15 questions with Trevor Dunn

[ped]

[size=4][font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Hi guys[/font][/size]

[size=4][font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Random coincidence but I was contacted by the editor of [url="http://www.15questions.net/interviews/"]'Fifteen Questions'[/url] who happens to be local and a massive fan of Trevor Dunn, who many of you will know from Mr. Bungle. Trevor has just joined Tomahawk for their latest album. [/font][/size]

[size=4][font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]You can read the interview with Trevor [url="http://www.15questions.net/interview/fifteen-questions-trevor-dunn/page-1/"]here[/url] on the site or if you prefer it's reproduced below for those of you with a lazy clicking finger. It might be nice to click the link anyway as there are some vids and pics there and it's a great looking site.[/font][/size]

[size=4][font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Anyway have a read and enjoy and let us know what you think. Can anyone else suggest someone for 15questions to interview? if you look at their homepage you'll see the type of people they're interested in - 'Usually forward thinking, passionate oddballs' - not necessarily musicians but artists, producers, journalists... even DJs![/font][/size]

[size=4][font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Cheers[/font][/size]
[size=4][font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]ped[/font][/size]


[center][font=georgia,serif][size=4][b]Fifteen Questions Interview with Trevor Dunn[/b][/size][/font][/center]

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[font=georgia,serif][size=4]For Trevor Dunn making music is all about pleasing himself and it's a philosophy that has yielded a long and progressive career. Understanding that an artist can't please everyone, Dunn is contented to be his own audience, having faith that someone out there will enjoy the music he makes. It's worked out well so far. Dunn has played with Tom Waits, John Zorn and is a key member in pioneering bands like Mr Bungle and Fantomas, most recently taking the bass reigns with Tomahawk. With a penchant for genre blending, Dunn never lets this element of his career define him and is comfortable playing it straight. Metal, jazz or classical, it's all just music to Dunn and he'll do with it what he pleases.[/size][/font]

[font=georgia,serif][size=4]When did you start writing/producing music - and what or who were your early passions and influences?[/size][/font]

[font=georgia,serif][size=4][b]My first memories of 'writing' music are of constructing some sort of dramatic narrative on a neighbor's upright piano probably around the age of eight. I also recall messing around on my older brother's guitar with the top three strings in first position, which I now recognize as a simple way to connect triads with pivot tones. I was also writing lyrics to songs that didn't exist while in grammar school. Much of all of this probably had a lot to do with being inspired by my brother and the influence of Kiss records that he would bring home in the late '70s. A few years later, after starting electric bass and immediately getting into a band, thanks to my teacher hooking me up with a guitar player student whose brother was a drummer, I began writing actual songs. My passions at that point included Blondie, Cheap Trick, Van Halen, college radio and the Dr. Demento show.[/b][/size][/font]


[font=georgia,serif][size=4]What do you personally consider to be the incisive moments in your artistic work and/or career?[/size][/font]

[font=georgia,serif][size=4][b]Seeing Kiss at the Cow Palace in 1979 and X at Mojo's in 1980, hearing Jaco Pastorius for the first time. Mingus' Ah Um, Miles Davis' Nefertiti, Slayer's Reign In Blood, Stravinsky's Rite Of Spring. Peter Maxwell Davies' Eight Songs For A Mad King. Seeing The Art Ensemble of Chicago in 1988, playing with jazz drummers, seeing Tim Berne's Fractured Fairytales on Night Music. Aside from those outside moments I also consider that being unbiased about genres at a young age led me to incisive moments like making a connection between disparate musics. For instance, realizing that harmonic changes in classical music could be utilized in death metal. In other words, realizing at an early age that what I enjoy in music has nothing to do with genre.[/b][/size][/font]

[font=georgia,serif][size=4]What are currently your main compositional- and production-challenges?[/size][/font]

[font=georgia,serif][size=4][b]Learning software and trying to become efficient at being my own recording engineer while maintaining my technique on contrabass. Also, balancing being a musician with being a composer, which are two completely different mindsets that both require a lot of time and energy.[/b][/size][/font]


[font=georgia,serif][size=4]What do you usually start with when working on a new piece?[/size][/font]

[font=georgia,serif][size=4][b]The first thing that comes to mind is the ensemble; the orchestration. I do have scraps of material lying around which were written without an instrument in mind. I have no idea where these will end up. But when it comes to tackling a specific piece, I have to know what I'm writing for. From there I begin to think conceptually; where the piece is going to go and how it's going to get there, what shape it is going to take. All very structural but non-musical ideas.[/b][/size][/font]

[font=georgia,serif][size=4]How strictly do you separate improvising and composing?[/size][/font]

