’t plan on having it for a long time. I never think things are going to stay around. It was just going to be my quick blast – my name out of nowhere.

“But you know how slow everything works in the record industry. So here it is, two years later, and I’m still on the first record.”

One of the songs on PRICK, “Communique,” was the A-side of a Lucky Pierre single, and McMahon admits that Reznor’s familiarity with that song influenced his decision to re-record it.

“It seemed like it would be a lot easier to work on something that Trent knew and that he had played before,” McMahon explains. “Those songs kind of lend themselves to his production style. It was mainly trying to work something out that would be effective and not too much of a mind strain.”

It was between the PRETTY HATE MACHINE tour and the release of BROKEN that McMahon and Reznor got together in New Orleans to record the four songs that are included on PRICK. McMahon also recorded with producer Warne Livesey in London. Livesey has worked with Midnigth Oil among others.

Prick will perform at the Alternative Press 10th Anniversary Blow Out at Nautica Stage this Saturday, July 29.

“I never expected to be performing this record live, but there’s a trade-off because I have a band that’s pretty rippin’. (On bass, there’s Sebastien Monney, and on guitar, there’s Chris Schleyer. On drums, there’s Gary Hammond.) There’s also a rack of processing gear that’s our fifth member,” McMahon adds with a laugh. Dave Ogilvie, from Skinny Puppy, is the live sound mixer.

McMahon’s personal odyssey started a new chapter when he left Cleveland in 1985 for San Francisco where he worked as a chef in various restaurants.

“Things weren’t happenin’ there, were they?” he explains. “I just remember we were playing out a lot, and we were going through a lot of musician changes in the band.

“I just had to see more of the world, I think,” he continues. “Even though I still write from an enclosed, encapsulated little box of a room, I did spend a little more time in places other than Cleveland, so that was good. I guess that added to my own sense of insignificance, which helps me write.”