In the first part of this interview, Trey Spruance told us about his first steps as the guitarist and composer of Mr. Bungle and Scourge. After that in 1990, Spruance relocated to San Francisco, where he continued involved with Mr. Bungle, but also formed part of various nonsensical and instructive projects with Gregg Turkington and John Zorn.
Bungleheads, ¡this second part is 4 U! Trey Spruance will elaborate about the recording of "Disco Volante", and you will know some strange facts about "Merry Go Bye Bye". Also you could read what Trey thinks on his brief residence in Faith No More, and above all, see what he thinks about Mr. Bungle' end.
My questions are in bold; his answers are in thin.
Para leer la entrevista en español, por favor haz click AQUÍ.
What can you tell us about the period of rehearsals, demos and recording of 'Disco Volante'? Does your departure from Faith No More affected the recording process of that record, or you get along well?
Nah, that part was fine. Mike didn't even want me to be in Faith No More in the first place, so there was no problem there. The rehearsals were more like "arrangement sessions". Usually two of us working together on arrangement in one room, while two or three screwed around and went nuts in the other. We developed the idea of "snakes", essentially through-compositions with recurring sequences --- pretty much like we had always done, but by then becoming quite exact. We started concentrating on "transitional" material that we used to get between parts we KNEW had to be there in a certain sequence; and then these transitions would end up recurring etc. There was very little "instrumental rehearsal" --- there never was in Mr. Bungle. The band was compositionally-oriented from the ground up, and our instruments as well as all the technical problems that needed to be overcome, were all servicing the goal of the composition. Only rarely did we "hash out parts" --- almost never was there "woodshedding". We only really learned songs AFTER they were recorded, and then too, it was usually about "how do we get this keyboard to trigger that midi channel and then switch halfway through" etc, and then trying to make it all fit together. A very "non-attatched to personal talent" band. It was really great that way. I've definitely never seen anything like it, before, during or since.
Mr. Bungle en 2000.
For years, I have been fascinated by the song "Merry Go Bye Bye", even more when I found that the noise section in the middle of the song was featured in the "Stereo Test Record Vol. 1" CD released in 1995 by Indiscreet Records, under the title 'Millers Higher Life'. What can you tell us about this track and it's introduction on "Disco Volante"? Has anyone ask you this question before?
Well, I guess my own psychic irruptions in that period speak most loudly in that song. I'd made that section as an electro-acoustic composition on very primitive equipment, in a flurry of psychic distress in around 1993. You could say I was contending with some psychisms... perhaps some demonisms I had opened myself up to by seeking to pry the universe open by force. So that piece became haunted with that for me, and I put it away. Later on, having gotten a little perspective, I was kind of in the middle of writing a song about that period in 1993, when I was asked to contribute a piece for that comp. I pulled, that electroacoustic composition out & mixed it. A few days later, still only having a vague idea of the "ironic" song I was writing, and still having no lyrics, I was laying in the bathtub and all the lyrics for it came to me at once, written in a blaze of five minutes. It was then that I knew that the song must be torn open and that haunted piece must irrupt into it...
I actually quite regret the Faustian audacity of all that (I even put a lot of the arrangement together in editing as a "surprise" for the rest of the band to find out about). The worst thing is that one of my friends did a stage dive while we played that song at our concert on the turn of the millennium and hit his head hard. And knowing nothing of the song's genesis and meaning, he basically went schizo on it for a long time, wandering around San Francisco telling people all the mysterious shit that was wrapped up in those lyrics, and asking me every time I saw him what all the different meanings were as if his life depended on the answers... here I was being haunted by that shit again seven years later, but worse was that someone ELSE now had the problem. I couldn't pretend like there was nothing to it, but worse was the feeling that I had infected him with something that was gripping his soul with that song. Man, you gotta be really careful... I have been anything but careful, of course.
Merry Go Bye Bye, en directo el 31 de diciembre de 1999.
At the end of October 1995, you toured Japan with the band Faxed Head. Could yopu share some anecdote of this gigs?
Actually, I'm going to let the NEW FAXED HEAD LIVE DVD from Osaka 1995 tell that story! It comes out in early September!!!
How did you come to the decision of placing a Secret Chiefs 3 vinyl together with the first 'Disco Volante' vinyl pressings? The first Secret Chiefs record is constructed with some basic tracks recorded during the "Disco Volante" sessions. I remember you were explaining in 1995 the basis were going to be on the third Bungle album... How do you decided to use them in your new project then?
what? No, I don't think that's accurate at all. We've always kept a pretty big wall between the two projects. All the really weird stuff on the First SC3 album is mostly improvisation (which we never did in Mr. Bungle), and the composed stuff is pretty drastically different than Mr. Bungle. (Killing of Kings, White As They Come, Resurrection Day Soundtrack etc --- really not very "bunglish"). Maybe as far as recording process I was saying we would use some of the recording/production techniques I'd developed in SC3 on the 3rd Mr. Bungle album. And that's definitely true. I've equally used recording/production techniques I learned in Mr. Bungle in SC3. But there's never even been a temptation of trading material between the bands --- they were, are, and always will be completely different ideas.
