Biography
Among modern rock guitarists, few have matched the underappreciated breadth and restless inventiveness Trey Spruance has displayed across decades. Born Preston Lea Spruance III in 1969 and raised in Eureka, CA, he first played in local heavy metal bands during high school. In 1985 he joined fellow students—including vocalist Mike Patton and bassist Trevor Dunn—to launch Mr. Bungle. By the late ’80s the band had grown increasingly eclectic, folding disparate styles into compositions that deliberately avoided conventional verse-chorus-verse frameworks. When Patton joined Faith No More in 1989 he vowed to sustain Mr. Bungle, a commitment he honored upon returning from touring in 1991; that same year the group signed with Warner Bros. and released its self-titled debut. While Patton resumed work with Faith No More later in 1991, Spruance occupied his free time with side projects, among them the tongue-in-cheek death-metal unit Faxed Head.
In 1994, after Faith No More dismissed founding guitarist Jim Martin, Spruance was asked to join and accepted, contributing to the band’s 1995 album King for a Day, Fool for a Lifetime. On the eve of the supporting tour, however, he departed, disappointing his new colleagues. His partnership with Patton remained intact, and together they finished Mr. Bungle’s second album, Disco Volante, that year. Also in 1995 came Faxed Head’s full-length debut Uncomfortable But Free and the earliest recordings by another Spruance outfit, the Three Doctors. The latter project was conceived to deter mainstream listeners drawn by his Faith No More tenure; the band restricted its appearances to Santa Rosa, CA, and performed as an intentionally inept bar act, documented on Back to Basics Live and Archaeology of the Infinite.
With Mr. Bungle again idle by 1996, Spruance formed Secret Chiefs Three alongside fellow Bungle members Trevor Dunn on bass and Danny Heifetz on drums. Frequently characterized as a Mike Patton-less iteration of Mr. Bungle, the group issued its debut, First Grand Constitution and Bylaws, the same year. Further Spruance-related releases followed in the late ’90s: Faxed Head’s 1997 album Exhumed at Birth, John Zorn’s Elegy, and the one-off collaboration Weird Little Boy by Zorn, Patton, and Spruance, which produced a self-titled album in 1998. A second Secret Chiefs Three record, Second Grand Constitution and Bylaws: Hurqalaya, appeared in 1998, while Mr. Bungle regrouped to record 1999’s California—their first collection built on traditional song forms, styled after the Beach Boys and 1960s surf films—widely regarded as the band’s strongest work. After the ensuing world tour, Mr. Bungle entered another hiatus, and Spruance promptly returned to earlier endeavors, releasing Faxed Head’s Chiropractic and Secret Chiefs Three’s Book M in 2001.
Beyond his own ensembles, Spruance has produced recordings for other artists, including Neil Hamburger’s America’s Funnyman, Tub Ring’s Drake Equation, and Dieselhed’s Tales of a Brown Dragon, and has appeared as a guest on releases such as Melt Banana’s Charlie and Machine for Making Sense’s Dissect the Body. He also operates Mimicry Records, whose catalog includes most of the projects he has participated in over the years at www.webofmimicry.com.
In 1994, after Faith No More dismissed founding guitarist Jim Martin, Spruance was asked to join and accepted, contributing to the band’s 1995 album King for a Day, Fool for a Lifetime. On the eve of the supporting tour, however, he departed, disappointing his new colleagues. His partnership with Patton remained intact, and together they finished Mr. Bungle’s second album, Disco Volante, that year. Also in 1995 came Faxed Head’s full-length debut Uncomfortable But Free and the earliest recordings by another Spruance outfit, the Three Doctors. The latter project was conceived to deter mainstream listeners drawn by his Faith No More tenure; the band restricted its appearances to Santa Rosa, CA, and performed as an intentionally inept bar act, documented on Back to Basics Live and Archaeology of the Infinite.
With Mr. Bungle again idle by 1996, Spruance formed Secret Chiefs Three alongside fellow Bungle members Trevor Dunn on bass and Danny Heifetz on drums. Frequently characterized as a Mike Patton-less iteration of Mr. Bungle, the group issued its debut, First Grand Constitution and Bylaws, the same year. Further Spruance-related releases followed in the late ’90s: Faxed Head’s 1997 album Exhumed at Birth, John Zorn’s Elegy, and the one-off collaboration Weird Little Boy by Zorn, Patton, and Spruance, which produced a self-titled album in 1998. A second Secret Chiefs Three record, Second Grand Constitution and Bylaws: Hurqalaya, appeared in 1998, while Mr. Bungle regrouped to record 1999’s California—their first collection built on traditional song forms, styled after the Beach Boys and 1960s surf films—widely regarded as the band’s strongest work. After the ensuing world tour, Mr. Bungle entered another hiatus, and Spruance promptly returned to earlier endeavors, releasing Faxed Head’s Chiropractic and Secret Chiefs Three’s Book M in 2001.
Beyond his own ensembles, Spruance has produced recordings for other artists, including Neil Hamburger’s America’s Funnyman, Tub Ring’s Drake Equation, and Dieselhed’s Tales of a Brown Dragon, and has appeared as a guest on releases such as Melt Banana’s Charlie and Machine for Making Sense’s Dissect the Body. He also operates Mimicry Records, whose catalog includes most of the projects he has participated in over the years at www.webofmimicry.com.