08/25/2020 Fastidio
Hi Trevor ............ what messy anecdotes with your buddies MR.BUNGLE that you remember ...... could you share?
Saludos
Once, on our first real tour in ‘92 Trey was driving the van and decided to open a glass jar of kimchi he had purchased somewhere along the road. For whatever reason the jar exploded and there was kimchi all over the place!! Oh man, what a mess.
08/25/2020 Michelle
Noticing the credits of California I saw that you wrote retrovertigo and the holy filament, and I’m wondering if you written anything along the same vein? Those are some of the coolest songs. Your work in moonchild is really sweet as well. Keep up the great work, and would love to hear a collection of raw demos from you.
The closest thing to Retrovertigo I’ve written since then is my MadLove record. I’ve also mentioned a “singer/songwriter” record that’s been in the works for a good decade. Hoping to finish that before I’m 60. The Holy Filament was kind of a special piece that lives on it’s own island.
08/26/2020 Brock O'Toole
Given the statements made in interviews about feeling that the Raging Wrath era of Mr. Bungle never had it's due and that you were always a metal band and metalheads at heart, do you regret going in an experimental, avant-garde direction with Mr. Bungle? If you could go back in time, would you have saved any interest in jazz or the avant-garde for your various other projects, and cemented Mr. Bungle's legacy as one of the earliest death/thrash metal bands?
Nope. No regrets. We were changing as we felt fit at the time. Having Mr. Bungle was actually a blessing as we had an outlet to explore different directions. There was no saving necessary, and I formed my own bands later to express whatever I wasn’t expressing in Bungle, as did the others. I would have lost my mind if I’d been stuck playing Day On The Green year after year.
08/26/2020 Ken Topham
Is there any way for one to acquire a notated score for "The Holy Filament"? Does one exist? I love the piece. I am interested in studying the harmonic structure. I would love to coordinate a performance for one of my student ensembles. As the composer of the piece, I would love to hear your thoughts on this and so much more. I hope you are well. Thanks for your time.
There is no formal score. Probably the piano part is written out, and the lead vocal melody. The vocal harmonies were all recorded on the spot. I’m sure as an educator you are capable of transcribing the thing ; )
08/27/2020Legendus Maximus
Please note, I asked Clinton McKinnon this about 10 years ago and he told me I'd have to ask you...
Clearly mickey mousing is one of your favorite compositional techniques
Please fill in the gaps for the acts of Platypus
0:00 - The big bang
0:32 - The settling of the elements, primordial soup and all that sciencey stuff
0:40 - Single protein things folding, placoderms evolving and whatevermore sciencey evolution stuff
0:45 - Platypus is formed
0:47 - Platypus walks in its funky rhythm
1:01 - Platypus swims underwater
1:15 - Swims up for air
1:22 - Pops out from underwater and paddles around at the surface
1:33 - back on land
1:37 - It stings something
1:51 - Swimming up a creek i guess...?
2:12 - Walking around and stuff again
2:24 - Im kinda lost here
2:40 - Has a biologist found him here?
2:45 - Gets pissed at the biologist for pulling him out of the water
2:49 - Biologist analysing the platypus swimming around in a tank
Kind of more experiments and weird stuff going on
3:35 - Doing an autopsy on the platypus
Kinda lost after here
I disagree that micky-mousing is a favorite technique. Sure, I’ve used it, but sparingly. Your interpretation of the second-by-second take on Platypus is your own. I would only write music in that way, most likely, if it were for film and that many cues were necessary (unlikely). Sometimes music isn’t about anything. It could be a vehicle for an idea (such as the history of a monotreme) or simply, just sounds.
08/27/2020 NM
How do you avoid worrying that your music is just the product of what you like? Do you feel a desire for it to be justified by something more objective or important? Have you found any justification like that?
Do you think your aesthetic beliefs are like your moral beliefs? I mean if I don't like death and like the color yellow, can I dedicate my life to painting things yellow and leave the fight against death to others? (I have done that, for the time being.)
Thanks for this.
I don’t think it’s a matter of what one likes. It’s more about being a sentient observer and expressing things that can’t be expressed in other ways. I’m positive that my music is as much informed by affinities and beliefs as by disgust and confusion. I think my moral and aesthetic beliefs inform each other but they are not the same thing. I think people should speak poetically but I also belief the merchant at the grocery store should be able to understand me. Also, hate to tell you this, but there is no fight against death. Death wins in the end (spoiler alert). So go forth and paint yellow my fellow artist. Cover the Earth! (as the fine folks at Sherwin-Williams would say). You don’t have to speak about death in your yellowness but it will be there whether you like it or not, in fact, maybe more so than you think it is. Perhaps you paint things yellow as a way of accepting (since you can’t ultimately avoid) death. Other things you can avoid. I mean, if you don’t like brown, don’t use it.
08/27/2020 Byron Dunbar
You mention what you are reading often and discuss loving books. Have you ever considered writing a novel or do you simply enjoy books as an audience member and prefer to express yourself in music and song lyrics?
