Trevor Dunn has been a profession musi… Read Full Bio ↴www.myspace.com/whitewithfoam
Trevor Dunn has been a profession musician, as a bassist and composer, for about 25 years. Still you may ask yourself, "Mad what?". "Trevor who?" There is a perfectly reasonable explanation for this. Back in the mid-'80s he co-founded an avant-rock band called Mr. Bungle and later did time in Mike Patton's cut-and-paste metal outfit Fantômas. He also plays and records extensively with John Zorn among many others [for the full 70+ discography see http://www.trevordunn.net covering a wide range of genres.
In all of these groups Mr. Dunn does what any respectable bass player, who hasn't flipped pizzas since 1986, gets hired to do. Namely, keep his mouth shut and get the job done, which may be the reason his name is less familiar to you then some of his employers [i.e. Yuka Honda, Erik Friedlander, The Melvins, Sean Lennon, a guy from Korn, etc].
It wasn't until 1998 that Trevor stepped out as a leader with his spastic power-chord "jazz" group Trio-Convulsant. A sophomore CD was released on Ipecac Recordings in 2004.
But something was missing. It had been nearly 10 years since Trevor wrote any rock music (Mr. Bungle's last record on Warner Bros. came out in 1999) and he was itching to get back to his roots. Those roots being bands like Cheap Trick, X, The Pretenders and Blondie. Call it jumping on the bandwagon, call it a mid-life crisis, but Dunn decided to start his very own rock band. Enter MadLove.
The name "MadLove" is the English translation of a title by surrealist Andre Breton called "L'Amour Fou" and that's all you need to know about that. If nothing else, it describes the obscure object of desire that drives us all to our insane, inevitable, colorful end.
MadLove recorded in Brooklyn's Studio G in 2008 with a disparate yet psychically connected, hand-picked line-up: Sunny Kim, hailing from Seoul, Korea fronts the band as lead vocalist. Sunny has lead her own band Myth of Mitch and plays with the Prana Trio and a group led by trombonist Roswell Rudd. The all-important guitar chair is held by Icelandic master Hilmar Jensson (Tyft, Kitchen Motors). The drummer, known for his work with Xiu Xiu, Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog and Theory of Ruin is Ches Smith. Keyboardist Erik Deutch who plays with Devotchka and Charlie Hunter is on hand for the live performances. Trevor, of course, holds down his comfortable position as bassist while stepping up as vocalist on occasion.
The music of MadLove fits snugly somewhere in the genre of "rock". There is no question that the songs are guitar-centric. Around power chords constructed with wrong notes, however, there are melodies that weave in and out of comfort zones; there are drum hooks and melodic bass lines that start on the "and-of-four" and there are Fender Rhodes counter-melodies. Some of the songs are fairly commercial; some will never see the light of radio; Some utilize the classic form of verse-chorus-verse, while others dare to hide form within theme and variation. And somehow, it all sounds cohesive.
In writing for this brand-spanking new band, Dunn wrote intuitively, never over-thinking the songs. Yet one gets the sense that he drew upon his many years experience, as a sideman and as a composer, in order to craft music that is at once engaging, thoughtful and fun to crank on the ol' stereo.
"white with foam", the debut CD from MadLove, will be out on Ipecac Recordings in the Fall of 2009.
As Sad As It Was Beautiful
MadLove Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Two dimensions and one dead night
More real than life is
More real than life itself
Amber glasses of force-fed bliss
Sight for sore eyes veiled in mist
More real than life is
Ten times the size and
Takes up the sky it's
More real than life's to you
Another dream come true
Pumped through a feeding tube
Until your face turns blue
Sad but true
Real to you
Sin of sadness that keeps you high
More real than life is
More real than life is
I see through you
See through youtube
MadLove's "As Sad As It Was Beautiful" is a melancholic tune that explores deeper questions of reality and the ways in which one might try and escape the woes of life. In the opening lyrics, MadLove utilises vivid imagery and colour to describe the pain and despair one may feel. The black bile and blue spectrum light symbolise the darkness and sadness that can consume one's mind. The two dimensions and one dead night represent a bleak reality, where one feels trapped and hopeless.
The chorus is the crux of the song, where MadLove expresses that the escape from reality is more significant than life itself. The amber glasses of force-fed bliss represent the distractions that we use to numb ourselves to our pain, and the sight for sore eyes veiled in mist symbolises the illusions and false hope we create to ease our despair. This escape from reality is "ten times the size" and "takes up the sky"; it is all-consuming and more significant than our lives.
Line by Line Meaning
In black bile, blue spectrum light
The sadness inside is so thick and overwhelming that it's tangible, like a black bile. The only glimmer of light that breaks through is in the form of a blue spectrum light.
Two dimensions and one dead night
The world around him feels flat and lifeless, like it's reduced to two dimensions. Even at night, there's no sense of mystery or wonder - it's just dead.
Amber glasses of force-fed bliss
The singer is being made to see the world in a certain way - through amber glasses - and being told that it's for his own good (force-fed bliss). In reality, it's just a facade that hides the harsh truths of life.
Sight for sore eyes veiled in mist
It seems like a good thing, the stereotypical 'sight for sore eyes,' but it's veiled in mist - something that hinders rather than helps vision. This adds to the sense of confusion and uncertainty.
Another dream come true
Reality is so bad that another dream coming true feels like the best thing that could happen.
Pumped through a feeding tube
The dream is being given to him by someone else - he has no agency in his own life.
Until your face turns blue
The dream is forced on him so hard that it's literally suffocating him.
Sad but true
The reality of his life is sad, but it's ultimately true.
Real to you
Even though it's not objectively true or real, the illusion of happiness that's being fed to him feels real to the artist.
Sin of sadness that keeps you high
The sadness is so all-encompassing that it almost feels like a sin. It's the only thing that's keeping him 'high,' or feeling anything at all.
More real than life is
The sadness and pain he's feeling feels more real than anything else in his life.
Ten times the size and
The sadness and pain has grown so large that it's almost a physical presence.
Takes up the sky it's
The sadness is all-consuming, to the point that it fills even the sky.
More real than life's to you
The sadness feels more real than anything else in the singer's life, even life itself.
I see through you
The singer can see through the illusions that are being fed to him, even if he can't escape them.
See through youtube
The artist is aware of the fake, constructed realities that are presented through social media and the internet, even as others believe in them at face value.
Contributed by Liliana D. Suggest a correction in the comments below.