MR. BUNGLE

Selected Discography

Exclusive Interview (1)

Theodora Agiotis from CSCA Radio interviewed Trey Spruance [Guitar] and Trevor Dunn [Bass] of Mr. Bungle on November 1, 1999 Toronto (ON), The Guvernment. [Interview transcript used with permission. Minor editorial alterations by Justin St. Vincent].

Theodora Agiotis: Can you explain the musical progression from your speed-metal demo tapes into today’s Mr. Bungle sound of “California”?

Trevor Dunn: That’s quite a leap, it only took us about fifteen years, four demos and three albums later, so it wasn’t necessarily an abrupt change, I think things evolved quite a bit over the years.

Theodora Agiotis: Do you like the sound you have today more than the demo tapes?

Trevor Dunn: Not necessarily… uh… well, certainly some of the demo tapes were horrible, but ah, you know as far as the speed metal stuff, we were just enjoying it at the time and we are enjoying what we are doing now.

Trey Spruance: We try to go for the same amount of personal excitement, at the time the speed metal was really the thing for us, now this is the thing for us. I don’t think we view these things as an evolution, were just doing what comes natural to us.

Theodora Agiotis: If you guys are happy, that’s all that counts. And your fans love the music now and then.

Trevor Dunn: Fortunately.

Trey Spruance: Yeah, luckily when we keep ourselves happy, we keep someone else happy. It doesn’t always work that way.

Theodora Agiotis: What is the band’s process of songwriting? What comes first, lyrics, music, or theme?

Trey Spruance: Music comes first. It almost entirely starts with tapes. Each of us has separate ideas, sometimes they will be fully formed, and others will be fragments. That happen to fit together to form something. Like Mike will have written something as long ago as ten years ago, like a little riff. For instance, in “None Of Them Knew They Were Robots” I lifted this riff that I remembered, because I wanted to do this crazy rockabilly kinda song. And this riff was from ten years ago, no, it was more than ten years ago, it was from death metal time fit perfectly, so you know, that can happen too.

Theodora Agiotis: How much importance do the lyrics have on a song? Are they used for their sound or for their meaning?

Trey Spruance: Depends on who write them.

Trevor Dunn: It does depend. A lot of times, sometimes the lyrics might just be we’re trying to finish the lyrics last minute in the studio, other times they might have more of an insight into the whole song. It really does depend. A lot of the times, when I write a song, I start with a title, and then go to the music and then go back to the lyrics. So that is one way of dealing with it.

Theodora Agiotis: Would you say that is similar to the way that the other people write the songs?

Trevor Dunn: I couldn’t really say.

Trey Spruance: I think we are all different. Mike definitely writes from more of an aural standpoint. He comes up with syllables and nonsensical verses and then it’s pretty weird.. it’s amazing watching some of his lyrics take shape because they don’t sound a whole lot different than those weird sounds he was making.

Theodora Agiotis: What role, if any, does literature play in your song writing?

Trevor Dunn: Pretty big.

Trey Spruance: Again, it matters who is writing the stuff. But the things that all of us are separately exploring of course find their way into the lyric writing. To a greater or lesser extent the different voices, the different compositional voices, also voice things lyrically as well.

Trevor Dunn: We also watch a lot of movies.

Theodora Agiotis: What would be your favourite movie?

Trevor Dunn: My favourite movie, oh that’s a hard one!

Theodora Agiotis: Or which one would you say had the most influence?

Trevor: Well, in recent, a couple movies that stand out to me are “Gummo” and “Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas”.

Theodora Agiotis: Some songs on your albums create scenarios that can be easily shown in a film clip. Which songs from any album would you consider a good example of this? Do you think that you will ever make these into short videos or film clips?

Trey Spruance: If there was ever a question, like if we wanted to do that, we would love to do things like that, but we’re not film makers. It’s the kind of thing were it takes a lot of money, as anybody who has experienced film as the other side of filmmaking knows. We don’t get asked to do that kind of stuff. It would be great if we were.

Theodora Agiotis: Is the band interested in any film scoring?

Trey Spruance: We would love to if someone would ask.

Theodora Agiotis: There was a rumor about a video game soundtrack, is that true?

Trey Spruance: There was talk about that, but it never happened. Again, that’s another thing that would be great!

Trevor Dunn: Those are two genres of music, video game music and film music that are definitely things that we listen to a lot. And a lot of people have told me that a lot of our stuff sounds like soundtrack music and it doesn’t surprise me because we listen to a lot of those guys.

Trey Spruance: There’s tons of material just laying around, waiting to find it’s way into these things.

Theodora Agiotis: Have any of the band members ever considered doing anything other than music?

Trevor Dunn: I think probably I’m speculating here but I think that most musicians consider quitting music from time to time just due to the hardships. But, you know you could say that about any vocation or whatever. It hasn’t gotten that far enough with me where I could consider doing something else.

