(From True Tunes Online Newsletter)

Over the Rhine -- 
      On the Brink 
      By Todd Brown 
                                                                
     With Over the Rhine it's always been a question of when they'd get their break rather than if. After a brief stint with
     I.R.S. Records proved unfruitful the band returned to the independent scene and promptly produced Good Dog Bad
     Dog, widely regarded as the strongest of the band's four studio albums. That was 1996 and though the nearly four
     years since have produced a Christmas record, a pair of B-side and live collections, and a solo instrumental project,
     it is the last proper studio recording the band has produced. With such a long layover you might expect support for
     the band for slowly die out, but that hasn't been the case as continued touring and strong word of mouth continued
     to build support. Hints of good things to come for Over the Rhine began bubbling to the surface throughout the past
     year. Years of constant touring began to produce some high profile fans, including Canada's Cowboy Junkies who
     have chosen Over the Rhine as their opening act for their past two tours and who have made founding OTR
     members Karen Bergquist and Linford Detweiler touring members of the band. Fans of the band were shocked to
     spot several obvious nods both to the band and their most recent album in one of last season's episodes of The X
     Files. In late 1998 the band cancelled their customary December tour to record a string of new demo recordings
     requested -- and paid for -- by Capitol Records. This last appeared to be the break the band and its fans were waiting
     for, and it was with a mixture of disappointment and excitement that the word spread that while the band had opted
     not to sign with Capitol they would be releasing a new studio album independently by Christmas. But it seems plans
     are made to be broken as the band has announced that after years of hard work they have finally found a new label
     home. True Tunes' writer Todd Brown recently had the chance to talk to band founder and lead song-writer Linford
     Detweiler about the developing future of Over the Rhine. 
     TB: We should probably start by talking about the new deal.
     The new deal. Well, we're going to sign with a new division of Virgin Records called Virgin Backporch. I think I feel sort of like people feel
     when they get married for the second time. They don't want to make as big a deal out of it the second time around. I'm excited, but...
     What kind of deal is this? Is it another long term one? I've heard they'll be re-issuing Good Dog Bad Dog?
     Right. They're licensing that record so we'll get it back eventually. We've agreed to the release of another record in 1999 and there's the
     possibility of three more after that depending on what happens.
     What happens to your old records?
     They're going to re-release them. 
     The first three are all going to come back into print?
     Yeah, Virgin is going to do that at their discretion but it's part of the deal that they're going to re-circulate those records. ‘Til We Have Faces
     is still floating around out there but Patience and Eve have definitely been out of print for a while and they're going to re- release all three. 
     How did this deal come together? Did the exposure from touring with the Cowboy Junkies help?
     The vice president of Virgin saw use play at a venue in Southern California called The Coach House. It's a fairly famous club down there.
     We opened for the Junkies that night as an acoustic quartet without our rhythm section. Based on that performance, which was about a year
     ago, we've been able to get this deal together. That was the seed that was planted. It took them about seven or eight months to get a hold of
     us and after that it didn't take all that long to realize that we were all on the same page. Although technically the vice president of Virgin is the
     guy who's signing us they dispatched Van Morrison's A & R guy to Cincinnati to break the ice. I was pretty honored. They've really tried to
     wrap their arms around us as best they know how.
     What made this deal better than the one you turned down with Capitol? 
     That would've been more of a traditional record deal with the label approaching the deal from the standpoint of having a hit single as a point
     of departure; big money being thrown around; everything being decided by committee; the band being at the beck and call of the label to try
     and deliver -- under pressure -- a record that the label feels is commercially viable. The problem with that is not only do you not get to make
     the records that you want to make, but nine times out of ten they're wrong about what will be a commercial success. Plus, the guy that we
     were dealing with at Capitol was in the process of renegotiating his own contract and that was getting to be a pretty drawn out process. We
     just started putting our attention elsewhere.
     So is the Backporch deal more grass roots oriented?
