Interview - Kyle Bobby Dunn

Canadian musician Kyle Bobby Dunn has been an important figure on the electronic music scene for several years. But the release of his new album, A Young Person's Guide, seems to have thrust him into the spotlight more than anything that came before. In an interview with electronixxx, he spoke about why he makes music, his love of films and his decision to abandon a pop project with his brother in 2006.

Electronixxx: What are your thoughts on the reaction you've had to the new album? It's been well-received - but does it matter to you what others think?

Kyle Bobby Dunn: I suppose it's come as a bit of a shock. There was quite a rush of material from me in 2010 and it all seemed well-received. I'm not sure why. I think listeners are interpreting it and liking it for their own reasons and that's fine - my idea and theirs is probably completely off though.

Electronixxx: Is the record a continuation of your ouevre, or do you see it as a departure or extension in some way of your aesthetic?

Dunn: The material on it was recorded during other things that actually came out before it, but I felt everything included herein follows a more cohesive, general idea. Something like my Six Cognitive Works tried to do the same thing, but even those songs were recorded around the same time as Young Person's Guide, so I don't know. I'm often working on something or trying to digest how I feel about a work. Sometimes things wind up all over the fucking place and I apologize, sort of.

Electronixxx: Finishing the album must have been very rewarding. But while making a record, are there times when you wonder if you will ever get to the end of it?

Dunn: No, it didn't work like that. Young Person's Guide especially had no parameters in place. It started one frigid, miserable night in 2004 in Greensboro with the song 'Second Ponderosa' and it all came together as a realized whole in the late autumn of 2009 after discussing the recordings with Gareth Hardwick at Low Point. He suggested that the works arrive as a 2 CD set, including the digital release from earlier in the year, 'Fervency', which I had wished had more to it in the first place. I'm sorry again - that was sort of a stupid release.

Electronixxx: Are there any musical projects you've had to abandon because of that?

Dunn: Me and my brother were working on some pop songs in 2006 that never got completed. Me and my good friend Joshua Barsky have been trying to coordinate a record for several years. I am just a much better solo worker. I find it incredibly difficult trying to split a vision with someone else.

Electronixxx: If you were to offer guidance to a newcomer to your music, where would you encourage them to start in your back catalogue and why?

Dunn: I think it's obvious that Young Person's Guide (although it's not my first release) may be the most daunting but appropriate place to start with my work, and possibly end. Who knows if anyone wants to hear more from a guy named 'Kyle Bobby Dunn' after putting up with 2 hours of that?
The Sedimental release 'Fragments & Compositions' may be liked by someone who likes the cold-hearted, the bleak, or the damned.

Electronixxx: What do you listen to while you're in the middle of making a record? Some novelists, for instance, only read poetry while writing to avoid unconsciously incorporating other people's styles into their work.

Dunn: Yeah, that makes sense that writers do that. I love a lot of classical music. Everything from Bach, Part, Shostakovich, to Satie and film composers like Jerry Fielding and such. It doesn't really affect my musical ideas. I think about their music, but I'm not pressured by it.

Electronixxx: What writers / film-makers / artists are you interested in?

Dunn: Recently, really into weirdo films on VHS that have been out of print since the 80s or 90s. I've always loved Peckinpah, Tarkovsky, Melville, Malle, Malick, Bunuel - I could go on for hours. Film is probably my favourite art. I do a love a lot romantic and impressionist painters, and definitely appreciate what Mondrian did.

Electronixxx: Broader question: why do you make music?

Dunn: I recently told someone that it was a release of certain feelings or memories unto a musical canvas. One that can be revisited. But that makes little to no sense probably. I still think strongly about the things that lead me to write about them and then, with the recordings, there they are encapsulated in a way. So I am not really relieving myself of things so much as brooding on them and possibly conjuring up a frightening manifestation at times. I don't know why I make these sounds - it just seems like the only way for me to articulate or feel some kind of release with.
Exorcising the demonsm, I suppose.

Electronixxx: What words would you use to sum up your sound?

Dunn: I've often said haunting, dulling, numbing. Some have said glacial, beautiful, lulling. It's better when someone else can decipher it, as I often hate the terms usually applied.

Electronixxx: Would you still make music if no-one listened to it? Or is recognition central to the artistic act?

Dunn: Not at all. My work is ultra personal. To the point where I am pretty amazed that anyone likes it or people want to release it. I know I am pretty negative. But I have been a performer of this music for many years now and live in a city where you really have to put up with a lot of shit piles. I've met some great voices along the way though. My artistic act is probably a bit of a joke to some viewers. Performing still is the strangest part of being someone who makes music.

Electronixxx: Is the internet destroying music or helping it burgeon in new ways?

Dunn: Don't know. Without it, now, we could maybe fall into a pit of shit because we take it very seriously, or actually do things that are more interesting again. Like the 90s kind of was.

Electronixxx: As a youngster, what first sparked your interest in music?

Dunn: I think the same qualities that draw me to it today. Something moving, haunting, gripping. It was often very quiet sounds and movie music that I remember having the hugest impression on me as a kid. Still does.

Electronixxx: What do family / friends make of your music?

Dunn: They say nice things, like they 'feel' they should. But I have no idea. Most my family has very bad taste in music.

Electronixxx: You're Canadian - do you feel this comes through in the music you make? If so, how?

Dunn: Maybe in its openness? Its sometimes largeness and emptiness. I think a lot about Canada and my memories and certain people from it when I am working on my music. So I hope it gives off something.

Electronixxx: You're in Brooklyn now - what's the music scene there like? And is it important to be in the middle of a vibrant scene if you're a musician?

Dunn: I came here for mixed reasons, but the music scene was certainly not one of them. I later found out about certain art spaces and places that offer new and different music, but some of it is barf-inducing and I feel both like a clown and an outcast among the music scene here. I've played some good spaces though. There's some great old Brooklyn cathedrals here that I think are a perfect space for playing live.

Electronixxx: "A Young Person's Guide" sounds like a Britten reference. Is it intended to be? If so, or if not, what was the thinking behind the album's name?

Dunn: Not a reference to his Young Person's Guide, or Niblock's or King Crimson's or anyone else. It's kind of a humourous title. I'm sure people even think its a bit smug or pretentious. But it means exactly what it sounds like. Music for a young or person who is unfamiliar with my work. I am sort of a detached person and can't help it.


The album is out now. Click here to buy it