Trey Spruance: Yeah, those are moments of extreme frustration were you just want to throw yourself though the window, but it’s not like you’re exploring some real alternative.

Trevor Dunn: I have certainly thought about “Well, what if I wasn’t a performing musician?” There are so many different branches of music that you could go to being strictly a composer or a film composer
or producer.

Trey Spruance: But that’s all still music.

Theodora Agiotis: The members of Mr. Bungle are, without a doubt, extraordinary musicians. What formal music training does each member have, if you know?

Trey Spruance: Well, Trevor and I both went to college with music major, so did Bar, our saxophonist. That would be the extent of our formal music training. Most think all of the musical growth of the band is more dependent on the things that we have been exposed to and the listening we have done over the years. And it has been a lot of different all of us going in separate directions, but marginally keeping each other informed if we stumble upon something that is really amazing. We have been able to cover a lot of ground that way.

Theodora Agiotis: Mike Patton told this to the Onion “We were booted off several bills, including a really big festival in Australia, specifically because Anthony Kiedis did not want us on the bill. He threatened to pull the Chili Peppers if Mr. Bungle was on the bill.” Could you comment on that?

Trevor Dunn: Money talks! To be honest, we really don’t know that much about it. He actually booted us off some festivals in Europe. He is holding some kind of grudge that we can only speculate about. I don’t know the guy at all. I don’t know why Mr. Bungle has any bearing on the Chili Peppers, it’s really bizarre.

Theodora Agiotis: Do you think it has something to do with Mike Patton also being in Faith No More?

Trevor Dunn: I think it has something to do with that, but he’s one guy in Mr. Bungle.

Trey Spruance: And they have been gone for two years now, so whatever incidents there were when Chili Peppers and Faith No More were perceived on the same plate, that was at least eight years ago. I really wonder what’s motivating it honestly, there’s got to be something more to it than that.

Trevor Dunn: We dressed up as the Chili Peppers for Halloween last night in Pontiac near Detroit.

Theodora Agiotis: Is the pattern we’ve seen so far with three albums in eight years something that will continue?

Trevor Dunn: Hopefully not, but you can never tell. Our writing process and touring process has always been spread out. Hopefully we’ll be able to put something out a little quicker this time.

Trey Spruance: I’ve put my foot in my mouth before saying, “Oh, yeah, next time it will come out much sooner”. Every time something comes up. This year we’re touring more, maybe that will push it back five years.

Trevor Dunn: Yeah, usually we’ve only toured for a month. For the last record, we toured a total of three months over the course of a couple years. And this time we are setting up tours right now that might possible take us through spring and into the summer. Say we finish touring next summer, all of us are going to have to get away from the band for a while, just to get our heads away from the music so we can start thinking about new stuff. It’s going to take a year for that to happen.

Theodora Agiotis: It was also heard that your release date for “California” was pushed back because the Red Hot Chili Pepper’s “Californication” album was being released the same day. Is that true?

Trevor Dunn: Well, it was what seemed to be a coincidence at first, and then we found out the name of their record. Well, ok, maybe that’s just a really weird coincidence. And then the booting of the festivals the tours started happening.

Trey Spruance: Well, it was a coincidence. When we got booted off the tour that we were coincidentally on the same bill, and they had to kick us off. And yesterday, by coincidence, had a bunch of tattoos that just happened to look a lot like Anthony Kiedis’ and Flea’s all over us. It was an incredible coincidence. Then again, they ripped us off, Mike has had that tattoo for at least eight days or something or was that eight hours.

Theodora Agiotis: Do you have any musicians that have inspired you recently?

Trey Spruance: That people would know?

Theodora Agiotis: Doesn’t matter.

Trevor Dunn: Tons I guess. We are constantly listening to different kinds of music all the time. So, I think that there is always something that is influencing us.

Trey Spruance: I like this guy Kool Keith, I’ve liked his stuff for a long time, and now he’s come out with a new record. I was happy to see him go solo finally.

Theodora Agiotis: Which classical composers are the bands greatest influences?

Trey Spruance: Pretty easy to say Stravinsky and Messiaen would have touched all of us at some point.

Theodora Agiotis: Will there be any more collaborations with John Zorn?

Trevor Dunn: There could be. We have been working with him in different settings since we met him during our first record. As far as Mr. Bungle collaborating with Zorn, it is possible, but they’re aren’t any plans.

Theodora Agiotis: Has anyone in the band been arrested for anything involving the group or their performances?

Trevor Dunn: Well, we just crossed the border into Canada and I told them I had never been arrested, so we’ll just leave it at that.

Theodora Agiotis: How about you Trey?

