Over the Rhine have been baptizing their followers in the Ohio River for over a decade, and the band returns with OHIO, a special two-disc set that unfolds like the ultimate Midwestern road trip.
"It was an accident," says Karin Bergquist. "We didn't set out to make a double album. If that had been the plan, it would have been a disaster."
Over the Rhine returned to the studio this Spring with few pre-conceived notions about the project that would reveal itself along the way. The
band could never have predicted the creative catharsis that followed and brought 21 new songs into being.
"Something happened," continues Linford Detweiler. "We were a little lost at the outset of recording. It was our tenth project overall. We were looking at each other sort of wondering if we were still game. But as soon as we started
getting into the new songs, we had the overwhelming sensation that we were coming home."
There was talk of separating the material into two projects--one being more bare-boned and acoustic, one being more full-bodied--but the band was having a difficult time pulling the new group of songs apart.
There was a turning point.
"For better or worse, the songs just seemed to belong together," says Detweiler, "I was sitting on the couch in the studio late one night, a
few days before we were scheduled to start final mixing. And I turned to Karin and Paul Mahern, our producer, and said, "Double album." And after the initial shock wore off, it was obvious to all of us: We had accidentally made a double album."
Karin adds, "The process of recording the songs on OHIO seemed to set us free somehow, and once we realized that we wouldn't have to break the songs apart into two different records, it was a huge relief. And it immediately raised a
lot of interesting questions: Where have all the double albums gone? Are there very many good ones? Are we actually crazy enough to be this
self-indulgent?"
"Then we decided we wanted to do a special edition on vinyl, in a gate-fold jacket, and there was no turning back. A double album on vinyl: that's about as decadent as it gets these days in an industry obsessed with singles."
There was only one remaining potential problem. Over the Rhine had to convince their record label and publisher.
"Virgin/Back Porch had not heard one demo, one rough mix, one note of any song from OHIO in advance," explains Detweiler, "And it's a pretty rare privilege for a band to have such complete creative freedom. But now we had this new project ready to deliver, and we definitely had some explaining to do: "Oh, by the way, there are 21 songs and over 90 minutes of music. And we'd like to sell it for the price of a single cd."
Hearing the music made all the difference. OHIO, the new double album from Over the Rhine, became a reality.
Some Things You Might Want To Know About OHIO:
Where have all the double albums gone?
1. OHIO, Over the Rhine's specially-priced two-disc set, will be released in the USA by Virgin/Back Porch on August 19th, and across Europe, the UK and South Africa, September 8th.
2. OHIO is Over the Rhine's tenth recording project overall. There will be a
special edition of OHIO available on vinyl.
3. Over the Rhine is a band blessed with a devoted and growing audience just crazy enough to actually listen again and again to every note of a double album. "It seems like most people who discover the band," says Bergquist, "wear out every record we've ever released."
4. OHIO unfolds like the ultimate Midwestern road trip, and yet connects a band to the piece of earth they call home.
The Making of OHIO:
1. The songs on OHIO were recorded on an old 16-Track Analog 2" Tape Machine with no loops, samples or sequencing.
2. Over the Rhine worked with producer/engineer Paul Mahern on OHIO, someone they knew very little about going into the project.
3. "We had met Paul a few times," says Linford Detweiler, "And he always had something to say that would stick with us for weeks afterward. And we knew he did a lot Kundalini Yoga. That was about it."
4. During the recording of OHIO, Paul got up at 3am every morning and did a two-and-a-half hour Yoga workout.
5. Later the band discovered Paul had done some mixing for Neil Young, Willie Nelson, Iggy Pop and John Mellencamp, and had made dozens of records with underground bands and gospel choirs.
Who Do They Think They Are?
1. Karin Bergquist grew up in the small Ohio Valley town of Barnesville.
2. Linford Detweiler was born in Hartville, Ohio, the son of a Protestant minister, but the family soon moved to Fairpoint, a small coal-mining town 20 miles from Barnesville.
3. Both Karin and Linford grew up listening to Gospel music, Country & Western, Rock & Roll. As a teenager, Karin Bergquist cruised the backroads of Ohio with friends, listening to Neil Young, John Lennon, Janis Joplin, The Pretenders, Joni Mitchell, Elton John and early R.E.M.
4. As children, both Karin and Linford could see Big Muskie, the world's largest earthmover, working at night, pulling the hills of Ohio apart
for coal. Big Muskie was over six-stories tall and a single bite of its bucket could move
325 tons of earth.
5. OHIO deeply mines the musical influences of a songwriting team that came of age in small American coal mining towns.
Over the Rhine -- Past and Future
1. Over the Rhine will be touring extensively in the USA with the five-piece band, September thru December of 2003, and plans to return to Europe and the UK in 2004.
2. Over the Rhine's music has been increasingly embraced in Europe, and the band toured in 15 different countries in support of their last release, Films For Radio.
3. Over the Rhine's dreamy, organic songs have shown up on compilations with the likes of Radiohead, Coldplay, David Gray and Turin Brakes.
4. Over the Rhine has been referenced in episodes of both the X-Files and Angel. Their music has been featured in such prime time television shows
as Third Watch and Felicity. Karin Bergquist has discussed her songwriting on NPR's All Thing's Considered. | 
