U LIVE on the DANCEFLOOR

info: [email protected]
contact: stunbunny@uliveonthedancefloor

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U LIVE on the DANCEFLOOR
The Future Is Now

01 BASED ON REALITY 02 THE FUTURE IS NOW 03 BABYS GONE 04 LET ME LOVE U
05 I NEED U 06 VEGAS ON THE DANCEFLOOR 07 BOY AND A GIRL 08 CALL U OUT
09 HEY HEY HEY 10 THE ONES U UNFOLD
music & vox by greg stunbunny biribauer
xtra noise fx by adam alf alfaro
spoken word by cottonmouth, texas
button pushing by mike massaro
drums by kenny pierce
recorded at soundONsound virtual studio ~ eagle rock CA ~ 3.08 thru 3.09
special thanx: anna granucci ~ peter & darien stahl ~ jeffrey liles ~ joseph john biribauer
©℗ 2009 BMI Abraca Pocus
all songs by greg biribauer except "Call U Out" by liles & biribauer
photos by mike massaro
additional photos by hal samples
manipulation by stunbunny

Q & A:
Greg Biribauer and Kenny Pierce
of U LIVE on the DANCEFLOOR
July 1, 2009
The Chaotic Duality of the Future
By Devon Wendell

I recently met up with Greg "stunbunny" Biribauer — guitarist, producer, mixer, and co- founder of the art-rock band The Spores — along with the group’s original drummer Kenny Pierce. We met in Hollywood to discuss their latest band project — U LIVE on the DANCEFLOOR, which combines electro-dance music with futuristic rock. The band’s debut album, The Future Is Now (Abraca Pocus), was officially released on June 16th.
Devon Wendell: Greg, when did the overall concepts of ULD start entering your mind?
Greg Stunbunny Biribauer: Pretty much right after the break up of The Spores. Our friend Mike Massora had his ear to the ground as far as all of the latest DJ’s and underground stuff, plus we’re into mask craft and we thought that was a cool way of marketing the band image-wise. The name of the band came from a lyric and I knew no other band would use it. The meaning behind The Future Is Now has a lot to do with Obama winning the election and that there’s a chance that the world may finally get where it was supposed to go 40 years ago — people actually being kinder to each other, the hope that the greed of corporate America will disappear and having to put back into the community. All of those euphoric visions of the future from the 60’s seemed not so far away when he showed up, though we’ve got a long way to go. We do have a better chance now and we think he’s a cool dude.
DW: With ULD, do you find yourself getting away from the same musical concepts that influenced your work with The Spores?
GSB: The Spores had way more of a twee element because Molly was singing and there was more pop with the girl fronting. ULD slams a little harder and we’re able to stretch out the arrangements a little easier now. There was a lot more pressure with The Spores that we couldn’t live up to and of course there’s only two of us, Kenny and myself, in ULD. There’s fewer personalities and mouths to feed but we’re still a real band even though we use loops and click tracks.
DW: Between your live engineering, your collaborations with various artists, your work with The Spores, and especially now with ULD, there’s a sense of moving toward something larger than an orchestral sound. Musically, it’s very reminiscent of the set of a Kubrick film. Is space and size something that enters your mind while composing and recording?
GSB: Yes and it’s amazing you mention Kubrick because I’m a huge fan. The way that he works that I’ve always subscribed to is that you throw a bunch of ideas against the wall that have to come out, whether it’s artistic or emotional. And through that process you hopefully discover what you don’t like and by stripping those elements away, you’re then left with the beginning or skeleton of what you were coined to do. That’s pretty much how I made the album, though of course I couldn’t be as meticulous as Kubrick on a recording. All of a sudden it just existed.
DW: Imagery seems to play such a key roll in ULD. The videos for “The Future Is Now,” “I Need U,” and “Hey Hey Hey” are closer to short films than cliché music videos. “Baby’s Gone” has an acute understanding of film noir and Italian cinema. Does classic cinematography and still-photography influence the music first or is it the other way around?
GSB: It’s the other way around. When we shot “Baby’s Gone,” it was just something off the top of our heads and done in one day. People spend too much time and money on rock videos to kind of justify their existence, including many bands that I’ve worked with. They should be shot quickly. They’re really secondary to the music. It should start with a certain vibe or idea and happen organically, Which is why I like the artistic freedom of the YouTube phenomenon. The old notion from the industry was “The more money we spend on the video, the more people will like the record.” Those days are over.
DW: The term “Art Rock” or “Industrial” comes up a lot when referring to your work. How do you feel about labels like that?
GSB: Genres serve a purpose because people who work in record stores need a place to put the music and journalists need to categorize to start a conversation. Our purpose is to completely blow that apart, but still you can’t just say, “It’s all just music or art.” In the 60’s, people like Hendrix and The Who were taking the audience on such an amazing journey while still wrapping up three-minute, radio-friendly songs. The best artists incorporate jazz, funk, classic rock, techno, folk and find their own sound. Zeppelin would make up three-hour live sets on the spot. No one has the balls to do that now and neither do we. But we’re trying to bring back that live bombast through expanding on what dance rock should be. But we don’t want to sound like a classic rock band, either.
