YOUR QUESTION:

03/03/2021 The Ghost of Halloween Past

Hi Trevor, I hope this question isn't too personal. Around the time that you moved to NYC, Trey was known for being sharply critical of not only the "Downtown" scene of Zorn's orbit, but also '90s avant improv in general. I wouldn't expect you to be aware of all or even most of the stuff that he expressed in interviews over those years, but I was wondering if through conversations between you two if he ever communicated such sentiments, and if it ever affected your friendship with him considering that you were going to be moving across the country to become part of a scene that he was publicly criticizing. As a relevant aside, was there any reason why you did not take part in the Weird Little Boy sessions that included Trey, Mike, Zorn, and Willy Winant, on, I believe, an off-day in NYC on the Disco Volante tour? Cheers.

MY ANSWER:

I remember something of this, some of which may have come from his own personal experiences. But no, that never affected our friendship. I can respect differences of opinions, or maybe I agreed with some of what he said. I have no recollection to be honest, and it seems to me that those types of opinions are capable of evolution in any regard. I can say for certain that all of us in Bungle were reaching for very different things as the touring of California concluded. Granted, we were in our 30s, somewhat successful and able to make personal moves that didn’t necessarily include our usual circle.
I don’t know why I wasn’t included in that recording, but it’s probably because there was a specific instrumentation involved, a certain budget, etc. It’s a waste of time to ever take any of that sort of thing personally. Not long after that I ended up going on tour with Zorn in a “West Coast” version of the Masada Quartet, so I got my time in.