[font=georgia,serif][size=4][b]I don't necessarily. Another term for improvising is 'spontaneous composition'. Harnessing or 're-writing' improvisation can be a major part of composition, if not all of it. Improvising happens quickly and haphazardly whereas composing is a slow, drawn out, analytical process. Both are coming from the same muse although the former may be more emotionally based. Improvising often has to do with searching where composing is more about finding. In the past I have composed improvisations as roadmaps and direction to aim for within an improvisation, as well as placed improvisation within a composition. And I have separated the two completely. I don't follow any strict rule about how these two forms should co-exist.[/b][/size][/font]

[font=georgia,serif][size=4]How do you see the relationship between sound, space and composition?[/size][/font]

[font=georgia,serif][size=4][b]Being someone who plays both acoustic and amplified music I am constantly aware of the challenges of acoustics, rental gear and the changing environments in which I play. One of the worst feelings, which I experience all too often, is not being able to convey a musical idea due to poor acoustics, an inept sound engineer or flawed or unfamiliar equipment. When it comes to composition, the piece initially exists in the vacuum of the mind, the perfect environment, which of course does not exist in reality. So, sound and space can water down the composition making the relationship between these three things dysfunctional. Recordings, on the other hand, though possibly clear and idealistic, are not necessarily representative of reality either. Ultimately I think it is rare, if not impossible, for a composition to be heard by an audience in the way it was conceived in someone's brain.[/b][/size][/font]

[font=georgia,serif][size=4]Do you feel it important that an audience is able to deduct the processes and ideas behind a work purely on the basis of the music? If so, how do you make them transparent?[/size][/font]

[font=georgia,serif][size=4][b]I don't think it's important for the processes to be understood at all. In fact, it is desirable that they are not even perceptible. Music should be enjoyed on a purely musical level. No program, popularity, or system should be a factor in whether one finds something good and interesting or not, at least not the [/b][i]only[/i][b] factor. There is certainly good music that comes from no process. To make a process transparent is to turn the music into an exercise. Exercises are great for analysis, education, and progress, but don't necessarily make for a good listening experience. Ideas are another story. If a musical idea is not clear then it is lost on the listener and might as well not exist at all. The question of 'why?' never needs to be answered in music or rather, good music should never beg that question. But if an idea, especially a new one, is clear then the question of 'what?' will be a means to discovery. An audience [/b][i]should[/i][b] be able to hear ideas but whatever goes beyond that is out of the composers hands.[/b][/size][/font]


[font=georgia,serif][size=4]In how much, do you feel, are creative decisions shaped by cultural differences – and in how much, vice versa, is the perception of sound influenced by cultural differences?[/size][/font]

[font=georgia,serif][size=4][b]There is no way to know how much. Of course [/b][i]all[/i][b] decisions, creative or not, are in someway affected by the culture they reside within. The lifestyle one is born into or organically migrates toward is going to have some bearing, regardless of how small, on an individual's creative process. And for the second part of this question, the differences in, say, Eastern and Western music and the training that the ears of those cultures are subject to are well documented.[/b][/size][/font]

[font=georgia,serif][size=4]The relationship between music and other forms of art – painting, video art and cinema most importantly - has become increasingly important. How do you see this relationship yourself and in how far, do you feel, does music relate to other senses than hearing alone?[/size][/font]

[font=georgia,serif][size=4][b]As a fan of films and film music, and as someone who writes film music, the relationship is a close one. I would also say that I am still a student of this relationship in that I am continuously trying to understand its balance and find cohesion. I believe that all art forms are really just different shapes of the same thing, the same muse or passion. There is melody, counterpoint, harmony and rhythm in painting, for example check out Paul Klee. Our senses are merely tools for understanding and how we mentally interpret and utilize that understanding is subjective. Music, and art in general, is just stimulus begging response. [/b][/size][/font]



[font=georgia,serif][size=4]There seem to be two fundamental tendencies in music today: On the one hand, a move towards complete virtualisation, where tracks and albums are merely released as digital files. And, on the other, an even closer union between music, artwork, packaging and physical presentation. Where do you stand between these poles? [/size][/font]

[font=georgia,serif][size=4][b]I still think about music in the same way I always have. When it comes to creating music it's about getting the ideas out of my head, onto paper or into sound files and then finding an audience. As a listener, I still partake in every medium as I always have. I have a cassette player in my car, I travel with an iPod and I still purchase used vinyl and listen to it on a turntable at home. Packaging and presentation go under the larger heading of 'marketing' which will always evolve with the times. Of course, I grew up in the '70s & '80s and I am nostalgic for artwork, liner notes with production information and album covers, but I am from an old-fashioned, endangered audience. There is not a lot I can or should do about that. The tendencies of the industry, market, production etc, are there for a reason. [/b][/size][/font]

[font=georgia,serif][size=4]The role of an artist is always subject to change. What's your view on the (e.g. political/social/creative) tasks of artists today and how do you try to meet these goals in your work?[/size][/font]

