Thursday, September 15, 2016

Instant interview with East Coast Guitar Legend Tim Mungenast....


Tim Mungenast Photo by Glenn Kulbako.
Here is an instant interview with Tim Mungenast, an experimental guitarist currently residing in Albany, New York.

Today 9-15-2016

2:57pm
Tim Mungenast ...and HELLO again! :D

2:58pm
Mark A. Soden Jr. Interviews: that sounds like fun what are you up to right now

3:02pm
Tim M about to eat dinner but that's not a big obstacle. we can do this. wheee!

3:05pm
Mark S OK will make this short and sweet. I will ask three questions, what is the most important musical piece to you? what are your musical plans? What is the most fun you have had playing music?

3:06pm
Tim M typing with my mouth full is not nearly as rude as speaking that way, yes?

3:06pm
Mark S We can do this with typing that way you can eat freely and it won't sound like anything.

3:06pm
Tim M I will put a chunk of dry ice on my keyboard...
Okay, question 1...
do you mean one of my tunes or someone else's
i'll assume someone else's music, in which case, my choice is...
at this moment in time? i'd say "freedom" by jimi hendrix

3:09pm
Mark S It can't be either yours or someone else's

3:09pm
Tim M okay, then! we can put a checkmark next to #1

3:09pm
Mark S What about freedom hooked you?

3:09pm
Tim M question #2... my plans?
ah, "freedom" had maybe the most propulsive hook ever created
...and a very positive message of human potential

3:10pm
Mark S Hooks are a great thing. It speaks to the lizard brain.

3:10pm
Tim M...killer solos, and vocals, too
for sure, the lizard brain isn't all bad. :D
it gets a bad rap.

3:11pm
Mark S I would say in general people spend more time using the lizard brain then they would like to admit

3:11pm
Tim M hahahaha! I'd put money on it, yes.

3:11pm
Mark S Especially when they're operating heavy equipment like cars

3:12pm
Tim M Yeah, you need ALL your brain for that, at least if you want to do it right and not drive like a New Englander.
...or a denizen of NYC and environs.

3:13pmMark S Well, you guys have weather. Bad drivers in Los Angeles have no excuse...

3:13pm
Tim M hahahahaha! Agreed.
3:14pm
Mark S So back to plans what have you got going?

3:16pm
Tim M Last summer I recorded an album as guest axeman for my friends' band Astro Al (a husband/wife band specializing in weird poetry soundscapes), and a week or so ago we recorded the followup, which is so far sounding even better and more fun.
...and I am on 6 of 18 songs on Eric Dahlman's "Glacier" album.

3:17pm
Mark S Outstanding! Is that on Bandcamp or sound cloud where can one get to this?

3:17pm

Tim M let me check my emails 
i have the URL somewhere

3:18pm
Mark S Eric Dahlman is brilliant he turned a great set at wonder Valley experimental last year.

3:19pm
Tim M Yes, he is a great friend and collaborator, an excellent musician with a very strong sense of melody

3:19pm
Tim M   https://ericdahlman1.bandcamp.com/album/glacier

3:19pm
Mark S Most definitely the sense of melody and his ability to like take a melody for a walk is amazing.

3:20pm
Tim M yessir! we also are planning a new album

3:20pm
Mark S Cool!

3:20pm
Tim M we recorded it 2 years ago in an abandoned railway tunnel in clinto, mass.
 clinton

3:20pm
Mark SAnd the ever popular topic of fun!

3:21pm
Tim M it sounds really good
ah, i saw whatcha did there

3:21pm
Mark S Our third and final question the most fun you've had musically?

3:21pm
Tim M we are very close to tying up all the loose ends. the acoustics in that tunnel were amazing!
oh, that's a good one!
 lemme cogitate a minute...

3:22pm
Mark S We might be able to do something like at that in a storm drain out here. What with the ongoing drought we don't have much use for them.

3:22pm
Tim M yes! good sound is truly where you find it.
most fun, eh?

3:22pmMark S Sometimes where you least expect it.

3:24pm
Tim M yes! regarding musical fun, a strong contender would be the aforementioned session in the train tunnel and the associated road trips (we went back a year later for the photo shoot)
Eric is great to work with partly because he is great to hang out with

3:24pm
Mark S How did you find this tunnel?

3:26pm
Tim M Eric and I are both railroad geeks as well as avanguardians... railroad sounds really feed into the idea of beautiful noise, accidental sonic beauty... and Eric knows his trivia as far as routes and tunnels and which train runs where, while I'm mostly about the locomotives and the associated lore.

3:26pm
Tim M It was Eric's idea and I instantly knew it was a good one. He'd recorded in there before.

3:26pm
Mark S Wow that's so cool.

3:27pm
Tim M Yeah!

3:27pmMark S Is there anything else you'd like to add?

3:27pm
Tim M (something resembling a thought skitters around Tim's brain, like subatomic particles in a cloud chamber.)
...processing...

3:29pm
Mark S I love those cloud chamber 16 mm films they used to show in science class.

3:29pm
Tim M for someone who loves to be interviewed, i'm sure coming up dry right now...

3:29pm
Mark S Then I guess were done…

3:29pm
Tim M oh yeah, anything related to olde-tyme school science education is great.

3:30pm
Mark S What I loved about those science films was there was no hint of insincerity or irony.

3:30pm
Tim M I have a lot of the fifties/sixties science books from grade school
they are cheap on ebay for those of us hell-bent on recapturing the great moments of our childhoods.
even the worst childhhod has SOME happy memories unless you grew up in a war zone (God protect those who do!)

3:31pm
Mark SAnd there are many of us who are hellbent on doing just that.

3:31pm
Tim M Final idea...
YES!
Not my idea, but I live by it: It's never too late to have a happy childhood.

3:32pm
Mark S Have a great evening I need to run along now.

3:32pm
Tim M Good evening to you too, Mark! Thanks! This was fun!

3:33pm
Mark S Fun and painless!