Forte Magazine - SC3


Veronica Beasant, Australia May, 1998


Trey Spruance is best known for his work in the kooky and experimental American band Mr Bungle. Since Mr Bungle has been in hiatus for about three years, Trey decided to form a side project called Secret Chiefs 3, and he invited two other members of Mr Bungle to join. It may seem a bit strange, but the two bands couldn't be further apart. Mr Bungle is like a musical freak show. Secret Chiefs 3 (S.C.3) is cemented in the style of Hindu and Islamic music which resulted in the album Second Grand Constitution and Bylaws.

Why are you beginning your first tour with Secret Chiefs 3 in Geelong ?
It seemed like a better place to start than in Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory, which is where we were booked at first. I was there last year, and I had to tell our promoter it was a bad idea to start the tour there because, having been there recently, I could state definitively that there wasn't much of a "scene". Just a couple of gas stations. Darwin has a "scene" if you like getting drunk and fighting over bruised women. I prefer peaceful places like Geelong, where there aren't as many ways to end up instantly dead. Are you starting to see? In this organisation, what I say GOES! We start the tour in GEELONG!! Period.

You're playing something like 14 out of 18 days in Australia. Do you thrive on being able to play for long periods of time ?
Uh. no .. that s a function of the economics of touring with SIX musicians !a we had it OUR way we d be playing ONE BIG SHOW with the WHOLE WORLD in attendance so we could spend the rest of our time in Australia hunting Echidnas - Echidna Genocide is far more important than playing a bunch of stupid "shows".

Mr Bungle and S.C.3 are nothing alike, what can you do musically in S.C.3 that you cannot do in Mr. Bungle?
Quite honestly, even though the S.C 3 are often accused of being 'weirder" than Mr Bungle, you won't find straightfonward music like 'Renunciation'. 'White As They Come or the "surf" songs on a Mr Bungle record mostly because they so openly toy with straight-up POP sensibillties. Other than that, the music between the two bands simply originates from different places. It's not really a question of what CAN and CANNOT be done, it's a question of what NEEDS to happen in order to facilitate the illusory END of the World.

Coming from America when did you first hear of the Eastern music that's heard on Second Grand Constitution and Bylaws?
Well, cultural void that America is, if you happen to pull your head out of your butt here you will quickly notice that there are (um.. hello?) quite a few different cultures around you. Here in San Francisco it's simply CHEAPER to buy Hindi Film and Islamic Pop music cassettes than it is to keep up with all the useless 'cutting edge" music that whirls mindlessly in and out of vogue. Besides, the unpredictable stuff heard on these tapes is AT LEAST as entertaining than say, that $50 Esquivel record I wasted my money on five years ago. The original attraction to, ugh!, "ethnic" music was real really just a matter of CD/LP economics coupled with our simultaneous graduation from the idiot sham of post-rock avant retro hipstream. Now that interest has blossomed into a culture-blind hunt for metaphysical roots (by whatever music necessary"). It is the charring of the Imaginal Geography of Hurqalya through inspired sound. We believe it has the power to INSPIRE perceptions of that world, but it can also simply be listened to and enjoyed.

After two albums do you still have a "long term four album" of S.C.3?
Oh most definitely yes. The music for the 3rd Constitution is completely finished, and needs only be recorded. There will be some other stuff in between as well, such as our two new 7"s that we are bringing to Australia. The "four album vision" concerns only the "Grand Constitutions by the way. There may be twelve C.D's between the 2nd and 3rd Constitutions for all I know!!

I heard that Rastacore Records released an unauthorised demo of Mr Bungle's Bowl Of Chiley [1987]. How do you feel about your work getting out without you saying it's okay?
Well, since WE KNOW THE GUY, and can contrary that he was AN ASSHOLE even before any of this, I can say that while it sickens me in one way, it also healthily confirms some of my darkest-but-truest intuitions: such as a) real punk rock is just as bad as fake punk rock, and b) the more righteous a person acts, the more likely he is to be a conniving, opportunistic yuppie scumbag underneath it all (in this case, a crusty-punk dress code i.e: patches, bleached hair, piercings, acne etc ) I Thank Allah daily that NOTHING I have ever done has any Punk Rock Credibility whatsoever!

Can you tell me about the Apokatastasis compilation and the Weird Little Boy thing you did with Mike Patton
At the risk of sounding ironic which I do NOT intend, The Weird Little Boy thing absolutely sucks, and buying it would be a waste of anyone's hard-earned money I have to apologise to anyone who may have bought it for the reason that I play on It. Sorry! The Apokatastasis thing is actually an electroaccoustic opera. I�ve been working on it for some time now, and hope to have it out by Jan 1999. It will be on Birdman Records. The full tide is 'Apokatastasis: self assembled heirohistory coded into auditory mimesis'. Appearing on it will be two of Austraiia's GIANTS of sound genius, Lucas Abela (a Kombi, Peeled Hearts Paste) and *hopefully* Jim Denley (Machine For Making Sense). No, it won't be anything like Weird Little Boy!!

Finally, it says on your bio that S.C.3 "may actually kill an audience member from time to time". What can Australian audiences expect to see in S.C.3's live shows?
Idle threats. At worst some unloaded squirt-gun play We're PANSIES. But by night's end we�ll find a way to BATHE you all in your own blood. It is our job to part the ensuring Red Sea and facilitate your safe passage unto the ordeals of Bardo Thodol. From there you're on your own...

Secret Chiefs 3 will be playing at Lambys Bar in Geelong on Wednesday May 20th with Mike Sheradin as support act.


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