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| Heavy Changes interviews Ric Menck about the 10th Anniversary reissue of In The Presence Of Greatness: Heavy Changes: How does it feel to have a 10th anniversary reissue album? Ric Menck: Ten years is a long time to be connected to someone. I'm proud of what Paul and I have accomplished. The goal was to make classic records, and most of our stuff is still pretty listenable so I guess we're on the right track. I'm very grateful for all the opportunities the band has afforded me. It's been wonderful travelling the world, meeting cool people, playing rock'n'roll. HC: Is it true that ITPOG was essentially a batch of demos that your label wanted to put out as-is? Ric: Yeah, I think Greatness was originally intended as demos, but midway thru we decided to make it into our first album. We didn't know who'd wanna put it out, but there were a lot of people expressing interest at the time so we weren't worried. HC: Along with Heavy Changes, this is one of your harder rocking albums. With your pop mastery, do you ever feel sometimes that people forget you guys like to rock? Ric: Our true fans seem willing to accept anything we're prepared to dish out, and most of 'em know we like to rock out from time to time. In fact, a lot of them prefer that we do. HC: At times I think ITPOG sounds like an old Dinosaur Jr album like Bug. Were you guys into them? Ric: When Paul and I were in England touring with Choo Choo Train everywhere we went they played 'Freak Scene' by Dinosaur Jr and 'You Made Me Realize' by My Bloody Valentine. Both were brand new singles at the time, and they left a big impression on us. You can definitly hear their influence on Greatness. HC: Are there any songs on ITPOG that you would like to re-record now? Ric: No, I wouldn't re-record any songs. They're prefect as they are. Next. HC: When you say that ITPOG has been remastered, what can fans who bought the original expect to hear differently in the new reissue? Ric: The original mastering job on Greatness is pretty flat. When we remastered we made it more dynamic. HC: Why did you elect to have new artwork? Did you not like the original? Ric: I never liked how the old sleeve looked. It was a rush job. I'm glad we redid it. HC: How do feel about the album now when you hear it? Ric: I feel very good about the album. Listening to it reminds me of happy times. Jeffrey's contribution cannot be underestimated. He was hugely responsible for our cool guitar sound. His rhythm guitar playing is really distinctive, and he contributed a lot to the songwriting. HC: Was it difficult to get licensing for the album to reissue it? Ric: No, we own the rights. Our original deal with Ringer's Lactate expired years ago. HC: After listening to A Single Odessey, I was wondering: being so passionate about music as you two are, how do you decide as a group which songs to cover? Ric: Not much thought ever goes into what songs we cover. Usually they're in our live set, or we're jammin' on 'em in rehearsal. 'Everything Flows' was recorded as a tribute to Teenage Fanclub, a band we love. 'She Cracked' is something we played in our early shows. 'Mr Spaceman' and 'Elevator Operator' were recorded just for the hell of it one afternoon during the Teenage Symphony sessions. 'Why Not Your Baby' too. I thought we might be able to turn some young people onto Gene Clark. 'One Hundred Years From Now' Paul could really sing the hell out of. Same with 'White Satin Bed', which has one of my all-time fav Paul Chastain vocal performances and some decent guitar playing by Mitch and Pete. There's lots of other songs we used to play that never got put on tape-- Big Sky (Kinks), The Price Of Love (Everly Bros), So Sad About Us (Who), Go And Say Goodbye (Buffalo Springfield), and Yesterday's Numbers (Flamin' Groovies) are some that come to mind. Once we played a whole set of Byrds songs backing Roger Mcguinn. That was very special. HC: Velvet Crush fans want to know: Did you submit “The Thing That You Do” for inclusion in the Tom Hanks movie? Ric: It's true, that song was written for Tom Hanks' movie. Heavy Changes thanks Ric Menck for taking the time to answer some questions. |
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