Trey Spruance: Well the answer is yes. I used to have a car that said Mr. Bungle on it in our hometown of Eureka. I used to get pulled over constantly, and one particularly bad time, I was on my way to a gig where Trevor was playing in a jazz combo or something. I was in front of our High School in Arcata and I noticed in my rear view mirror about four or five cops pilling up behind me in four separate cars. They pulled me over right in front of the High School right when it was getting out. They made me late! They had their guns drawn. They were pointing their guns at me! And they made me lay down on the sidewalk with their foot in my back, with a gun still out. Then they told me “These license plates are stolen”. Someone had stolen my license plates, but I had gotten them back through the DMV, but they were pretending like it didn’t come up on their computer. Just wanted to harass me or something. Things like that used to happen all the time.

Exclusive Interview (2)

Justin St. Vincent from Xtreme Music interviewed Trevor Dunn on August 12, 2004 New York (NY), The Tonic.

Xtreme Music: I’m here with Trevor Dunn at The Tonic, New York City. I’d like to start the interview by asking, could you tell us something about the recent release you’ve had on Ipecac Recordings with your Trio-Convulsant?

Trevor Dunn: Yeah, it’s my second Trio-Convulsant record. I did one like six or seven years ago I guess, with a different line-up.. I’ve always been wanting to do another record of this music and this kind of concept, so I’m happy to finally do it. Ches Smith is playing drums, Mary Halvorson is playing guitar and basically I’ve been wanting to do the second record for so long. I got so busy that I had to book myself a month in August, just stay home and finish writting some music.

Xtreme Music: Could you tell us something about the writing process involved in the Trio-Convulsant compositions?

Trevor Dunn: Most of it I write on guitar actually. Well, either guitar or bass and I think of it as a complete album as I go along. As the songs come along, I think what do I need now.. Do I need it fast, do I need it to have this kinda vibe or whatever. I have my own personal little techniques that I go through with writing.

Xtreme Music: How does Trio-Convulsant, that project compare to other jazz projects you’ve collaborated with in the past, like Junk Genius and Snorkel?

Trevor Dunn: Trio-Convulsant is definitely my thing you-know (laughs).. I write all the music except for a couple cover songs that we do. It’s me leading a band which is kind of unusual because most of what I do is work on the side. I mean a group like Snorkel or Junk Genius were collaborative bands, but still I had marginal input as far as compostions are concerned.. both those two concepts whether you’re a collaborative thing or whether you’re really leading, calling the shots all the time, I kinda like either of those situations. I don’t really prefer one or the other, but it’s fun for me to lead my own band.

Xtreme Music: Which particular cover songs are you performing with the Trio-Convulsant?

Trevor Dunn: Well on this new record I did an Andre Previn tune [entitled “I’m Sick”].. it’s kind of a weird little short jazz tune from a soundtrack that he did. Then a Duke Ellington ballad from a piece in the Queen Suite [entitled “The Single Petal Of The Rose”]. Yeah, actually on our first record I didn’t do any cover songs. I’ve always wanted to do this Duke Ellington cover actually, I thought it was an amazing tune.

Xtreme Music: I’m extremely interested in your work with Fantomas as well. One of my favourite recordings from them is “The Director’s Cut” which is full of cult and movie theme covers. Could you tell us about the decision process behind who was selecting a lot of the tracks that you were covering for that album?

Trevor Dunn: Fantomas is Mike’s band, so that’s another example of that situation.. that was all his decision. With all the other Fantomas records, he writes everything and for that record he came up with the arrangements for each of the songs. Which is cool, I like being in that situation too because I just sit back and play what I’m supposed to play.. (laughs).. It’s a lot easier actually!

Xtreme Music: Do you have any particular favourites from the Fantomas work that you’ve been performing live worldwide?

Trevor Dunn: You know I like a lot of the tunes from the first record, and now that we’ve been playing so long, a lot of them we play twice as fast and back to back.. so that was a lot of fun! In the last tour that we did, we threw in a few sections from that album. So we’d do like piece one through five, and then later we’d do twenty-four through twenty-seven, and just do them back to back. That was always a lot of fun because they were all like one minute long or something.

Xtreme Music: I’m also interested to hear about your previous work with Secret Chiefs 3, a band led by Trey Spruance the guitarist of Mr. Bungle. What’s that been like working with his particular group?

Trevor Dunn: Well I only did a little bit, I worked a little bit on the first record and then after that I kinda just spuradically recorded a couple of other pieces with him. That was never really, as far as I was concerned, it was never really a band. It was like Trey’s recording project that eventually evolved into a band, and I’m not really involved with it anymore. So Mr. Bungle was pretty much in the grave.. (chuckles)..

Xtreme Music: I know a lot of people are wanting to hear the word on Mr. Bungle and the fate of Mr. Bungle. What’s your particular thoughts on that?