Perhaps you could share some reflections from your short period in Faith No More? Have you talked with Billy Gould or any other of the guys since then?
Yeah! I've seen Billy a couple of times. Puffy came to a Secret Chiefs 3 gig last year --- man, it was so great to see him! I didn't realize how much I'd missed him until I saw him again.
Respecting their fragile situation in the 90's, I waited until way after the fact to talk a little shit about how it all went down (what happened that led up to me leaving, and how some of them reacted to my departure) because it was in fact an incredibly lame situation. Of course, I really sucked at human interaction at that time, so it's just as much my own incapacities as anyone else's that led to my discontent. (they were quite tolerant of my quirks, frankly). Overall my time spent with those guys was a really REALLY good experience for me, especially getting to pick Andy Wallace's brain for production tips for over a month. Also learning how fucked up band dynamics can get; it permanently impressed upon me that you really DON'T want to be in a situation with that many people making money off of you. I really hated the "culture" surrounding that band like vultures. I was a long time FNM fan from back in 1985 (I liked them a lot more than Mike did! ask him, he'll tell you!), and I felt like those poor guys had gotten into a fucked up situation on the one hand trying to keep Mike happy (he wasn't, and was being really difficult for them by that point), and on the other hand, trying to deliver a "marketable" record to a FICKLE, DISINTERESTED RECORD COMPANY who had blown THEIR chance at having a seriously huge smash with Angel Dust --- and was still blaming that mistake on the band (who were, sadly, going along with the label's erroneus assessment & taking it upon themselves to try and second-guess the "market"). SUCKED. Everyone was tattered by the whole situation. Jim was gone. Roddy, who I love, was kind of pushed out of the writing process (and he's the guy with all the pop-sensibility, so go figure). I think we did alright trying to inject an uninspired record with life, but it was a dismal, unhealthy, cynical environment. The shady situation with me doing everything with no contractual agreement didn't help my own outlook. Once I figured out how things were actually working (and were not going to change), I saw the recording through and quit pretty much the week we got home so they'd have a chance to get a new guitar player. I think it was just insecurity about "why would anyone quit?" that led them make me out to be a lazy rich kid heir to the DuPont fortune (ha!) in the press... but I've enjoyed the air of aristocratic mystique in the meantime.
Anyway, I think Faith No More was a pretty special band. I just listened to the first album the other day, and it actually made my eyes well up with tears a couple of times hearing how fucking awesome it still is. Seeing them in '86 in our crappy little town was life-changing.
Faxed Head. Música fea.
What can you tell us about the Noddingturd Fan project you maintained in 1995?
Very little, other than that it probably hurt a lot of people.
How are you developing your essay regarding the "last big analogical recoding" that was California, and when do you think we'll have the opportunity to read about the intricate and innovative production techniques involved in producing Mr. Bungle's last album?
Oh boy...
You know, I'd happily do that as a section of some kind of collaborative Mr. Bungle book. I think doing stuff like that on your own after a band has finished would be in bad taste. But it's definitely a story that needs to be told. Someday...?
The Bungle members are you all now involved in your own projects and bands. Have you listened to Fantomas, Trevor Dunn' Trio Convulsant, Umlaut, theHEAD or Merle Morris. Have you listened to some of their stuff? If so, what is your opinion? Anyway, the Mr. Bungle split was a sad issue for fans. Do you feel like all of you had done the best for ending that mutual project in the best possible way? Do you think it will be possible for you to work again (in other projects) with any of these guys?
SC3 toured Australia last year with Danny on drums/percussion and Bar on and flute/percussion/keyboard (it was awesome!); and Bar's band Umlaut opened up for us. I like Fantomas, especially the darker, more violent stuff. I don't know anything about the HEAD or Merle Morris. I know that Trevor is a genius bass player, and that anything he is involved in creatively is going to be amazing...
No, it wasn't a good ending. But it never is. At least no one died from drugs or stole each other's wives or girlfriends! In some ways that might be preferable to the pettiness of what ended up being the final schism... but the important thing is that we all agreed not to pretend & just keep making music under agonizingly bullshit conditions where the music itself would collapse into mediocrity. That's a sort of "high road" that I'm proud to say we are all unanimous on. Mr. Bungle is a band that insists on pedigree over life itself --- if it means death for the band, so be it. Death before dishonor! One of the many reasons I respect all of the other former band members a great deal is the keeping of this unanimous, unspoken, military-style pact for pedigree; it continues vigilantly even after band death.
Trey Spruance, September 2008
Interview by David Von Rivers
End of part two. In part three, Spruance will talk about Mimicry Records!, Secret Chiefs 3!, Metallica!, Apokatastasis!, Asva!