Trevor Dunn talks about the making of Mr. Bungle’s ‘California’ (1999)

FaithNoMoreFollowers.com – August 5, 2017

California, the third and final album by Mr. Bungle, was released on July 13th 1999.

It stands today as a fitting end to their almost twenty year long music career together. Arguably their best album, it is a wonderfully imaginative and perfectly produced record including some of the best songs ever written by the band, or any band for that matter. The mixture of lounge / jazz / pop, with middle eastern / surf rock flavours is, of course, unclassifiable.  set the tone for many projects by the band members to follow: the sound that Trey Spruance would further explore with Secret Chiefs 3, the music of Mike Patton‘s Mondo Cane and Bär McKinnon‘s Umläut all seem to trace their roots to this recording.

Trevor Dunn has become a regular contributor to our website and is always keen to talk about Mr. Bungle‘s history. He kindly took time away from his work with so many projects to give us a little insight into this astounding album.

In our last interview you revealed that  is the album that are most proud of? Could you explain why?

Was the album was originally called  Where did  come from? 

How was the writing for this record? Were you all together or did you contribute ideas individually?

After the extensive musical experimentation of  was there a conscious effort to write more  for this record?

Like every Mr Bungle record the production is complex yet meticulously executed. How did you arrange the recording sessions? 

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