TODD NUGENT

Selected Discography

Exclusive Interview

Justin St. Vincent from Xtreme Music received responses to an e-mail interview with Todd Nugent on December 2, 2004.

Xtreme Music: Who are your main influences and how have they shaped your musical direction?

Todd Nugent: I’ve been a big fan of David Bowie for as long as I can remember. He was dangerous, sexy, arty, and changed his music all the time. Each record was brand new. My earliest musical influence was a guy named “Smelly” who also roadied for Mr. Bungle. I grew up near him in Michigan and through him, I learned how to put a band together and see what was going to be expected from me as a musician. Smelly was the singer for Plainfield, a band that Trey Spruance and Danny Heifetz played with sporadically. I later joined Plainfield as a guitarist near the end of the band’s career. We broke up during 1997 and 1998. I took lessons from Andrew Swift in New Orleans in the late eighties. Before meeting him I was a full-on punk rock kid. Andrew made me listen to all kinds of different stuff before I was allowed to play. I assimilated a lot of musical influences because of him.

Xtreme Music: Between 1995 – 1998 you toured extensively with Mr. Bungle throughout Europe, Australia, and North America. What was that experience like and are there performance highlights which you find particularly memorable?

Todd Nugent: I toured with Mr. Bungle, Secret Chiefs 3, Dieselhed, Fantomas, Melt Banana, Saturn’s Flea Collar, and The Mermen. I also worked with William Winant in San Francisco as his percussion technician by moving his marimba around. The American Disco Volante tour was a lot of fun and there is a funny story behind that. Up to the morning of the tour, I wasn’t sure that I was even going. We had talked about me going, but the band had said “No” while they rehearsed in preparation for the tour, but they said “Be ready” anyway. I had my bags packed in anticipation and then went to work as a gardener. About two hours into work, Smelly was yelling “Nuge! Nuge! You’re going! You’re going!” as he ran down the street looking for me. I hopped into the truck, packed up the equipment and drove to Reno. I was wearing my pruning shears when we met the band at a casino. Another funny anecdote was when Greg, our tour manager gave me a hundred bucks before we left. I was stoked. I thought, “Wow, I’m going to make $20 a day!” You can imagine my surprise when they paid me a salary at the end of the tour. I was willing to work for free! The only bad part on tour was when I was involved in counting money and selling t-shirts. It turns out, and I didn’t know this at the time, that I had a math disability. Simple addition was frustrating me, so a lot of energy was expended trying to cover up the fact I couldn’t balance the books. I think my frustration puzzled everybody and I should have told them at the time; it would have made everyone’s life a lot easier. My tour highlights? I loved watching Danny Heifetz sing death metal in Oslo, with Willie Winant eating a $3000 microphone and Mike Patton playing drums. It was so funny that I forgot what I was supposed to do. Watching Trey Spruance’s fingers every night was a blast too! He never ceased to amaze me. When he played the live solo during “Desert Search For Techno Allah”, I would zone out almost every night. Danny’s drumming in Dieselhed was awesome too. He always seemed so casual while he pounded the crap out of the drums. I remember asking Trevor Dunn to play me songs on the contrabass while I set up the equipment and he played anything and everything that I asked. The time he spent perfecting his technique on his instrument is phenomenal.

Xtreme Music: During the Disco Volante tour, Mr. Bungle performed live collaborations with John Zorn’s Cobra. You mentioned that you played guitar during two rare shows scheduled in Australia, late-October 1996. What reflections can you provide from the performance processes of John Zorn’s Cobra?

Todd Nugent: We performed Cobra twice with the Mr. Bungle musicians, our soundman Mark Orton [Tin Hat Trio] and local Australian musicians. I had seen Cobra before and what struck me was when Marc Ribot performed, he didn’t try to out-weird anybody. He played very musically and was very memorable in that context. I tried to emulate that when I played. Mostly, I remember Bär McKinnon, Theo Lengyel, and I huddling together, asking each other, “What do we do now?” Cobra is a musical game which draws the most dominant aspect of a musician’s personality to the forefront. I knew Mike Patton was going to isolate me. So within the “Guerrilla Tactic” portion, where the green head band takes away the “authority” from the conductor, Mike Patton stopped everybody from playing one at a time and then pointed at me. I played “Dazed And Confused” by Led Zeppelin. That riff then went into “Head Memory”, which means we have to remember that riff anytime someone uses that cue. Cobra was a lot of fun, but I was new at improvisation at the time so I was really nervous.

Xtreme Music: What would you say has been the best experience throughout your work with Mike Patton & John Zorn?

Todd Nugent: I have never really collaborated with John Zorn, however, I was at the Weird Little Boy recording and have talked with him a couple of times. The Cobra performance in Australia was conducted by William Winant. I got to know Mike Patton really well and we hung out in between tours and became friends. Borrowing CDs and eating fish tacos at the carwash in San Francisco are two of my favorite experiences with Mike.. Musically, you guys know how good he is. He is an amazing musician! I am really happy with what Mr. Bungle have accomplished. I don’t know if the world will ever catch up to them musically. The fans of Mike Patton, for the most part, are really cool. I’ll bet a lot of bands wish they had fans that let them play whatever they wanted, and he is pretty lucky to have all of you guys.

Xtreme Music: Which additional artists would you recommend to people interested in Mr. Bungle’s music portfolio?

Todd Nugent: I like a lot of different kinds of music. I have studied African music and Middle Eastern music and I am currently studying the music from the South Pacific. I like Black Flag, Gang Of Four, Dock Boggs, Lefty Frizzell, Marc Ribot, Virginia Rodrigues from Brazil, Susana Baca from Peru, and Te Vaka from Tokelau. I’m still trying to convince people that A Flock Of Seagulls were a great band, but I haven’t had any converts yet. And yes, I am serious about that.

Xtreme Music: You’ve also been credited to Melt Banana’s album “MxBx 1998 / 13,000 Miles At Light Velocity”. Could you comment on the music produced on this album, and the additional projects you’ve been involved with?

Todd Nugent: I recorded the opening sequence in Pittsburg on a Minidisc recorder with Agata from Melt Banana. I left that tour and flew to San Francisco to be at the Fantomas recording. I wasn’t at the Melt Banana recording at all. I played triangle and “The Cone” on the first Fantomas CD. Billy Anderson engineered that record and it was amazing to see how good all the musicians in Fantomas are. I also sang in a band called “Gitchee Gumee” that Trey Spruance recorded. One song, “Pickle Neck Stew” is featured on a 12″ vinyl record called “Wood Panel Pacer Wagon” released by Too Many Records. I’m also on Melt Banana’s “Charlie” [Area 887 (Phoenix Mix)]. Oh, I yelled “Fire” on Secret Chiefs 3’s debut record “First Grand Constitution And Bylaws”, on the song about how rock and roll must die [“The Killing Of Kings”]. There are others, but that is about it..

Xtreme Music: Could you mention some of the work you’ve been doing more recently and whether you have any collaborations planned in the near future?

Todd Nugent: I have recorded a lot of music, but I haven’t released any of it. I put out a tape called “Sherpa” that I sold on the Secret Chiefs 3 tour. If people are interested in hearing this, I could put it out, perhaps as MP3 files. I just don’t know if there is an audience for it or not. If there are people who want to hear it, they can e-mail me and try to convince me to do it, but it’s not as though I am depriving the world of some musical breakthrough. Sherpa is me and a bunch of keyboards playing goofy new wave music. I’m currently playing in a band on Maui called “White Rose” and we have a recording coming out called “War Machine”.