by Joe Headcrash, 2000

The transition from Disco Volante to California is even more extreme than the one between the debut and Disco Volante. Would you agree or do you not see this transition as being all that drastic?
We don't set out to change our sound, it just happens because of the way our personal interests constantly morph. None of us has any partisan loyalty to any specific form of anything - what a crock of shit to live that way: "I like metal - I like country - I like Jazz & Classical - I like "world'". Every record is like a snapshot of us draining into one another - our pooled obsessions at that moment. We congeal it as a "band" when God says we can get away with doing a record.

"Sweet Charity" was reportedly so complex that it would be almost impossible to remix it. Elaborate on this one if you will. I read that California was recorded at 5 different studios. What caused or contributed to this? I remember reading just before the album came out that a lot of very "unusual" studio technology was being used, such as the very old "analog" stuff. Was it difficult to find a lot of the recording technology?
Well, "Sweet Charity" is pretty insane, but "Robots" and "Goodbye Sober Day" were WAY worse. I'll be going into this stuff in detail at www.webofmimicry.com soon in a full technical write-up of the album. It's funny, nobody ever asks about this stuff, and to my mind the place where the originality of this band shines is in it's approach to the studio. So thanks for asking! I'll just give you a quick outline of the process: we started with drums and bass on 24 track 2", took references mixes of that with time code home and tracked keyboards and guitar at home. Then we flew those tracks (10 - 20 of them per song), some of them being summed at the "fly in" from say 8 channels down to 2 in a stereo pair. This was part of the strategy to save tracks (every song had to be mapped out and charted track-wise before we began, because each demanded drastically different track allocations). By this time we had to bring up a 2nd 2" reel (48 tracks) to make space for more stuff. Then we recorded percussion - squeezed onto three tracks generally, with multiple players going to one track at a time. Next, we would be doing string ensembles, multiple vocals and extra musicians such as accordions, cymbalums, English horns etc... but the studio we were going to had only one MCI 2" machine. So we had to get EVERYTHING we had done up to that point down to THREE reference tracks so there would be room for, for instance in "Pink Cigarette", a multiple-layered string orchestra - 12 tracks of overdubbing - which needed then to be summed down to two stereo pairs to make room for 10 vocal tracks. After this, we got code and new reference mixes because there were quite a few guitar and keyboard parts we couldn't do without vocals or extra instruments (this of course all had to be anticipated, and worked into the chronology of the recording). This chain reaction brought us finally to finishing the vocals on the double 2" (48 track), but having to make reference mixes of some of the instruments because there were WAY more than 48 tracks at this point. So the mixes, like the tracking, were broken up into different studios - the majority of which having to be mixed on a 96 channel SSL with THREE synched 2" machines!!! [About the] "vintage" gear, yes we used mostly old mics, mic pres and compressors. We had the luxury of being able to match microphones to eras, and adjust the "size" of the tracking room from song to song, which is a very key element to how the record turned out. All this will be explored in detail at webofmimicry.com in a month or two...

Do all(or most) of your musical influences come from the past? Was California the result of riffs that had been brewing in your heads for years? Or did all the Beach Boys/Neil Diamond mental snippets happen suddenly?
It's possible that most of our "influences" are from the past. But that would be because there's a LOT more of the past than there is of the present. I feel like if your criteria is to locate good music, you will need to explore the world and history - because comparatively little of it actually exists HERE and NOW. As for Calfornia riffs, most of them are fairly recent - within the 2 years prior to the making of the album. Two of the 5 million "None of Them Knew They Were Robots" riffs were Patton riffs from about 14 years ago. I always loved them. Had to put them in there. The Neil Diamond thing came to me about four years ago when I wrote about 6 songs inspired by his style (of which "Pink Cigarette" was one) in a day long inspiration that came from nowhere. At the time, using any of it as Mr. Bungle material was the farthest thing from my mind. And the Beach Boys thing for me had been rolling for quite awhile. A year and a half prior to California I had worked up arrangements of Hereos and Villians and Good Vibrations with my band the Secret Chiefs 3 for a late-era Beach Boys Tribute compilation on Sony Japan. That was called "Smiling Pets". It was fun to apply those same weird production techniques to our own original music in Mr. Bungle.

