By Mark E. Waterbury

McKM: I gathered several musicians together in different places previously, wrote songs, did gigs, and it never really clicked. I had tons of songs that I am about as well as experience as a songwriter and playing with other people. Shortly after I moved to Athens, I met some musicians and was playing with them and trying to get something going but it was in question. There was this guy Bob Rising that kept nagging me to play with him but I was loyal to the other band until I saw that my current situation at the time wasn't going to work. Bob was a drummer from Chicago who had experience and we were just going to do a duo with him drumming and me playing guitar and singing. I was reluctant at first, but everything absolutely fell together. I busted my ass for years and couldn't get anything to work, but all that hard work seemed to fall together when I started playing with him. In no time we got off the ground, were playing out and getting on local radio. His sole purpose was to get me a push start, and we did record an album together. He already had plans to move back to Chicago, but he really got me started.

MM: What did you have to do in the early days just to get Polemic's name out?

McKM: I was pretty naive about it, and I'm still learning about it. You have to struggle pretty hard to get heard on a level that you want to. We just started locally here talking to college deejays to get our music played on their stations. Got our music into jukeboxes around town and tried to play out live as much as possible. Polemic is very intentionally what it is; it's a verbal attack on opposing doctrines and opinions. I've always been kind of aggressive about how this band needs to be heard, so I wasn't shy about promoting shows, getting them into the papers or putting up huge obnoxious flyers. It's been pretty grass roots and local, and I'm now learning how to extend it regionally. When you go into music, all you're thinking about is expressing yourself and sharing your songs with other people. When you have to learn to take on the business aspects, it comes to you as you go along, as long as you are willing to do it.

MM: In 2002, you did plenty of touring, but you didn't do very much this year. Was that primarily because you were working on your new album "Plastic on the Mouth Hole?"

McKM: I was playing out regionally and it occurred to me after talking to other musicians that had a lot more experience then me that I needed to get a solid recording and get it on the radio. I could stay on the road all I wanted to,but if I don't do it the right way, I can bust my ass all I want and not get the results I want in every town we go to. We can have a great live set and play our guts out, but no one is going to be there in another town if they've never heard our name. But if we can get our music on a college radio station or get a write up in their paper or get the CD in some indie stores, then we'll have some ground to start on. So I put all the time, effort and money into a recording to facilitate a stepping stone so we can go back on the road and do it the right way. You want to do everything, record and play out live, but when your finances are limited you have to pick and choose what is the smartest thing to do when you are an indie band, and that was the way to go for now.

MM: What else do you plan to do to help create more of a buzz for "Plastic on the Mouth Hole?"

McKM: I'm hoping that this album will stand a bit on its own. Being an indie band, you're always one step behind. We just put this album out so there are songs that are a year old, and artistically I'm in a different spot now. I'm already looking at recording a new piece, and to continue growing as a musician and a person. I'm just hoping it's going to stand on its own and if these college stations pick it up, and we are going to push it out to indie labels that will accept the submissions...anybody interested. I just want to play now because I thought so much about the business side that it's taking a toll. We need to get the live show together and get out there and back the album up; find out where it charts on the radio and go to those cities and play there and see who likes it.

MM: What is the feedback you get from fans? What do they like the most about the music?

McKM: The most common comment I've heard is about the realness of it. We can get kind of discordant intentionally and express things that are ugly or negative, not to put out negative vibes but to share the things that people go through that you don't always get to express. We have an honesty of what we are trying to play, without trying to fit into any genre. There are a lot of songs that could be considered indie pop on this album, but the lyrical content does tend to focus on problematic situations, and that they don't always have quick solutions. They lock on the contemplative aspects of the issues we discuss in our songs and the way that we express them; sometimes aggressively, sometimes painfully and sometimes melodically. It can be kind of schizophrenic at times, but the audience really gets into that. It takes a real different person to catch onto that but when they do they are very supportive.

MM: Do you think Polemic has what it takes to be a successful band?

McKM: I wouldn't be in it if I didn't think that. I absolutely know and believe we have what it takes but we do need to get a better grip on playing continuously. At the moment we are on a bit of a hold financially and I'm really trying to develop all these new songs, but we just have to keep pounding it out andnever give up. But it's there, it has everything, but if we're not absolutely persistent it's going to take longer. The point I'd really like to get to is expanding to a national basis, and being able to live more off the music. Money-making has never been part of the thought process, but if you can make more money off your shows and selling your records, you can pursue your craft even more. We're not really looking in the direction of today's mass music market, because it's so flaky and is not a valid pursuit for us, although I think it can be changed. It takes a lot of hard work and playing out, and the more that we do that, the closer we get to our goal.