Trey Spruance
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| Trey Spruance | |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Preston Lea Spruance III |
| Born | August 14, 1969 |
| Genres | Experimental music, experimental rock, avant-garde metal |
| Occupations | Musician |
| Instruments | Guitar, keyboards, trumpet, baglama, sitar, dumbek, zither, bass guitar, pipa |
| Years active | 1985–present |
| Labels | Mimicry |
| Associated acts | Mr. Bungle, Secret Chiefs 3, Faxed Head, Estradasphere, Faith No More |
Preston Lea Spruance III or "Trey Spruance" (born August 14, 1969) is an American composer, producer, and musician, perhaps best known as the leader of the multi-genre outfit Secret Chiefs 3 and for his work as guitarist and keyboardist with Mr. Bungle. Originally a guitarist and trumpeter, Spruance later began playing vintage electronic organs, saz, santur, electric sitar, tar, pipa, and various other string and percussion instruments.
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History[edit]
Spruance was a founding member of Mr. Bungle, along with Mike Patton and Trevor Dunn. Since Mr. Bungle's dissolution in 2000, Spruance has focused more on his Secret Chiefs 3 projects, expanding the role of the group's seven sub-groups and releasing Book of Horizons, the first album of a planned trilogy. He has performed with John Zorn and Eyvind Kang. He also contributed some guitar and tubular bells to the ASVA recordings Futurists Against the Ocean and What You Don't Know Is Frontier with whom he toured the US and Europe. He, notably, also recorded with Patton in the group Faith No More on their 1995 album King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime. He arranged the strings and one-woman choir for The Tuna Helpers' second album, I'll Have What She's Having.
As a producer[edit]
Spruance has often worked as a producer, beginning with Mr. Bungle's albums Disco Volante and California. In 2001, Spruance produced Chicago-based rock band Tub Ring's first full-length album, Drake Equation. In 2004, he produced the album Death After Life for Oakland, CA death metal group Impaled, also contributing guitar solos for their songs "Resurrectionists", and "Medical Waste". Other production duties have included I'll Have What's She's Having (2004) by The Tuna Helpers and Faxed Head's Chiropractic (2001).
Record label[edit]
Spruance is the founder and webmaster of Mimicry Records, which has released albums from a variety of different bands, including Estradasphere, The Youngs, Cleric, Danubius, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Brazzaville, Matt Chamberlain, Dengue Fever, The Tuna Helpers, and Sir Millard Mulch, amongst other projects.
Playing style[edit]
Known for his technical proficiency as a guitar player, Spruance's playing style as a guitarist is influenced by many diverse genres of music, such as surf rock, death metal, film music, world music, funk, space rock, country music, progressive rock and free jazz.
Sampling and foley work also play a large role in his recordings.
In movies[edit]
The first movie score he performed was for The Anna Cabrini Chronicles (written and Directed by Tawd b. Dorenfeld), which was released in 2005. The music is similar to his work with Secret Chiefs 3 and was produced by Elk 56 and Dorenfeld.
Composition style[edit]
Spruance's diverse compositional style has been influenced by Olivier Messiaen, Nino Rota, Ennio Morricone, Bernard Herrmann, R. D. Burman, Ananda Shankar, Pythagoras of Samos,[1][2][3] Devo, Fear of God, Mercyful Fate, and many others.
Discography[edit]
Faith No More
Faxed Head
- Uncomfortable But Free (1995)
- Exhumed at Birth (1997)
- Chiropractic (2001)
Mr. Bungle
- The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny (1986)
- Bowel of Chiley (1987)
- Goddammit I Love America! (1988)
- OU818 (1989)
- Mr. Bungle (1991)
- Disco Volante (1995)
- California (1999)
Secret Chiefs 3
- First Grand Constitution and Bylaws (1996)
- Second Grand Constitution and Bylaws: Hurqalya (1998)
- Eyes of Flesh, Eyes of Flame (1999)
- Book M (2001)
- Book of Horizons (2004)
- Path of Most Resistance (retrospective and rarities album) (2007)
- Xaphan: Book of Angels Volume 9 (2008)
- Traditionalists: Le Mani Destre Recise Degli Ultimi Uomini (2009)
- Satellite Supersonic Vol. 1 (2010)
Weird Little Boy
- Weird Little Boy (1998)
Band membership[edit]
- Secret Chiefs 3
- Mr. Bungle
- Faxed Head (as "Neck Head")
- Noddingturd Fan (also NT Fan)
- ASVA
- The Three Doctors Band
- Weird Little Boy (a one-off studio project)
- Plainfield
- The Bon Larvis Band
- Faith No More
References[edit]
External links[edit]
- The Trey Spruance Gallery - a comprehensive list of Spruance's live and recorded projects
- Web of Mimicry
- Mimicry Records - Spruance's record label
- Official Site of Secret Chiefs 3 - official website containing member line-up and photos.
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