WRITE MINDED
New York three-piece PRONG are back with a new 13 track LP called Prove You Wrong. After losing original member, bassist Mike Kirkland, and finding an able replacement in Ex-FLOTSAM AND JESTSAM bassist Troy Gregory, they have created an LP more technical, ravaging, and intricate than anything they have ever done before. Far from falling apart and feeling out a new direction when Mike left, the new line-up has fused and created an LP that has opened up new boundaries. Tommy Victor guitarist and main vocalist is very pleased with the results:
"It's definitely our best yet, the songs are more collected, the playing is better, the vocals have progressed, everything is much better. It's a big jump for us."
Losing Mike was a sad closing chapter to the old independent days when Prong released their first LP on their own indie label Spigot. Now signed to Epic and releasing their second LP through the label, the time had come when changes were inevitable.
"Mike was great, but he wasn't used to the new attitude, a full year of touring and recording for a major label. You need the right attitude and frame of mind for that and Ted Parsons (drums) and I definitely have that. We needed something fresh, someone who could play better to open more doors up. Mike was very stiff and we needed to loosen up. Now it is so damn loose, we are flying all over the place and Prove You Wrong shows that. Obviously, in a three piece the bass has to be much more in front, and that was the problem before. Mike was always shadowing what I played, whereas Troy is a totally independent player. We don't bottom out now like we used to. It was a mutual thing, when Mike started to falter he said, 'find some one else, I can't keep up'."
With most of the preparations for the new LP ready, and a recording date looming, there was not a great deal of time to spare. The replacement with Troy was quick and surprisingly easy. Prong had previously toured extensively with Flotsam and Jetsam, and made good friends with Troy, who was playing bass for Flotsam at that time. Unhappy with the band, Troy quit Flotsam immediately after the Prong tour ended, and the ensuing opening slot in Prong was exactly what he had been looking for.
"Troy had to get used to the whole Prong thing, it is very cocoon-like and there is little room for independence. He had to earn his way in, but he is doing wonderfully. In the three weeks we worked on the LP before we went into the studio, he did so much. His input was more than Mike had done all year. It was the difference of typing 30 words per minute and speaking with a Brooklyn accent and typing 90 words per minute with perfect vocal diction. Troy is a completely independent player, he has a broad vocabulary in music so we were able to get so much more accomplished."
Tommy cites a variety of bands as influences on their powerful blend of music. Years ago Tommy worked at CBGB's mixing, and saw literally thousands of bands during the time he worked there. Industrial bands such as THE SWANS and THROBBING GRISTLE, English post-punk bands like JOY DIVISION, KILLING JOKE, and contemporary groups like GODFLESH and MINISTRY have all helped form Prong's identity. The band even do a cover of THE STRANGLERS tune "Get a Grip" on the new LP.
"We are true to guitar-orientated rock, and we don't overlook any music that has happened over the last 20 years. We have been exposed to so much. That's a good thing about being from New York, you see every trend. I use things here and there as an influence, it's a good part of Prong."
The main influence on Prong as a band for their mood and outlook, however, is the fact that Ted and Tommy are both products of New York City and all the things that it holds.
"A lot of things that go on in New York we are constantly barraged by. Prong is absolutely a product of this mass. We look through rats' eyes a lot. The LP is very street level at times, even the victim's point of view. West coast bands are really goofy, happy and tinselly. East Coast bands are more rooted in a real atmosphere; it's not the palm trees, tennis, and swimming pools here. I think because we are real, New York is closer to Europe than say LA. We are more on a level with European people. Maybe it's social economics."
After four LPs, prong are now starting to get recognition. Several songs off their last LP Beg to Differ - "For Dear Life" and "Lost and Found" - are used on MTV's "Head Bangers' Ball" as theme music during the credits. Popular artist Pushead who has designed work for METALLICA and AEROSMITH and others, created their new LP cover as well as their last one. Apparently Pushead has been a fan of the band ever since he heard Prong's first demo back in '86. Their American tour should be well under way and CORROSION OF CONFORMITY have been lined up for that tour. Prong look set to Prove You Wrong over here in January February 92.
Marion Garden
Riff Raff
January 1992
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