INTERVIEW OF AUGUST 14, 2002


Interview conducted by Jason Benson

J.B.: First, let me congratulate you on releasing your fourth album called Prum.

K.R.: Thank you. Excuse me for spilling bacon bits on the floor.

J.B.: That's okay. Where did you come up with the title for Prum?

K.R.: I was walking around outside counting all the ants. I noticed that they could detect me as I approached, but it seemed like they weren't sure what to do or if they should go in a different direction. They seemed to temporarily stop to think about what was happening. It was almost as if they were looking for a birthday cake, like they wanted a piece of one. Many of them would turn about 45 degrees one way or the other. I was counting them and making sure not to step on any of them. After all, they had done nothing to me, so why should I do anything to them. I thought about talking to one to find out what it was doing. Then I remembered I talked to them before and they didn't seem to understand me. I've never heard of ants talking, but you never know. It seems like they just walk around all day. I sort of know what that's like, but I find it tiring after a couple of hours. They have six legs and I have two legs. Maybe if I had six legs I could walk around all day long and look for leaves or something.

J.B.: Ummm, where did Prum come from?

K.R.: Well, I could have a milkshake. You know. Then it came to me. Prum. Then I think I forgot about it. But it came back to me. I think I was brushing my teeth. Then I thought about Prum. But I think I forgot about it again. I'm guessing at some point I remembered, I think.

J.B.: Really?

K.R.: If you cook Diet Coke in a soup pot it gets hot.

J.B.: Well, let's move on to something else. The first song is called "Screen Door Collector." Explain how this song came to be.

K.R.: You know there are these people that go around all day long collecting screen doors. I mean at some point people replace these and the collectors are out there waiting for them so that they can add them to their collection. I don't do this, but I've seen other people go around and look for these. They're kind of like ants when you think about it. Or maybe cats? I kind of picked an awkward programmed drum track to lay the foundation for the soundscapes. It's kind of off-center and seems to fit the brains of screen door collectors. I could have easily developed a tennis ball can. But then I'd have to cut hedges. I wasn't too sure about that.

J.B.: It seems to be one of your popular songs.

K.R.: I suppose that is so. I once heard it coming from a car. It was at the "woo woo" part. It was kind of funny.

J.B.: "Reactive Shampoo" seems to have some political commentary in it, but I'm not clear on what it's about.

K.R.: It was my interpretation of some political figures merging with an old black-and-white Popeye cartoon inside a shampoo bottle. I mean, when I watch the news and read the online newspapers, I am always reminded of Popeye. It seems like a lot of the things that make the news are directly related to Popeye, not like family, but more like parallel equatorial zones. I considered this when I opened a pad of paper one day.

J.B.: There is a section where you spell out the first word of each line and sing it in what I presume is an electronically enhanced voice in a low register.

K.R.: When I think of raising my knees high and knocking over a table full of dominos, I think of low voices. When I spelled out the first words, I wanted to make it clear that it was my knees raising high that knocked over the table and not some other force of nature. When you put the spelled out words together it makes sense. Playing, everything, knees, what, maybe, now. It makes a lot of sense.

J.B.: What does a knocked over table of dominos have to do with Popeye and shampoo?

K.R.: Well, my knees knocked it over.

J.B.: I still don't understand.

K.R.: Hmmm. That's unbelievable.

J.B.: The "Punctuation of the Universe" trilogy seems to be about an unusual subject. What's the significance of finding punctuation and how can it be so difficult to lose it?

K.R.: It's kind of like trying to find its source. I mean, where did it come from? I've been making these dots all my life, and no one has ever informed me of the origin of these dots. So I explored the concept. There are these little curved things we call commas and the dot with the comma making me a semicolon. The two dots on top of each other are a colon. What bothers me, is that my poops go through a colon. But that colon is a tube and not two dots. I find that interesting. You would think it would cause confusion when you use it. It's like understanding something but not knowing what we mean. I think this is where we get stinkers. They build up in the colon and the areas near it, then it comes out and we are left holding our noses, or enjoying it if you prefer. In the end, we are left laughing. This is when I came to the conclusion that punctuation must have formed at the time of the Big Bang. It all makes sense now, at least I think it does. It's better than eating french fries.