     It is actually. They're going to be using a lot of the same marketing people who work with Peter Gabriel's Real World label and David
     Byrne's Luaka Bop. Both of those labels are used to a fair amount of success without necessarily having a really mainstream approach to
     marketing. They've gotten pretty good at going in under the radar and getting their records into the hands of people who like music. They're
     going to be using some of the same marketing ideas that they've used for those two labels. On the next record especially I think there will be
     some songs that are more geared toward radio and at that point the muscle of Virgin Records -- the same people that are looking after
     Lenny Kravitz, The Spice Girls, The Rolling Stones -- can do what they do well. 
     What's going to happen to the demos you recorded for Capitol?
     The demos may eventually end up on our website or something as part of a new fan club. Most of those songs were re-recorded over the
     course of the summer. 
     Do you have release dates for anything?
     Good Dog Bad Dog comes out in late January and we're talking about following that up with our next studio project in July. That's been a
     long time coming. Depending on what happens with Good Dog Bad Dog we might put that off a bit. If it's the kind of thing where it just
     simmers like we expect it to then we want to have this new record ready to go by the middle of the year. It's pretty much finished and we
     were talking about putting it out independently at the end of this year but now that this deal came together it's taken the pressure off and we
     want to be able to record a bit more first.
     This will be the first album with the current line up. What kind of direction is the band going in? Are the new tracks on Amateur Shortwave
     Radio standard for what you're doing right now?
     Well, not really. What we were working on over the course of the summer was our attempt to make a pretty full blown pop record with the
     same kind of vibe as Pet Sounds or even Sergeant Peppers. We were getting fairly elaborate arrangements together, I had a string section
     on some stuff, and it was fairly obvious that it was a studio project. I had a lot of fun putting that all together, but I think that now that the
     pressure's off there's part of me that realizes that, y'know I do want to go back and just do some more straightforward, intimate recordings
     as well and have the two collections to draw from to put a record together. 
     What is the current line up? I know Brian's left again [Brian Kelley, original Over the Rhine drummer].
     Yes, I don't know if it'll be permanent this time or not. Have we got a lineup together now... we just played two shows last weekend with
     this line and we're having a great time. It's Don Heffington on drums...
     He's permanent now?
     Well, he's doing four shows with us this December and I think that he's permanent in that whenever we ask him to join the group for a leg of
     a tour or something he's willing to do that. Over the Rhine has evolved into being, at this point, whoever Karin [Bergquist, the band's lead
     singer] and I ask to be a part of it. Sometimes we're out as a trio, sometimes it's a quartet, sometimes it's a fairly big ensemble or whatever,
     but it's definitely keeping it fresh for us to keep trying different things. But anyway, we've got Don Heffington on drums. He played in a band
     that was a huge influence on Karin and I called Lone Justice. David Labruyere -- ex-Vigilante of Love -- is playing bass.
     Is he not still playing with Monk [post Over the Rhine act fronted by founding lead guitarist Ric Hordinski]?
     I'm not sure. It's an awfully close knit family here in Cincinnati with kind of a revolving door. I'm sure he'll play with Rich again at some point.
     David's out with the opening act for the Indigo Girls right now, an artist called Michelle Malone. He's playing bass for her as well as Over
     the Rhine. These are all people who we like playing with and it's not so much about having a permanent line up as it is being committed to
     taking great players out when we do play and David's the guy right now. He's having a great time and I'm sure we'll do a lot more together
     but it doesn't mean it's an exclusive thing. Jeff Berg from the Junkies has been playing with us. He's been a fantastic addition emotionally and
     musically. He's a great guy and one of those people who just when you thought he had mastered every known instrument he pulls something
     else out and, "Oh, you play upright bass as well as mandolin, guitar, harmonica, and piano." When he's staying here at the house I've got a
     piano downstairs and a piano upstairs in the attic and he'll be in the attic playing Bach preludes. He's truly multi-talented. I don't quite
     understand how people find time to learn to play all this stuff, although I guess I do play a number of instruments myself. The mind blower for
     me is that he can do all that stuff and play upright bass. That's a science unto itself. Anyway, I'm rambling. We've got Terri Templeton on
     backup vocals and playing violin, Jack Henderson on guitar and Karin and I. 
