Catching Up with Sean Byrne

The name Sean Byrne may not rouse your curiosity immediately, but perhaps when you find out that he is the principle force behind comeback kids, Bugskull, you'll feel a bit different. Nearly a decade after its intended release, Communication found its way into the world and a new generation is able to stumble upon the pop experimentalism that was and is Bugskull. Mr. Byrne was quite gracious to answer some of our questions for this fluff piece and what he divulges makes for a great read.


Can you explain the process of being a truly independent artist with independent releases during the early 90s?

Just free, no expectations or boundaries. We recorded everything in our basement studio so it was fresh and as we wanted. Lo-Fi gets talked about a lot as an aesthetic movement, but I see it more as an economic choice to be in complete control of what you want to do. It was interesting, there was no internet going on, people would mail us checks for cassette releases, when you book a tour its all done over the phone. And when you release a small press album the only feedback you get is if someone reviews it in their zine. It was really a fun time. We were poor folk with lousy jobs, but music was what drove us, and we stole the motto from field of dreams, "build it and they will come". And I believe that to be true, people are still interested in what we did in our basement almost twenty years ago.


How did you get involved with the labels that released much of Bugskull's output?

My friend Mike Hinds that ran Road Cone was going to school at Pomona when I recorded the first cassette, he passed it to Dennis at Shrimper, who wanted to put it out. I was thrilled. Then the band formed, and Mike moved back to town, and started RoadCone, and released the first single, comp and album. A friend of ours Dan/Pop Secret released the Crock soundtrack. I'm not sure how I met Keith of Scratch, but we were much of the same mind, Vancouver had great bands coming out at the time, Superconductor, Good Horsey. He asked about putting out an album, and we released Snakland with him, and have continued to have a great relationship with him. The 10" was a bit odd, someone knew someone that wanted to have a label and wanted us to be on it, so we did. For the most part it was friends that we were working with, and got what we were doing, so there was never really a question about the product we presented to them, they accepted what we made.


Was anything considered too weird or taboo [song/album/idea] to any of the microlabels you released material through?

Only twice. I presented an album idea to Road Cone after Phantasies came out that was a collage of field recordings I had made when traveling around the country mixed with instrumental pieces mixed together. He wasn't into that. The other was the Big White Cloud album, which was going to be released by Darla. We went down and mastered it, he hadn't asked for an advanced recording of it, and over the weekend he decided it didn't have enough "hits" on it. So he decided not to release it, and I decided I didn't want to work with his label again for various reasons.


Did you ever entertain the idea of starting your own label to release Bugskull?


We had our own label, Eldest Son, that we released our own Bugskull cassettes, our free jazz project The Jarvik Seven, and two compilations, a tribute to Pink Floyd and and one to Prince. It was cassette only, and our friend Charlie Pound that ran Soliel moon recordings had a lot of Throbbing Gristle cassettes he was not going to be able to sell, so almost all our cassettes back in the day were taped over live Throbbing Gristle. A small number of people would mail order things from us, and we would sell them at shows. James and I worked at Kinko's at the time, so we were printing free color cover art on cardstock, which kept costs down. I considered in the last year releasing the "Communication" album myself on limited vinyl, because I wanted it at least available on a small scale.


Do you feel that your work in the 90s has had any influence on the current crop of musicians who work in found sounds, distortion, etc.?


I hope so, but our thumbprint was pretty small, so I wouldn't know. Also, there was precedent before us that had explored these ideas, so it could be possible we were just a bit on the front end of a new exploration in these areas.


Can you expain why it has taken so long for you to release 'Communication'? What we the issues that kept it out of the public for so long?


Well, Distracted Snowflake 2 was delayed by the fact that labels we were working with were having a cash crunch, getting things returned by distributors. Shrimper was supposed to release it, and then couldn't, so Scratch put it out, and at that point it was much later. Then we had the Big White Cloud fiasco with Darla, and Scratch put it out, again well delayed. The Communication album had been in the can for a while at this point, but I was moving into a different direction in my life, and didn't really push to get it out there. So it sat around for a long time, though my friends that had it thought it was some of the best stuff so far.


Do you feel 'Communication' has held up through all these years?

I do, otherwise I wouldn't have put it out. I have a pretty high standard for what I think should be released. I feel it continues a natural progression of the direction I was moving in musically at the time. It is the most ambient album I have released, but the heart and soul is there. I still enjoy listening to it to this day.


Have you been recording or writing material or sound pieces since the last Bugskull release?


I actually created music for a modern dance performance back in 2002, which was an interesting way to work. Last summer I pulled the old machines out and laid some loops and keyboards, which I haven't added to yet. My current life it's difficult for me to block out the time I feel necessary to do the work I want to do. Back when I was recording, to me it wasn't worth working unless I had an free four hour block to explore sound and ideas, because it really was about searching and exploration, which takes a lot of time to find what you are looking for. Happy accidents take time.


How have you been spending your time since Bugskull was last an active entity?

I had been working with children for a long time, and started working with young children with developmental disabilities. Once I got into that, I realized I was interested in that as a career, so I worked and finished my undergrad degree, and then got my license and masters degree in special education. The week I finished school and started my first teaching gig, my first son was born. Two and a half years later my second son was born. Music was nagging at the back of my mind, but I eventually had to accept that there was only so much time and energy in the day, and let music go, hoping that in the future I would find a time to return to it. One project I was able to have during that time was a collaboration with my friend Steve Doughton, a filmmaker, and our project was "Owl vs Lemming" where I would dejay soundtrackish music while he would project films, educational, found home movies, other bizarre stuff, that he projected from multiple projectors, so there would be overlap. An incredibly fun and I think moving project that did not require a lot of prep time because it was improvised. There are clips of mixes I did for on of his films on youtube. I really miss that project, and hoping to renew it this year with him on my visits to Portland.


Are there any current bands that excite/inspire/stir up any dormant competitive juices?

I don't know, I never felt very competitive in music, was more trying to bring out the ideas in my head. I actually have never been that great at keeping up with current music, still a crate digger of old vinyl. Lately I have been getting into folk/country stuff, as I live in Texas now, and that is influencing the new things I'm working on.


Is the release of 'Communication' a sign of new of Bugskull material?

I am writing songs, but in a different way. what I mentioned about time in the studio before, I have found that I can squeeze in time now to sit on my couch with my acoustic guitar and work on things. It's a big change for me, because lyrics have become the focus, and I am delving into to writing process pretty deeply. It is different that what I've done in the past, but I feel just as interesting. My goal is to get enough songs to record an album, hopefully next summer. we'll see, the process can be slow at times. I'm picky.