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Musical collaboration maintains identity
By: Michael D. Smith,
Sun Entertainment Editor July 26, 2002
It's a rare thing in the music business, but guitarist Mike Wanchic and John
Mellencamp have maintained a creative collaboration that's now lasted for
over 25 years. According to Wanchic, the secret of their success is that
they've never lost their identity.
"We started out with a goal. It's one of those things that you never really
quite reach so it's never quite over in a funny way. Each record represents
a completely new challenge. Every time we make a new record, it's like
starting from scratch. We started off really fighting against the tide and I
think that's what tied everybody together. We were the uncoolest band in
town. Everybody hated us. Critics hated us when we first got out there.
"It built a really solid, cohesive foundation inside the band, in particular
between me and John. It's still that way. We still live on the outside of
the music business. We're not really a part of the mainstream of rock music.
We don't hang out in Los Angeles. We don't go to the Grammys or to the
Oscars. We still live in Bloomington, Ind., for a reason. It's for our own
autonomy and we really like it that way."
Wanchic, originally from Lexington, Ky., first met Mellencamp in 1976 while
he was interning at a recording studio in Bloomington. They hit it off so
well that Wanchic served as a guitarist on Mellencamp's album Chestnut
Street Incident.
"A lot of the common bond that John and I have is that there's an extreme
commonality in our musical backgrounds. In Lexington, during the '60s when I
was growing up, it was soul music. He lived in Seymour, Ind., which is about
70 miles from Louisville, Ky., and I was living in Lexington, about 70 miles
from Louisville. We both listened to the same radio station in Louisville
... the whole time we were growing up. It was basically some soul music and
R&B."
When Wanchic, Mellencamp and the rest
of the band appear onstage Sunday
evening at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre in Bonner Springs, it will be
the third year in a row they've come to the area to perform. However, unlike
many concert tours, this current, 20-date tour is not about promoting a new
album. In fact, according to Wanchic, Mellencamp is currently without a
label after leaving Sony a month ago, which had put out his last two albums.
"We're actually out to play for the joy of playing," Wanchic said. "That's
why we're only doing 20 dates. Then we're going to go home and relax and
everybody's going to get themselves rejuvenated and then we're going to come
back in November and do 20 more. The idea is to keep it
fresh, keep the love
of the music there and don't beat ourselves to death until we hate it. Let's
approach this with the tender loving care that we started out with and go
enjoy what we do."
When he's not playing with Mellencamp, the 50-year-old Wanchic produces
younger musicians and feels that being a mentor to them is exactly his place
in the world.
"Hopefully, with any kind of luck, I can actually impart some information to
these people which will help them avoid a certain amount of pain that John
and I went through. Certainly, as a producer with a new act, young bands
come to you and they have a vision of who they are or they think they do.
It's so easy when you get into a studio situation when you're young to just
lose your way. So I consider my job as mentor and producer as just keeping
people, especially young acts, ... to their original vision and try to
complete that thought."
For ticket information on Mellencamp's Sunday concert appearance in Bonner
Springs, call (816) 931-3330.
©The Johnson County Sun 2002
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