     You were saying before it's basically become whoever you and Karin want to be with, and it seems like a lot of the band turnover coincided
     with you and Karin getting married. Did that affect the dynamics within the band or was it just coincidence?
     I don't think... I guess you'd have to ask the rest of the band. I think the dynamic of the band had been established at that point. Karin and I
     had been a couple for about seven years prior to getting married and I don't feel like that ever affected our ability to get in there and do
     whatever needed to be done. Speaking from my perspective, we started experimenting with adding other players when we felt like the
     quartet had taken Over the Rhine as far as we knew how. I'm very proud of the records we made with the original quartet but musically we
     were getting to a place where it was starting to feel a little uninspired, frankly. The first thing we did was to introduce an acoustic bass player
     into the band. That was Chris Dahlgren. I moved onto piano and eventually started getting into Hammond organ. I feel like a lot the changes
     that were made in the band were first triggered by Rich's desire to do his own music. Our visions didn't always line up. On some level I was
     sort of the band's leader and founder and every once in a while when it got too unfocused I would try to come in with a fairly strong vision
     and refocus the band. Sometimes that wasn't everybody's first choice. One of the times that I felt like I came in with a strong vision was right
     before Good Dog Bad Dog. We'd done this rock record, Eve, and I felt like it was not what Over the Rhine did best and I wanted to get
     back to putting the focus on the songwriting. That was a hard sell. It contributed to us leaving IRS because they wanted us to keep
     everything revved up and they wanted that modern rock single and I sort of rebelled against that. At the time I think Rich and Brian felt like,
     "Well we're not doing as much on this more introspective music, so what's the point?" [laughs] That's the bleak version. But just a few weeks
     ago Rich told me that of all our records he's the most proud of Good Dog Bad Dog. That's the record that's kept the band alive, at the end
     of the day. I don't think it's anything as simple as us getting married. A lot of those dynamics had been set in motion years prior to that. Rich
     came to a place where he felt like he wanted to move on and take a shot at doing his own thing.
     It seems as if recently you've gotten a little more comfortable in your relationship with the Christian market.
     Whatever gave you that idea? [laughs]
     Well Cornerstone just announced the first six or seven confirmed bands and you're one of them, you're available in a lot more Christian
     outlets, things like that. There's more involvement there where at the beginning it was a little more distant. Is that an accurate read, or is it just
     that more people are coming to you?
     Stacie at our office is pretty much in charge of getting our records out and if someone calls and says they want to carry our product she
     makes it available to them, unless there's a really good reason not to. We don't have any sort of policy about excluding various outlets
     because of other music they distribute or whatever. As far as playing the occasional Christian festival, I guess my hope is that when we do
     that Over The Rhine can go in and do something that's a little bit left of center, that maybe for some kids can open up a world that otherwise
     they wouldn't have access to, musically. With a festival like Cornerstone I just have a lot of respect for the people who put on the festival. I
     would have a hard time rationalizing saying thanks but no thanks just because I thought it would be detrimental to my career. I think that I
     feel comfortable supporting them because of their lifestyle. In general I'm still very skeptical of the whole concept of having a separate music
     specifically for church-goers, or whatever. That does not ring true to me. Hopefully I'm contributing to the lines getting increasingly blurred.
     I sometimes see your position in music similarly to how I see writers like Frederick Buechner or Madeleine L'Engle who have a really
     obvious faith element to what they're doing but are trying to bridge the markets.
     Yeah, and those writers are good enough to be on mainstream publishers for most of their stuff and originally when we started the band that
     was our thinking, that if what we're doing is up to a certain standard it'll resonate with a broad spectrum of people. I think for the most part
     we've continued to attract a very diverse audience and I like that.
     I'm not convinced that it's true but I know that there's a perception out there that the recording industry isn't big on people of faith. Is that
     something you've run into? Do you feel like you have to edit yourself when you write?