Haha, yeah, there are a shitload of riffs in "Robots". I think this one rocks like a magikist. Was this a difficult one to pull off live? What is your favorite �live� song from California?
Yeah, "Robots..." was a little on the challenging side initially. They're all fuckin' cake at this point. The hard part was programming all the synths and samplers for the live show... that took some fancy fuckin' footwork. Jesus, it took me and my Kurzweil guru friend about a month and a half. Favorite song? Any song where I get half a second to take a sip of wine because I'm not stuck doing 10 million things at once. Between songs I have to load songs, adjust MIDI parameters, change guitars and tunings and flip various AB boxes, so that's not a very relaxing time. There's a 7 second part in "Ars Moriendi" where I'm free, so that's probably my favorite.

Speaking of "None of them Knew they were Robots", it's my fav on the album. That song starts out this really bizarre death metal riff, and manages to incorporate 50's pop, lounge, swing, and other styles before it's over. I could imagine there being a very wild video for this one. Have there been any plans for a video? Any plans for a "live" video from the California tour?
No plans for any videos right now. But feel free to use the video in your head for "Robots". It's a lot better than a real video...

Do you sometimes feel a strange calm in the air, when your neckhairs suddenly stand on end, waiting for terror to strike? Do you have any stories of unusual entities that made their presence to you? Do you have any stories at all you can tell us?
What, like being struck by lightning? No that's not me. I'm the one in the library reading the History of Freemasonry, Charles Tart, assorted meteorological studies and the bible simultaneously. Yes, I too have useless AND useful knowledge. My life cycle oscillates between creating invisible wonders with *useless* knowledge, and being exploited for having obtained *useful* knowledge. But I have NO stories. None worth telling.

"Golem II: The Bionic Vapor Boy" really charts a new course for Mr. Bungle because there really isn't anything "extreme" about the song other than the fact that it's extremely catchy. I didn't hear this one the last time I saw Mr. Bungle live, do you often play this during shows?
We played it more on the "evening with mr. bungle" tour. We don't play it right now because we had to slim our stage setup down, so no Wurlitzer. No Wurlitzer, no "Golem" - no fucking way.

Unfortunately you didn't rock out to that one during the first US tour, but get this, I was at six flags for Halloween weekend and I was eating mushrooms and kinda just walking around when I heard "Golem" being blasted over the loudspeakers for one of the rides. I had to split from my group because I wanted to see if it was really in fact that song. It was. So I just wanted to say thanks for writing that song in the first place, because that moment re-defined my six flags experience for all times.
Wow! Hey, where's my fuckin' royalty check?

In regards to the Sno-Core tour, how do you feel about touring with more mainstream bands? If Bjork asked to be on the next Mr. Bungle tour would you say yes?
Here's a game: try to think of ONE band or artist who is bigger than us that would be Great for us to tour with. Take a minute and try... See? Bjork would be ok - better than anything else, right? I mean, Tom Waits or Brian Wilson or something would be great too.

Well, It might seem like a longshot when you're dealing with more-mainstream acts. But it can be done. I think bands who play a lot of different styles is becoming more common. Maybe one of those rap-metal-freakout rock tours would work, kind of how Public Enemy toured with Primus and Anthrax that one time? A wacky tour, but one that I think would work well, is something like you, Slipknot and Squarepusher. Are you a fan of either?
I'm a fan of Squarepusher big time. Not too big on the rap-metal thing. Although I admit to hearing a Korn song the other day and actually liking it. I know, I know, I'm supposed to hate that stuff. But this song was pretty good. As far as touring goes, I guess my point was that thinking of bands/musicians who are bigger than us AND the thought of touring with them is actually stimulating and exciting, well, that's a pretty tall order. What's "good" for us as a band maybe is different, and we don't mind touring with whoever. As long as they are not fucked as people, I don't really concern myself with what the music sounds like. I mean, like right now - these Incubus and System of a Down guys are cool as shit. I would hang out with these guys regardless. It works better going the other direction: when we go out as a headliner and bring bands like Melt Banana and Dillinger Escape Plan with us they get fucking boo'd at first, and then suddenly everybody wakes up one day loves them. I love that. Point being, there IS good music out there - and most people tend to LIKE it once they get a chance to really hear it and are willing to give it a chance. Bottom line: big touring pretty much never has anything to do with "art". I'm over expecting any concern for THAT from the music biz.