It is something I’ve considered. Not sure if it would be a fiction piece or something else, but in any case, that is a massive undertaking. We’ll see….
08/29/2020 Mongo
If a documentary were made about Bungle's career, I'm talking really high quality shit, what song do you think should play over the credits?
Similarly, a documentary for -your- career as a whole: What song of yours (from any project) would you want playing over the credits?
I’m assuming you’re imagining the credits rolling at the end of the film, maybe some montage-type, Ken Burnisms, black and white, a couple of funny outtakes, extra behind-the-scenes footage. … For Bungle, it would be an unreleased improvisation from the '‘90s, but untitled and unexplained. For my own thing, probably one of my piano Nocturnes.
YOUR QUESTION
08/30/2020 Melody Nelson
Hi! Can you talk a little about the production process for the new Raging Wrath recording? Given that the production credit goes to the band, how were things split up between everybody? Did Dave and Ian have input in it too? Did anybody come to the table with really specific ideas about production style or even engineering? Curious what Spruance brought to the sessions considering his production obsession and affinity for extreme metal. Thanks!
MY ANSWER
It was really a group effort. We all deferred to each other when in doubt. We also knew from the get-go what kind of sound —’80s thrash obv— we were going for, so much was just given/unspoken. Often as is the case with Bungle, the guy who wrote the song has a sort of authority of the production, arrangement, details. But even in those cases, any five of us might chime in at anytime with an opinion or suggestion. And it’s important not to leave out Husky, the recording engineer and Jay, the mixing engineer. Their input is priceless.
09/01/2020Charles GrodinI
enjoy hearing stories of unlikely celebrity fans of bands. It was amazing seeing Devito and Rhea at the Fantomas shows in LA at the Troubadour. There's Lady GAGA's love of Maiden, Bill Paxton and Mike Muir running around town seeing punk shows in the early 80's, Belushi and Beef Baloney from Fear and Hammer Horror actor Sir Christopher Lee's obsession with heavy metal. Any weird Hollywood encounters or unexpected fans or stories? Thanks man.
Hmm, can’t think of any. Typically celebrities have a sort of magnetism for each other and for better or worse, not being what I would consider a “significant celebrity” I tend to avoid any of that. It doesn’t help that I like to spend my time backstage in a remote corner by myself eating salad. I also don’t spend very much time in Hollywood. I saw Steven Tyler in the grocery store once!
YOUR QUESTION
09/04/2020Nick Stoklasa
Do you prefer Charles Schulz's Peanuts or Trey Parker's South Park, and why (or do you not like either of them and why?)
MY ANSWER
I think that is an impossible and unnecessary choice to have to make. I grew up on Peanuts, cried my eyes out in the theater over Snoopy Come Home. South Park doesn’t need my opinion to uphold it’s wisdom. I enjoy them both.
09/09/2020 David Lee Hagar
So, some questions about OU818. Who wrote the amazing, creepy intro music? Any recollections you have about it would be much appreciated. I assume it was sequenced rather than played? And probably a keyboard that was present at the studio? Do you remember what keyboard it was?? There’s something about that sound that is really unsettling/sinister. I don’t get how a couple of kids from Eureka could come up with such a sound.
Also, a question about the title: I’m afraid I don’t get the Van Halen joke. I get “oh, you ate one too” but wtf is the joke that “OU818” is trying to make?
Trey programmed that weird-ass shit on, I believe, an Ensoniq SQ-80 which was our main keyboard for years.
In terms of your question about the title, I don’t think you’re meant to get it. We thought it was funny. In fact, we were in tears when it was suggested. It’s funny because the 8 gets repeated and it makes no sense. You still don’t have to get it.
09/10/2020
Do you know if Zorn listens to/likes any contemporary popular forms/styles of music? Has he ever mentioned specific artists, or have you ever seen him get excited about something really unexpected? I have a hard time imagining him being as open to more contemporary pop stuff in the way that you are. Who knows, maybe he digs someone like Fiona Apple or Outkast but I’d be alittle shocked!
I don’t know for sure, but my guess would align with your instinct. I’ve certainly learned about a lot of artists and performers from him over the years, mostly from earlier eras, that I had never heard of.
YOUR QUESTION
09/14/2020 Lance
Did Slipknot ever pay you guys royalties for blatantly stealing the masks and costumes idea?
MY ANSWER
You can’t really copyright “ideas”, and more importantly we weren’t the first band to wear disguises on stage. Yes, their take on the concept was arguably a copy-cat move (and I know from an observer that some of them were at some of our shows in ‘92 when we exclusively wore overalls and such) but I saw KISS in 1979 and never payed them royalties. Considering that our outfits came from public Halloween shops and thrift stores, I can almost guarantee that our costume budget was considerably smaller than theirs.
09/14/2020 Hayley
Hi Trevor! Your candid social media accounts and your willingness to engage with fans, both on this site and after gigs etc, give the impression that you are an approachable guy. Do you ever develop friendships or keep on touch with people (non musicians) that you first meet as fans of your music, or is it important to you to keep your professional and personal lives completely separate?