DW: Well, there’s no doubt that you have a sound that’s very modern. But tell me about older styles of music that have influenced you.
GSB: Almost anyone who played at Woodstock is worth checking out. Beatles, Beatles, Beatles. Digital music is great but has turned us into a generation of singles buyers as apposed to the 60’s when it was more about the whole album. Jazz was a huge influence growing up. My dad was a collector and I grew up hearing Miles, Monk, Bird, Count Basie, and Sinatra. He took me to see Mingus at some dingy club in Toronto and it was very heavy to witness that improvisation process.. Now there’s so much politicking to make cookie cutter music for Disney or a Cadillac commercial.
Kenny Pierce: My grandmother played a lot of Motown. I didn’t always know who the artists or songs were but I loved that sound. At first I hated Zeppelin and The Beatles. But I developed a love for them later. Also ‘80’s bands like The Thompson Twins and Joy Division, Depeche Mode. And I just started listening to The Germs. I saw a film on them and they’re an influence on me now.
DW: There’s a sense of unabashed fun and overt sensuality that’s consistent throughout The Future Is Now. Is that intentional and a part of your personalities?
GSB: We don’t hold anything back and wear our hearts on our sleeves because if you’re going to bother doing it, do it all the way.
KP: Definitely both. I wear my heart like a crown. Music brings out those unexpected characteristics in your personality — like method acting. You can’t get away with certain things on the streets that you can get away with on stage — for now anyway.
DW: How would you describe the working chemistry between the two of you?
GSB: The bottom line for me is that Kenny is the only guy for the job. There’s world class and then there’s just functional. I believe he’s one of the top ten drummers alive. He’s like Dave Grohl good. We were together in The Spores, but in that environment, it began to feel like we were back treading. There’s that genuine trust, understanding and chemistry like Hendrix had with Mitch Mitchell, The Who with Keith Moon, Miles with Max Roach, . We know what works and what doesn’t.
DW: Let’s talk about the writing process of ULD. Do you do all of the writing, Greg? Or is it a collaborative effort?
GSB: I wrote all of the tracks. I write a lot of poetry so I’ll just sing off the top of my head and edit it down so it fits the music in a way that you won’t see that existing thread through it all. I’ll take a few words and chop them in half to get another context that I never intended in the first place. Which is a trick that Dylan, Lennon, and many others have done, but don’t talk about because it’s like giving away the great secret. Even the nonsensical stuff has a universal appeal. It you write too concisely or personal, it can become near-sighted.
DW: Do you have a set goal in mind when working on a piece or are you more driven by spontaneous mood?
GSB: Spontaneous. Yeah. You start with an idea but it completely morphs over time, unlocking all of these little puzzles and it never ends up being the same as that initial idea and thank God for that. The original idea is usually too inspired by something else — like you’re stealing a chord or something — but you need to keep working to put your own stamp on it.
KP: Sometimes the best idea is the first idea but it gets lost and the more you work on it trying to get back that first idea, it takes away from the freshness of it so you need to wipe the slate clean.
DW: Greg, besides the images in the videos for “Hey Hey Hey,” there’s a lot of Hendrix-esque backwards, multi-layered guitar work in your playing, evident on many of ULD’s songs. Tell me about Jimi’s influence on your playing.
GSB: When I saw the film of Jimi’s set at Woodstock, it seemed like he was an alien. It was beyond anything else. In the 60’s, there was that sense that the cream really would rise to the top, that you could present your talent organically and be accepted. But because of the cookie cutter mentality of the industry today and the need for selling a brand, I don’t think someone like Hendrix would make it the way the Jonas Brothers are.
DW: Is ULD just a temporary experiment or do you hope to be doing this ten years from now?
GSB: We’re going to follow through. Kenny and I have proven that we can’t break up, so we’re stuck with this. And hopefully we’ll outlive The Jonas Brothers.
DW: One more question. Tell me about the significance of the masks in your videos.
GSB: In a general context, it’s a suppression of the ego, wanting the music to stand on its own. As well as hiding the fact that we’re a little older, to be honest.
KP: (laughing) We don’t want to attract too many women, either. We don’t want to end up like The Beatles.
GSB: Exactly, we don’t want that kind of distraction going on. It’s a way to stand out with an element of mystery and intrigue. We think it’s a great device. I believe people are fed up with artists trying to promote their own selves. And eventually we wear them because there may be people who want to throw bottles and pots at us. So it’s good protective gear.
KP: Plus we like hockey.
DW: I knew that was it. Thank you both so much for your time.
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