For a small bunch of fans, Trey Spruance needs no introduction. He is the insanely talented guitarist of Secret Chiefs 3 and Mr. Bungle, and other bizarre bands such as Faxed Head, Three Doctors and... yes, he played in a Faith No More album. After seeking him for two years, on september 08 we both were able to do an email interview. In this first part, Spruance is going to talk about his chilhood in Eureka, the first show of Mr. Bungle, his obscure death metal background with the band Scourge, his underground projects in the beginning of the nineties and his friendship with Gregg Turkington and John Zorn.
My questions are in bold; his answers are in thin.
Rivers: How did music positively influenced your childhood in California? Are the American homes so full of music as they seem to be? Does any relative of you played any musical instrument?
hahahahahaaaaa! ahem... sorry.
I grew up in a very rural place in the middle of nowhere, a very "backward" place (Eureka). My dad played a little bit of trombone in his youth, but never really played it while I was growing up. But the great thing about my dad is that he seems to be one of the last people in America with a really strong 'classical' education, and a great literacy (at least appreciation) of classical music of all kinds. So while I was being forcibly culturally indoctrinated with AC/DC and bullshit like Foreigner, at home my dad was playing Stravinsky and Poulenc records. My solution for awhile was to listen to Devo (whom I still love) with the three friends I'd made among the pool of rednecks. After awhile I couldn't take it, and was very thankful when Slayer came along and rescued me from any temptation to further depression in the bleak nothingness of 'rock & roll'. Around that time (1984/85), after being exposed to Rite of Spring and Concerto for Organ, Strings and Timpani, plus Bartok and Shostakovich by my dad, I guess you could say I "changed sides" on the whole "parents vs. your friends music" wars, and joined my dad's team. I stopped caring at all what was considered "good" music among any of my contemporaries, unless they were into extreme death metal, or were deeply immersed in classical music... I was lucky to have some really REALLY good music teachers during this time. Finally I moved to San Francisco in 1990 & was able to explore the more conducive musical environment that people think of when they think of California.
Rivers: I also grew up in a small town. I remember me and my friends were always bored, so we played in lots of hardcore punk bands. Do you believe is there any relationship between music and boredom, or between boredom and delinquency, or even between boredom and extreme genres of music as death metal or hardcore punk? Why was Bungle connected to jumping freight trains?
You've hit the nail-on-the-head, for sure! Yeah, I guess freight train jumping was almost like some rite, or monastic tonsure for our tiny clan. We were so alienated... but we weren't going to sit around and drink and numb ourselves or whatever. We were going to EXPLODE. When the train horn rang out, we would often drop whatever it was we were doing and race down to the tracks to try and get on... sometimes it'd be racing through town and we'd chase it and jump on at the last second. Other times we'd wait for hours and hours for it... the train sort of set the tone for us; though it had an irregular schedule, it was sort of like our own unpredictable call toprayer: we had to obey it. For no reason, mind you... we just knew we had to jump the train and riding ANYWHERE & then try to find a way to get back home. That was our 'rite'. And we were faithful to it. Now that I think about it, doing this as a tiny insular group of musical "extremists" was after all similar to what we were doing as a band. I don't know which was the more prominent part of our "ethos" at that point: music or the train. Honestly, probably the train. You make a good point.
Rivers: What can you tell us about the formation of your first band, Scourge. Was there a particular reason why you decided to resurrect this band during 1990? There were other metal bands in the area of Eureka in that time? Have you have any other new from the drummer Jed Watts since then? Did you know he is now in a death metal band called Machete?
Yeah, I heard about that!!!! Scourge was one of maybe two death metal bands --- but we weren't a death metal band. Listening to those demos, they are more like a premonition of Neurosis or something, but way sicker. I was extremely dark during that time. It was kind of a mix between a Nietzche-inspired bloodlust, environmental terrorist ethos, and a very extreme brand of misanthropy that black metal is only just now getting around to tapping in to. It was villainy, there was no 'moral' content. An embodiment of the "boogey-man" in the area I was living. I was only too happy to become their "devil"... it was sick, and I was, frankly, completely out of my mind. Luckily I had some good friends to collaborate on that with, so I can blame some of the problems on them....
Rivers: What do you remember from the first Mr. Bungle show at Eureka's High School Talent Show in 1985? Besides the jokey covers of Run-D.M.C., Village Brothers, Monkees, and Motley Crue, you played some instrumental stuff that Mark Prindle described as "Metal Polkas". What can you tell us about these old songs?
Those are Camper Van Beethoven covers from their first album "Telephone Free Landslide Victory". We learned them the day before that gig. We MAY have played one original. "Evil Satan" perhaps. Or "Hypocrites". But no Death Metal.