I like this question. Back in the days of sending cassette demos across the world to strangers as a form of DIY distribution I garnered several friendships that remain to this day, a good 30 years later. Realistically it’s impossible to keep in touch with everyone, nor would I want to. I am approachable because I’m a human being, but not always approachable for the same reason. I’m often baffled when people expect anything from me based on what they’ve read or heard. Of course, there are marketing/web-presence reasons for keeping my social media open. I haven’t reached the cult-of-personality status of some of my peers, thank goodness, so I like to engage on a human level with people (especially if they are not overbearingly creepy and cross boundaries), and I like the idea of assuring my followers that I am merely human, as they are, but I am more private than I may appear.
09/15/2020 Are you able to articulate what it is that draws you so persistently to Britney Spears? Like why her of all pop stars? You don’t strike me as the ironic type (and it’s clear that you genuinely enjoy some popular forms of music) but it seems like at some point being a super Britney fan became a kind of shtick for you (that your weird, obsessive fan base continues to feed and nourish) and as the years pass further and further into the digital post-everything abyss, this peculiar personal characteristic seems less impactful and more and more meaningless. Like, for a serious jazz musician to “admit” that he likes Britney Spears in 2020 means nothing essentially, even if it might have meant “something” in, say, 2002 or somewhere around there. I don’t know if I’m expressing this clearly. I guess what I’m trying to say is, you don’t have to keep trying into your fifties to prove to the world that you are obsessed with Britney Spears and platypuses. Free yourself from the constraints of your past identity markers, Trevor!!
I’m not sure why it’s perceived that I am drawn to her persistently. I wouldn’t say that’s true at all. I’m curious as to what you are drawn to: what the truth is about my life or what you read on social media and such. I certainly have no reason to prove anything to anyone and implore you to show me where at any time in the last 15 years I have said anything to express some sort of obsessiveness with either Britney or the platypus other than answer the questions of interviewers who chose to ask me about such topics. And then there are those who continue to read those interviews. Sounds like a the same style of “identity markers” that fans like to put on public figures. Thanks for the advice though!
07/15/2020 Mi
Hello,
I've been urged to listen to Calculus (by John Zorn) and I'm actually delighted, tripping and thankful to my friend who made the suggestion.
While being impatient for the last King Buzzo's album to pop-out : I was wondering how it is like to work with so many artists from different horizons and where do you feel the more comfortable ? If it's not a too private, or too long to answer question.
As previously mentionned, thank you for your time , music, thoughts sharing. Still hoping the world to heal and be able to enjoy live music again, for our souls sake.
sincerly , regards (I don't know how to conclude ... cheers ?)
It’s a god damn trip. It’s a psychodrama circus. Musicians are not normal people. I don’t know a single one who is not a total freak with an array of hangups, compulsions and obsessions.
07/14/2020 Evgeniy
Hello, Mr. Dunn!
Wanted to ask some questions, like do you prefer steel or nickel wound strings on electric bass, Why Precision and not JB, What do you think about short scale 30" basses, why you've never used Stingray basses (or i've never saw you playing them), how did you managed to avoid the abuses that killed some other great musicians etc. Then started to think all of them are dumb!
Wish you all the best, please continue to produce and share with us your music. Thank you very much again.
I prefer nickel. I love Jazz Basses and would love to own one as well as my Precision. I can’t play all the basses. I tend to find something I like and stick with it. I like short scales; I have a newish Mustang that I’ve barely used. Some very intelligent people have fallen victim to abuse. Sometimes they victimize themselves, other times it’s a coping mechanism to deal with trauma. I think one thing that helped me was having a very stable environment when I was young and the freedom to make my own choices while having role models to consult.
07/06/2020 Valentina Sangiorgio
Have you ever been to a Britney Spears concert, or had the opportunity to meet her!?!
I’ve been two five Britney concerts. Never been fortunate enough to meet her.
07/03/2020 Jeff Hi Trevor!
I know an age-old question is "what does it feel like to be on stage in front of an audience?" so I'd like to come through with something (perhaps) a little more original:
Whenever we're young and begin to learn instruments, naturally, we want to learn how to play our favorite songs. Have you ever looked up videos of other people playing (or attempting to play) any of your basslines? If so, how does it feel to have created something that a lot of people have heard, and proceeded to think "That's so fucking cool, -I- want to learn how to play it"?
Furthermore, has a particular performance of one of your basslines (or a song made by any band you've been a part of) ever blown you away?
I remember the first official Bungle tour in ‘92. Because of the unusual circumstances of already being somewhat known thanks to the fame of our singer we were greeted with an audience that new the lyrics and sang along. That blew me away. I can remember thinking, wow, I just wrote these lyrics in my bedroom a couple years ago! I always feel honored and validated when people claim me as an influence or arrange and/or play music I’ve written. It makes me feel that I’m part of an unbroken lineage. There are those that came before me and those that will come after.
I have seen some very impressive arrangements of Bungle songs made by high school bands.