Trevor Dunn: My thoughts on that are that it’s over.. It’s hard for me to say that actually coz it’s like letting go of a girlfriend or something.. (laughs).. letting go of something you’ve been with for a long time. I mean we started that band in high school.. going almost twenty years ago. It’s insane..

Xtreme Music: Does Mike Patton and yourself feel the same way about Mr. Bungle?

Trevor Dunn: Yeah, pretty much he and I are in agreement with that. I mean I haven’t actually spoken with Trey in over four years, for whatever reason I’m not sure.. I’ve spoken with everyone else occassionally, but you-know everyone’s doing their own thing now. Two of the guys are in Australia, I’m living out here and the another guy is in California. Everyone is doing their own thing with conviction and I think that we grew as a band so much that we just grew apart. We’re all doing individual things now, I think it’s better that way.

Xtreme Music: You’ve collaborated on some works with alto-saxophonist and incredible composer John Zorn, here in New York City including The Gift, Electric Masada and some of his Filmwork releases. What’s it been like working with John Zorn?

Trevor Dunn: It’s been great!.. We struck up a friendship when he produced the first Mr. Bungle record and I’ve been working occassionally with him ever since then. I moved here to New York about four years ago and it’s great! He’s really a great guy to work with, he’s really super you-know in control of his music, what he’s writing and producing. He knows what he wants and he knows how to get it, he knows who to call for what job. Electric Masada has been a blast! Totally, really one of the most fun bands I’ve ever been in! I can really play a lot in that band and yet I have to maintain a groove and pay attention to him because he’s conducting live. It’s a really exciting band to play in.

Xtreme Music: In terms of performing on bass, who have been your major influences and how have they shaped your musical direction?

Trevor Dunn: Wow! I’ve never had an easy time with that question because I listen to a lot of different kinds of music and there are lot of different bass players that I like for different reasons. Lately, I’ve been listening to a lot of James Jamerson and he’s kinda had an influence on me in terms of what I’m doing with Electric Masada. Other than that, for upright-bass I listen to all the guys you would expect, like Scott La Faro, Mingus and Jimmy Garrison, you-know all those guys.

Xtreme Music: What would you say has been your most memorable or highly enjoyable experience in your music career?

Trevor Dunn: That’s a good question, there’s so many weird, different experiences.. lately I’ve been doing this duet with a harpist, this woman Shelley Burgon. Actually, we just played the last couple of days. We went to Philidelphia and Hampton, Virginia and played.. actually, last night we played in Hampton, Virginia and at this kinda weird punk-rock spot and there were a bunch of bands. It was just in this guy’s house basically that was covered in like artwork and walls that they had painted. I reminded me of a place I used to hang out when I was in high-school and college. So we played this show, the first band was kind of like this noise-rock band, one guy got up a did laptop thing and then Shelley and I played you-know just this like acoustic bass and harp with no amplification at all. A lot of extended technique and it was really comfortable to be with a lot of these young people that are like dying to hear any kind of music. It felt good, we could work, be ourselves and create something on the spot and we really enjoyed ourselves. So I’d have to say last night was a very good memory for me (laughter)..

Xtreme Music: You’ve collaborated in many live collectives. How would you say the audiences, or the live performances differ between say, Fantomas and Mr. Bungle shows?

Trevor Dunn: I wouldn’t say there’s that much difference with those bands. With those bands it’s like when we started out, it always took at least a year or two before we had weeded out the audience to what it is now. Because a lot of people came expecting certain things, you-know with Mr. Bungle, people were expecting like some kinda Faith No More thing. With Fantomas, people were like expecting Slayer or Melvins and they never got what they wanted. Now the people that come and see us are the ones who know that at any given moment we’re gonna do something different, which is great because I think they are much more open minded audiences which are more fun to play with. I’ve played in a lot of different countries and in general I think it’s really the same across the board. There’s different opinions about European audiences or Japanese audiences or American audiences. Basically, when people get drunk they get really obnoctious either way (laughs). Other than that I really feel like the people that come out to see the music, they are really appreciative and in general it’s pretty good.

Xtreme Music: For my final question I’d like to ask, what future collaborations do you have in the works?

Trevor Dunn: Well, I’m working with this harp player [Shelley Burgon], we’re planning on recording. I just actually recorded a record with Curtis Hasselbring, the trombone player that you saw play tonight. Let me think.. actually I have this improvising quartet that I’ve recently been putting together with Curtis, the harp player and Ches, the drummer, and that’s been kind of in the works. I’ll probably start writing for that. As far as collaborations, not a ton I mean probably more of what I’m focusing on is my own compositions. I’d love to do a chamber music record one of these days, that’s kinda what I’m aspiring towards right now.

Xtreme Music: Well it’s been great to meet you Trevor, I want to wish you all the best!