On His Project Fecal Food, His Mom, and Chicken Wire

Wes turns 14 this month

When I first heard Wesley Bunch's music I thought the souls of all the Shaggs must've possessed this kid and made him sing about whatever the devil thought would be funny. Blue socks, chicken wire, God turning the ocean into tea... usually when someone writes lyrics like that, they're nearing middle age and giving mescaline one last try to make sure they didn't miss any last enlightenments. But in this case, Wes is apparently just a bright kid writing songs about whatever he feels like, which is pretty rare and worth looking into.

W & A: So you're like 13, right? How's life with the folks?

W.B: It's great. My parents are pretty cool cats, my mom is very supportive and stuff. Everyone in my family seems to accept anything I want to pursue in life. I guess it's rare to hear from some musican without them going through the whole story of how their parents hated them since the womb. But yeah, I'll be 14 on Sept. 9th, so that's exciting.

Whoa dude, that's my birthday, too. Let's talk about "Punk as Duck." I like the fact that your focus is on just getting songs recorded with energy and putting them out there for people to hear. If you had a million bucks, would you spend any of it on better recording equipment or do you prefer the lo-fi sound you're getting? What would you do with a million bucks?

Ha, yeah that's how most of my songs are recorded, pretty fast, maybe sometimes spend a little time mixing and stuff. I've got a basic computer software/hardware recording set up. Pshh, if i had a million bucks i'd probably set up my own recording studio and record it the way i like it. Keep the grimy-ness in the recording, but make sure i take my time a little bit. That's the unfortunate things these days, ya know? Music just ain't music, it's a product. As soon as you hit the scene you're a PRODUCT, not an artist. And pay off the bills for my folks. And if i had enough, buy a good size house, and maybe a haircut and a new pair of shoes.

In your song, "The Ocean is Tea," you're talking about stuff like Armageddon, war, and people drinking peacefully. How much of this is influenced by world politics? What's the attitude about the war among you & your friends?

Pshh, most of my friends dont give two poopcicles about politics, very few do, mostly me and my best friend Dorie Arthur. The Ocean Is Tea isn't that much about world politics. It's more of a scene i had in my head. The ocean being turned into tea by God, and everyone who was stressed, poor, depressed, could drink the tea, and everything would be better. Their problems would remain there, but the stress of it would go away. So then, instead of solving the problem, they would drink the tea. Thus the whole world would go to war, because we wouldn't sove our forigen issues. Thus armmageddon coming so peacefully. yaaa dig?

Big Trucks, man, that song rocks pants. If you bring some pots and pans, I'll bang along on that one at Relative Theory. What caused you to write it?

haha, sounds fun brodaaa. Well this was one of the first songs i wrote, maybe the third Fecal Food song? It was Sunday, our family seldom goes to church, but one morining my mother and father went. But on the way, they were fighting, bickering over basic stupid things. "OHH WHERE'S THE GODDAMN KEYS!?!" "BLAH BLAAH BLAAH." I found it so ironic that they were going to church, but yet yelling and cursing at each other. So i sat down, played a little, came up with tha catchy riff. Funny thing is i had two mics, one taped to the wall and one in my lap. Well, the one in my lep fell haha. You can tell if you listen closely my vocals are mixed lower. But the lyrics "Got my life here, with some poems, jesus take your bow and go" is reffering to me being so disconected from religon and God and stuff. I'm just so confused on relegion that I've stayed away from it. I know its not the right thing to do. I need to get educated.

What's the story behind your song Chicken Wire?

Haha, chicken wire is a funny song. My friend Matt Moen who's an awesome friend, one of the reasons why i still write music for Fecal Food, Came up to me and asked me to write a song about chicken wire. Only after i recorded song, did i know what chicken wire was haha. I even asked him "What's chicken wire" he said he didnt know. So i figuered it to be a best friend. So i wrote it as me being best friends with "Chicken Wire", then eating it. haha. I like chicken. Did you find the cowbell pretty fancy? haa. Also, there's car keys being droped on my desk through the whole song.

What animal would you like to be if you weren't human?

Most deffinatly a bird. Like one of those black birds you see flying around on the highway or in front of your house. just a regular one. So then i could fly anywhere, and live by my own rules.

What records are you currently into?

The Cure. i listen to them non stop. More of the Boys Don't Cry album. And Sonic Youth, Confusion Is Sex. I always listen to Nirvana. Like everyday. I love them. One of my biggest inspirations. Alot of Whiskey and Apples stuff too, "People Of The Night" is currently my favorite song.

What's on the horizon? You recording anything, setting up shows?

I'm taking a little break from recording, im gonna play some local places around town. Mostly open mics for a little while, then hit some of the big places. Oh and Relative Theory Records Oct. 12th with Peter and The Wolf, haa. It's so hard getting gigs when you're only 13/14 years old, yaa know.

If you were elected Grand Emperor of America, what law would you change first?

Hmm, I could go on for a long time. Free speach for a little while, 'cause I'm sick and tired of hearing the same ol' "I hate george w. bush" song over and over again.

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