This idea evolved during the Ministry Video Production, Austin, Carolina and myself would often just hang out and talk music etc, and I had observed that Austin was a pretty good musician and liked the idea of doing something different musically. Both Austin & Carolina were friends of the guys from AT THE DRIVE IN and THE MARS VOLTA, who were part of the nearby EL PASO MUSIC SCENE, I liked THE MARS VOLTA, as they were doing something interesting, although their 70s prog-rock retro obsession with bands like YES was pretty obvious. So the Poets of Now idea evolved literally out in the dessert! Austin and I had similarly 'intellectual' 'literary Interests' and so wanted the, lyrics to be quite surreal and 'poetic', it was agreed that we would exchange text ideas once I had returned to Germany and I would arrange them into complete songs and return to EL PASO once this was done.

I took a couple of months break from the rigors of working with Ministry, and then returned to El Paso! It was summer by then and all should have been well, but I very soon noticed ‘strange vibes’ between Austin, Carolina & Justin J Lea (the fourth member of the team). TONY RANCICH , the owner of SONIC RANCH STUDIOS who had financed the whole thing had provided us with very comfortable accommodation and very good studio facilities, he had also provided me (and this proved to be the real plus of the whole thing) with an incredibly talented young Mexican sound engineer and musician called GILL ELGUEZZ. Gil was an incredibly nice guy and an absolute pleasure to work with, and due to the childish behavior and ego-mania of the rest of the so called band, I with Gil’s inspired input had to literally compose all the music myself. Bands often behave foolishly and certainly are famous for shooting themselves in the foot, but in the case of the PON, it was like working with dysfunctional children! If they weren’t screaming at each other they were refusing to do anything and if they did come into the studio, behaved with such utter bad grace it was appalling. However what came out of it was a brilliant album, with wonderful songs and a feel and atmosphere unlike any of the rather clichéd rock music which had previously been recorded at SONIC RANCH. Of course the whole composition and production felt far more European, but then Austin & Carolina band indeed Justin were total ‘Europhiles’.

Once I had completed the production, Brit had just arrived from Germany, so we decided to drive to LA, to visit my old MEDIUM MEDIUM chum STEVE HARVEY, and it was with a sigh of relief that we jumped in the car and (to use a dreadful cliché) headed out on the dessert highway!

Tony (Rancich) called me a couple of months later to say that he wanted no more to do with Austin or the Poets Of Now project, and it eventually ground to a halt in the dessert sands. I never discovered quite what had happened, but at the very least they had certainly behaved most ungraciously towards Tony! However one superb album came out of all this, which shows how negative energy (even Texan negative energy) can be turned into creative karma!

Tony Rancich was a pleasure to hang out with, a deeply eccentric and very generous character, he looked like the guy in one of the classic Westerns who knows where the bodies are buried! Tony had a whole host of great friends, the guy who designed the album sleeves for the Eagles, who was definitely from another planet, with a whole host of wonderful stories about Joni Mitchel which could not be repeated here or anywhere else!