Rivers: I have noticed a big evolution from the second Mr. Bungle demo ("Bowel Of Chiley") to the third one ("God Dammit, I Love America!"). Even in Patton' vocals... When the third demo was recorded, was Patton in Faith No More? Do you think his work with the band of Gould, Bordin, Bottum and MArtin affected to his vocal abilities, making him sounding much better in "OU818" 1989 demo?
He joined FNM well after the recoding of "Goddamnit I love America". In fact, I think we recorded OU818 right around the time he was working on the FNM album. He definitely hadn't toured with them yet. I think Patton's voice just matured along the way. If you ask me, he became a great vocalist much AFTER the Mr. B self-titled and "Goddamnit I love America". --- a growth initiated by getting used to being around a lot of great musicians (from improvising in Zorn's Cobra etc), and listening to a lot more good music than we ever could do in Eureka. This is a maturity he brought not just as a vocalist but also as a more confident and well-rounded musician to the recordings of Angel Dust, as well as Disco Volante.
Of course, as far as Mr. Bungle goes, we had all grown along similar lines, and after getting away with so much chaos on tour in 1992, with a new well-grounded musical confidence going in MANY directions, all this did was make the band even more musically adventurous (forcing us to also take the mantle of studio production to service our ridiculously elaborate vision).
Rivers: So, how do you decide to move to San Francisco? Could you tell us how you met Gregg Turkington and start to work with him? From 1990 to 1995 (more or less), your main focus seemed to be Bungle, but you worked on a bunch of projects and underground bands like Faxed Head, Pop-O-Pies, Crafty Ladies, Mol Triffid (as a producer), The Three Doctors Band, Los Parasitos... How would you evaluate this period of time and work?
I met Gregg I guess in 1990? I think the first time I met him he came over to Mike's and my house in SF... I didn't really talk to him much. But my girlfriend at the time (who is too smart for her own good) was really good friends with him and insisted on bringing me together with some of her friends in Caroliner Rainbow and Gregg & see what would happen. A few "Great Phone Calls" were made, and then our discovery of the band Faxed Head from Coalinga, California led us to patronize their efforts at overcoming disability to make some good, old time death metal with cracked electronics. This was still 1990 or 91. Later I met Neil Hamburger through Gregg, and set up microphones for him & recorded him in some faraway and unlikely nightclubs. Yes, playing with Joe Pop-o-Pie was another indoctrination into fearlessness, preparing me for the later irruption of the 3 Doctors Band. During all this time I was was furiously learning everything I could about hi-fi / lo-fi audio gear and techniques --- so I was able to collaborate with a lot of really brilliant conceptualists and extremists of a sort in San Francisco in the early '90s --- I guess sort of the last gasp for the extreme "post post punk" post-Flipper underground there. The place was just filled with mysterious talent, and was just very alive. I learned so much; trying to keep up with it all and translate things on a 'technical' level without killing the spirit led to what became a renaissance period for my development as a low-grade, high-concept "recording engineer". Absolutely. But more importantly, I was introduced to and was lucky enough to forge some good friendships with people I greatly admire.
Rivers: Can you explain us about that rare Mr. Bungle 7" called "Mi Stoke Il Cigaretto". Where does it come from?
It comes from that era.
Rivers: In the early nineties you worked with Zorn in Cobra and Xu Feng, the "Elegy" album and even in the infamous Weird Little Boy. Was there a particular reason why you have limited your collaborations with John Zorn after that? How was working with him again for the "Xaphan: Book of Angels Volume 9" album?
It was marvellous. Zorn is one of my favorite people on earth. A truly generous heart, and his very rare spark of insight, inspiration, and social magnetism accords well with his brilliant economy of dizzying compositional depth. One of the world's great problem solvers, I can tell you. But yeah, for a long time there I had an itch that needed scratching: I have my own idea about how the process of music should go --- what kind of care should go into it. I just needed time to develop that away from any influence, not just Zorn's. Thus my various "disappearances". And I'm glad I did. Zorn's method is very different than mine, and I can say frankly his is really a lot smarter than my own approach, which is comparatively stupidly cumbersome and laborious. But I needed to develop that method nonetheless. Since Zorn is so broad-minded and accommodating, it turns out to be very complimentary situation when we do manage to have some interaction. I consider myself very fortunate to have a friendship with one of the very few visionary beacons living today.
Interview by David Von Rivers.
End of part one. In part two, Spruance will talk about the recording of "Disco Volante", reveal some obscurities about the song "Merry Go Bye Bye", announce a Faxed Head release, share some reflections about faith No More and talk about the eventual writting of an article about the recording of the album "California".