J.B.: I see. Tell me about "Hollow Chocolate Bunnies."

K.R.: Strange Sandwich Music was releasing a compilation CD that was going to send the proceeds to Ducks Unlimited. It was to be released at around the Easter holiday, so the artists of SSM were to contribute songs on an Easter theme. I didn't have any songs that fit that theme, so I forget how the idea came about, but Rob Blaikie came up with a song title called "Hollow Chocolate Bunnies." So I decided to write a song about these bunnies. It starts out with the jellybeans noticing that the bunnies are no longer in the basket and how the ecosystem of the basket was beginning to degrade because a species was no longer occupying an important ecological niche. In the end, they come back from a shopping trip for vacuum cleaner bags and screen doors. Everyone is happy.

J.B.: "Hippopotamus" is a really cool song and your first collaboration.

K.R.: Yeah, my friend Kim Novak asked if she could sing on one of my songs and I decided on "Hippopotamus." She did a fantastic performance and really improved on the guide vocal I provided. I also got Miles Walsh from Milo Black to perform all the guitarwork on the track. He also gave me some valuable insight into getting the mix to work for that song. It was complicated trying to pull in contributions from others into the final mixdown as they used different recording equipment and computers. I had to get out the sound editor and actually trim empty spaces to get things to line up in some cases. We're talking about times in less than a tenth of a second. It made all the difference. I think they both like peas, but I know one of them thrives on Nutella.

J.B.: I'm at a loss on what "Hippopotamus" is about. Can you explain it?

K.R.: You know when you see dog food in a bowl and you get those dog food eyes that make you foam at the mouth?

J.B.: I don't understand what you mean by that.

K.R.: You don't get dog food eyes when you look at dog food?

J.B.: No.

K.R.: Really? That's odd. I always do and then I have to clean up all the foam. Well, when this series of events happens it causes an uplift in the earth's crust and causes hippopotami to find their way into backyards. They roam around the backyard and they do all they can to make it better. Me and the hippopotamus can make it together. The work we end up doing to solve the dog food issue involves reconfiguring the segments of time, the configurations of the nows. Cows have a lot to do with the so called flow of time and when we reconfigure the nows, we become connected with the cows. Then everything is fine.

J.B.: What significance does the sound effects of a train and children have to do with this cow and hippopotamus thing?

K.R.: They are the before and after of the event of foaming and dog food eyes. When you listen closely to the world during uneventful moments, you hear trains and children. In every case. But only during uneventful moments. When events do occur, this is when cows arrive.

J.B.: Explain "Two Rolls on the Floor."

K.R.: It boils down to two rolls on the floor. What could you tell them and what could they tell you?

J.B.: So, you're saying that rolls talk?

K.R.: Yeah.

J.B.: The last song, "The Great Big Hug of Life," is a long piece and, if I'm correct, it's about people supporting each other during life? I guess. But the unusual choice of words during the verses seems to make no sense at all to me. Lines like "woozie whopper of a telephone bill, you know that i know about the ironing board" and "the milk and cheese congratulate you on your success, you give them a great big hug and treat them to cheese and crackers." What on earth are you trying to get at in this song?

K.R.: "The Great Big Hug of Life" is about more than support. It is about the conglomeration of detoxified ideas inserted in midpoints between toxic patterns of ideas and a splattering of toast crumbs. You could read more into that and you'd be correct to do that. When you have pants hanging together on a clothesline, it reminds me of karst hydrology. There are all these sausages and rice and then you have it all hanging on a doorknob. This is definitely a good sign.

J.B.: What are your plans for the future?

K.R.: I've been thinking about going to the supermarket to look for a book about pipes and bus stops.

J.B.: What about Superluminal Pachyderm?

K.R.: Shortly I plan to start recording the next album. It will be called Sea of Peas. I'm not sure what it will be about.

J.B.: I look forward to hearing it when it is finished and wish you success in recording it.

K.R.: Thanks for the bacon bits.