State Press Magazine
November 18, 1993

by Jennifer Winslow

THE ART OF WRITING HONEST LYRICS

Sometimes a band just stands out. Out of the stacks of bios and CD's pushed by record companies trying to get publicity for their new talent, one band will stand alone above the countless others vying for attention.

For me, the band was Over the Rhine. I had never heard of them before their record company asked me to do an interview.

The bio was different: A set of eight postcards with artwork and photographs on the front, and information about the band on the back. One card was dedicated to providing a brief history of the band. Another identified the members with one quote from each written out beside their names. The rest of the information about the band was given indirectly, sometimes through a quote from a person who has influenced the band, sometimes through a band member's journal entry.

Looking through the postcards and listening to the CD, it became clear to me that this was not an ordinary band.

There is an honesty about Karin Bergquist, Ric Hordinski, Brian Kelley and Linford Detweiler that comes through in their music and lyrics. There are no rock star star egos and cliches. Over the Rhine are just four friends who love to make music. They write about what they know --their lives.

As I talked to Bergquist over the phone, I asked her whether the songs were as personal as they appeared to be. She responded to that and all my subsequent questions with a candor that typifies her and her band's ability to turn life into music.

"Musically and lyrically, what's inspired the songs--we feel they're just basically pages torn from our journals--and that's just about as honest as we know how to be."

But for Bergquist, who never intended to write songs, this means that her ideas that are put to music are very personal.

"For me, it's definitely personal. Most everything I think I've written has just been some kind of reflection, a happy accident, or something that I'm enjoying at the present time."

She envies bandmate Detweiler, who wrote most of the lyrics on their first major label record, Patience, for his natural writing ability that allows him to distance himself a bit more at times.

"I know that Linford, having the knack for writing, can write about different characters and his imagination can just wander and he can translate that into situations and poems and songs that really aren't necessarily autobiographical. But I still think there's an element of intimacy where we're all concerned when we write--it has to mean something to us."

I wondered if all this intimacy had an impact on Bergquist when she performs.

"There's a strange feeling when the night's over for me. I've heard some performers say that they feel just this incredible high. For me--maybe it's because a lot of what I'm doing is so personal--I feel good, but usually when I'm done and I'm alone, I feel really empty and very alone and very vulnerable. Drained. It's not necessarily pleasant at all and there's moments I wonder why I'm doing it."

"But then someone will say something after the show like, 'Oh, I understand what you meant, I have so been there' so it's kind of worth the nakedness for that, it really is."

Over the Rhine plays with Squeeze Tuesday at the Red River Opry.