[font=georgia,serif][size=4][b]I don't know if I agree with this statement. My 'role' as an artist is to be an artist, whatever that term means to me. And whatever change I am subject to, by the outside world or by my own inner growth, will manifest not as a goal but as personal direction leading to somewhere that, I would guess, has no end. How an artist chooses to present his task is subjective. To each his own. The way I try to meet my own personal goals is to become a better artist, a better musician, and to continue to learn and absorb. In other words, my role is my own business. If what I create makes someone think, then that is great. What they think about and what they do with those thoughts is not my responsibility, it is theirs.[/b][/size][/font]



[font=georgia,serif][size=4]Music-sharing sites and -blogs as well as a flood of releases in general are presenting both listeners and artists with challenging questions. What's your view on the value of music today? In what way does the abundance of music change our perception of it?[/size][/font]

[font=georgia,serif][size=4][b]There is too much music. I can't keep up, especially not as a listener. But I get to what I can and in that I have to sift through the crap to get to what is good, which is something we've always had to do as listeners. I don't think the abundance devalues the music because there are still plenty of artists doing quality work. Technology has certainly aided unknown, obscure artists, but it's also allowed more crap to be more readily available. The upshot of this is that it forces us to be more discerning more quickly. How we deal with the overload of information depends on our individual capacity. Personally, I can say that there are probably ten records that I value greatly and that I continue to return to year after year.[/b][/size][/font]


[font=georgia,serif][size=4]How, would you say, could non-mainstream forms of music reach wider audiences?[/size][/font]

[font=georgia,serif][size=4][b]I would say that they can't. Difficult music will always have a limited, sometimes 'cult' following. That said, it's important to think about artists such as Björk who are using elements of pop music together with very creative, forward-thinking ideas. But aside from the unusual phrasing, novel orchestration and unpredictable forms in her music, there are still the elements of 'pop', that is singable melodies, beats and drama. In order to appeal to the masses one has to appeal to an immediacy; something graspable that can be enjoyed without a lot of effort. That is not a judgement. I certainly enjoy that kind of music. But I can't expect too much from too many people.[/b][/size][/font]

[font=georgia,serif][size=4]Usually, it is considered that it is the job of the artist to win over an audience. But listening is also an active, rather than just a passive process. How do you see the role of the listener in the musical communication process?[/size][/font]

[font=georgia,serif][size=4][b]As I've alluded to earlier, the artist's job is not contingent upon the audience. Igor Stravinsky said it very well, 'The listener reacts and becomes a partner in the game, initiated by the creator. Nothing less, nothing more. The fact that the partner is free to accept or to refuse participation in the game does not automatically invest him with the authority of a judge.' [/b][/size][/font]
[font=georgia,serif][size=4][b] As a composer my aim is to win over myself. If I'm not happy or interested in my own music, if I don't want to hear it, then what is the point? I will never be able to win over everyone. There will always be those who loathe what I create or are apathetic towards it. The sooner an artist accepts that fact the better off he will be. But I am also a listener. I am also an audience member. And my role as such is to seek out and embrace what I enjoy and deal with it in my own personal way, whether that means to study it, use it to alter my mood, or simply enjoy it.[/b][/size][/font]

[font=georgia,serif][size=4]Reaching audiences usually involves reaching out to the press and possibly working with a PR company. What's your perspective on the promo system? In which way do music journalism and PR companies change the way music is perceived by the public?[/size][/font]

[font=georgia,serif][size=4][b]I honestly have no idea how it works. I've put money into promotion that generated no results, and I've seen large turns-outs based solely on word of mouth. It takes the effort of the passionate audience member to seek out his desires. It takes a certain type of hunger. Marketing and advertising work the same way they always have; by repetitively force-feeding the public until familiarity is unmistakable and a sense of worth is lost without being a part of what is popular. It works on all levels and has nothing to do with talent or quality. I continue to keep my ears open for inspiration. I read trade magazines and weekly listings and I actively seek out music, film and literature that will push me forward regardless of what is trendy or not. The public's perception of everything is altered by the simple fact that they are the public and not an individual. [/b][/size][/font]

[font=georgia,serif][size=4]Please recommend two artists to our readers which you feel deserve their attention.[/size][/font]

[font=georgia,serif][size=4][b]Two of my favorite bands in Brooklyn are Little Women and Buke & Gase.[/b][/size][/font]

[jaydentaku]

Don't forget the Melvins

[ped]

[quote name='jaydentaku' timestamp='1360790926' post='1976678']
Don't forget the Melvins
[/quote]

Yeah, I could be here all day if I mention everyone, though I haven't ever properly listened to the Melvins. Which album would you recommend?

[jaydentaku]

Houdini or perhaps Stoner Witch is a good starting point

[ped]

Cool thanks, I'll try them out!

[xilddx]

What a superb interview. One of the best I've read. Thanks ped

[BassTractor]

Wow! How did I miss this?
Great stuff indeed. Thanks for posting.

Nice also to see some love for [b]Buke and Gase[/b]. IMO, they deserve to be more known.


best,
bert