Perhaps. But people also kind of expect a band like Mr. Bungle to break down those barriers. And, I think it's happening. I'd also say that I see these kinds of "MONEY-BEFOE-MUSIC" attitudes decomposing heavily in the next five years, thanks to the internet and higher artist/fan communication.
Yeah, I agree about the internet etc. I also think it's just in our nature as a society two swing back and forth between contrasting definitions of what's real and what's fantasy. The big dumb rock star is back now, and the pseudo-smart hypocritical anti-rock star has faded. But he will be back. Let's hope Mr. Bungle never falls victim to either pole. As much as I love romantic notions like "the revolution", I know that if the art itself - and ONLY the art itself - isn't the "revolution" BY itself, then there is no hope of anything converting it INTO a revolution. Simple as that. If the politics that surround music are mixed with it in an attempt to "revolutionize" it, that's a sure indicator that there is absolutely no revolution taking place... we have slipped through the cracks on this kind of shit, and will continue to do so.

Would you say that this aspect of the music has made you cynical or jaded?
Oh, go ahead and call me cynical. Call me a snob. Fuck it.

Well, in all honesty it does seem a little ironic that you might feel cynical about this sort of thing, based on how extremely loyal your audience is. Especially the American fans, who generally have short attention spans like nowhere else in the world. Look at a band like Metallica, they are nearly indestructable one minute, then alter their sound and people are crying bloody murder. On the other hand Mr. Bungle could defy your previous work on every new album and it's unlikely any of your hardcore fans would complain. Would you agree here?
Well our fans, same as us, are a different story than what is typically the case I think. They are extremely flexible. Unbelievable. On the whole, I guess that by now they would EXPECT a surprise from us album to album. This has arisen from us just doing whatever was right or us at the time - and by some magic there is that expanding group of amazing folks who stay with us through those changes, and don't scream bloody murder every time we do turn a corner. We lose fans all the time - each album has it's adherents, and some people just want to hear one particular thing from us. They give up eventually! It's amazing how people assume we are TRYING to aggravate them or 'test' them when we play. But we gain more listeners than we lose as time goes on as more and more people hear the music, or realize this is not just a fuckin' novelty joke band or Mike Patton sideshow or whatever. A gill net is being thrown out there and more and more people who enjoy adventure and strong, versatile music are roping themselves in - all while transitory masses are slipping in and out of our audience. It's an interesting and good situation, and it's not without a good business side. So in that sense, no, I don't see a need for some heavy-handed attempt at reform of "big" music just so we can get a piece of the ever-elusive pie. Our commitment is to our own visions, but by extension I think that means we are committed also to the growing percentage of our listeners that want to hear something new from us every time we do an album.

You've done some shows with the Kids of Widney High, who are musicians with special talents. Relating to this sort of music, are you a fan of Wesley Willis?
The Kids are probably the best band we've ever played with. Yeah, I've heard Wesley Willis. It's OK. In that area I like Hazel Adkins, Dion MacGregor, Theodore Raleigh Sakers and the Dancing Outlaw better. And then there's the Sun City Girls...

Do you think Q-bert sustained any head trauma or broken bones when falling off his triangular battlefield?
That only happens when OTHER people play that game. I'd be more worried about what happens to the purple snake if it's me who's playing.

Will Mr. Bungle merchandise be available on your site (www.webofmimicry.com) soon?
I wish I knew what was up with that. We took the stuff off of WoM because Mr. B was supposedly starting up our own merch site. Maybe I'll find out what's going on by reading this interview when it comes out...