     Oh, absolutely not. I would be if I was on a Christian label, believe me. I'd be editing myself left and right. No, I don't edit myself at all. I try
     to write the songs I want to write and make the records I want to make.
     Do you have any particular audience in mind when you write? I don't know if you're familiar with Kurt Vonnegut but he talks a lot about
     how he thinks all writers write for one person in particular, that they judge their work based on how they think that person would react to it,
     and for him it's his dead sister. Do you have that kind of conscience in the back of your head? If you could go out and pick an audience who
     would it be?
     Wow. I don't think I have a lot of expectations about that. Occasionally when I'm writing I might think, "I wonder what Michael Wilson
     would think of this." He's a friend of ours who has a vast knowledge of music and is a real music lover and has introduced me to some things
     that have been pretty influential. I wonder what Karin will think because she's the one that'll have to sing it but there's not one specific person
     that I'd reference. It's more of an overall instinct that something feels true and unforced. Sometimes I have the sense as I'm writing that I'll be
     learning along with the listener when it comes to a particular piece and that's typically an indication that I'm on the right track. Music for me is
     a way of exploring what I think is true. That's part of it. Sometimes I'm trying to figure that out as I go.
     What's been feeding your writing lately? You spot bits of lots of authors sometimes in your work.
     Well, the newspaper just called me and asked if I could take just one book into the new millennium, what would it be. Two books
     immediately came to mind. One was the King James Bible the other was Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard. I'm a big fan of hers and
     I've been tied up in knots because I chose Pilgrim at Tinker Creek instead of the King James version of the Bible. It's probably not an
     accurate choice. Even though, frankly, I don't find myself reading the Bible a lot right now if I had to take just one book, the thing about the
     Bible is that it would remind me of probably every other book I've ever read as I sat and read it, not to mention that many of the earliest
     stories I heard as a child are in the Old Testament. I was listening to Elie Wiesel speak and it was incredible to hear a European Jew with his
     story giving his spin on a lot of the stories in the Old Testament, just kind of retelling them. I was thinking that I had all the same feelings as a
     child that he had, when I heard these stories. They're wonderful stories and this has nothing to do with your question. What's feeding me
     right now? I have to admit that I've been on kind of a Frederick Buechner jag. When I discover an author, for the most part, I try to read
     most of what that person wrote. It was CS Lewis years ago, then it was Dylan Thomas, then it was Flannery O'Connor, then it was southern
     women writers in general, then it was Annie Dillard, and now I've gotten into Frederick Buechner and he's got quite a shelf full. I'm still
     absorbing what he did and I'm reading the three autobiographies right now, The Sacred Journey and all that. I don't know, all those people,
     everyone I've every read seriously or anyone who's oeuvre I've absorbed is obviously influencing everything that I do.
     I've gotta ask about the X Files episode last year. How did that happen?
     [laughs] We've got a friend who writes for the series and who's been following the band for a long time. He actually made a video for Happy
     With Myself years ago. He's a good friend and Karin is a pretty big fan of the X Files. While we were on tour with the Junkies we spent
     some time with him out in LA and Karin said, "Incidentally if you ever need anybody to die in David Duchovny's arms with an alien coming
     out of her chest, give me a call." So he was working on this episode and managed to stick in about half a dozen inside jokes about Good
     Dog Bad Dog and Karin's love of all things canine. We were sitting there watching it with no idea any of this was going to happen. In that
     first little preview segment this Dr. Detweiler character walks on and we had a good little chuckle and thought, "Oh, that's really cute". It was
     pretty unnerving. When we saw the sign for Bergquist kennels and there's Fox Mulder asking for Karin Bergquist we were pretty much in
     shock. It was pretty funny and we had a good laugh over it. Karin got a couple of props from the show, Jeff sent them out for her. She's got
     this book on dogs with a dust jacket that they had printed with her name on it. It's pretty funny. She didn't end up dying in David Duchovny's
     arms. That was written into the original script but it got cut. Instead I pushed her through a window and I ended up taking a stake through
     the heart. It was close enough for rock and roll I guess.