Producer/guitarist Mike Wanchic sat in the studio waiting for another mix to come up. Between CNN on the TV, playing unplugged licks on his 20-year-old Les Paul Standard and bites of hot woton soup, he discussed his "passions" -- producing records, playing guitar in a band, and flying his own airplane.

AMP: Playing guitar with John Mellencamp for twenty years, producing new bands, flying airplanes.. . What's up with that?

Wanchic: Well they're all death-defying feats. (laugh) It's the same process, really. They require attention to detail, discipline and order. There's something about it, though. It's freeing; it's very freeing on one hand and on the other hand it's an ultimate discipline. You got to be super loose. But at the same time be technically adept and ultra responsible. Knowing when to be loose and when to be disciplined. I think it's the mental challenge, the intellectual challenge Learning to fly I learned to think in ways I hadn't thought before. Then apply those skills in life and death situations. You take your lessons a little more seriously.

AMP: It's not life and death in the studio.

Wanchic: On an economic level I guess it can be conceived as death defying (laughs), but for the band and the producer it's the unknown. It's scary. You want to make this ultimately artistic and satisfying record. The record company wants something they can play on the radio and sell. It's the razor's edge.

AMP: And what the producer wants?

Wanchic: It's not what the producer wants. Look, it's not making records for people. Producing is the culmination of my experience. I've learned arrangements, the studio, performance skills, how to recognize good performances. Some producers want you to do their bag. I want to see where the artist wants and needs to go. I give them choices. "If you do that you'll get off big-time but you might not get it on the radio." I show them the realities of their choices. Then I will help them make their record. We have to trust each other. If you don't trust your producer you better fire him.

AMP: Is it different what you bring to each artist?

Wanchic: Absolutely. That comes from my varied background. When I was growing up my mother was a radio program director at a Lexington (KY) station. She gave Flatt & Scruggs their first radio show. I grew up with the Opry and soul music listening to WLAC-AM (a legendary Nashville R&B station). I could pick it up with the radio in my '63 Plymouth Valiant. I'd sit in that car at night and listen to Ernie's Record Mart and all the black music. I grew up with the Beatles and Stones and psychedelia. Twenty years in the same rock band going through every experience from unknown to huge rock stars to the other side.

AMP: The other side?

Wanchic: Yeah, where you start using your skills to help other people make their own records. Producing is what I do... and I play some guitar... I'm both like the world's best guitar player in the world in that band (Mellencamp) and probably one of the most average in any other context. Being in the same rock band for so long I've become a stylist. I do Mike Wanchic better than anyone. I kick it in the ass. Steve Cropper taught me that lesson years ago. I played this solo for him better than I ever played it in my life. Cropper stopped the session and said, "What was that? What are you doing? I couldn't swing to it." Man, it was a great lesson. "Do your thing," he kept saying. "Don't chase Eddie Van Halen." You know? (Wanchic starts strumming while scat singing the groove.) A-tooka CHACK, a-tooka CHICK... Big old twos and fours.

AMP: Is more Mellencamp coming?

Wanchic: We'll start recording again in June. We're making an all acoustic record. We picked all the old songs we liked, not necessarily the hits, and started recording them. It's really good. I play a lot of slide on this -- electric, a Dobro, a new Epiphone Skunk Baxter acoustic.

AMP: That band pioneered a distinctive acoustic and electric sound.

Wanchic: Larry Crane and I always split duties between single-coil and double-coil pickups. We often played the exact same parts, but with different guitars and pickups. You get the phasing and broader tonality so the sound is not identifiable as dot-neck ES-335 or a Telecaster. It opens the midrange.

Really, John is the core of the acoustic sound. He played an early `70s Dove with "F__k Facism" scrawled on it. In the early days we would replace his parts. But as John brought in new songs and played them for us we began to love his playing. It's a distinctive style. It's hard to get away from the songwriter. The cool interpretation is right there... That launched us on a new concept. We took our rock parts and played them on acoustics. John Cassella started playing accordian and we brought in Lisa Germano to play fiddle. If we have any contribution to rock its that aggressive-acoustic-rock amalgam. It's all over the place now.

AMP: And next?

Wanchic: Producing is what I do. I'll finish The Why Store (Way Cool/MCA) this week. They're a great band -- a hippie-alternative band. Great songs. I'm looking at other new band projects and I'm checking out this new artist in Australia.

AMP: Are you going to fly your plane there?

Wanchic: (Laughs) Are you nuts?

Mike Wanchic's Producer Credits:

John Mellencamp	Mr. Happy Go Lucky, Dance Naked, Human Wheels, Whenever We Wanted, Falling From Grace (Soundtrack)
The Why Store	The Why Store, 1998 release TBA
Cowboy Mouth	Cowboy Mouth
Robert Mirabal	Mirabal, Land
James McMurtry	Too Long In the Wasteland, Candyland
Sue Medley	Sue Meley, Inside Out
Hearts and Minds	Hearts and Minds
Vova Nova	Vova Nova
Ghengis Angus	Echo Park

Mike Wanchic's Performance Guitars/Amp:

Electrics:

1974 Les Paul Standard

1958 Les Paul Jr.

Jerry Jones Shorthorn

Jerry Jones Baritone

Rickenbacher 12-String

1957, '61, '64 Fender Stratocasters

Acoustics:

Epiphone Jeff "Skunk" Baxter Signature Model

Guild F 50

Dobro Depression

National Lap Steel

Tunings:

Standard

G-tuning (low D,G,D,G,B,D)

Amplifier:

Mesa Boogie Mark III (2)

Mesa Boogie 4x12 speaker cabinet

Mesa Boogie 2x12 speaker cabinet (guitar stage monitor)