A Place To Bury Stranger’s Dion Lunadon: Living The Dream (Interview)

Brooklyn-based psych band A Place To Bury Strangers make a welcome return to Auckland this September after their triumphant performance at the 2013 Laneway Festival. Since then the band has released their latest album, Transfixiation and shared the bill with a reunited 13th Floor Elevators. The band is lead by guitarist/vocalist Oliver Ackermann and features former D4 guitarist Dion Lunadon, who joined in 2012 and drummer Robi Gonzalez, who joined in 2010. The 13th Floor’s Marty Duda spoke to Dion, who is looking forward to getting back to New Zealand and playing at The Kings Arms. Listen to the interview with Dion Lunadon here:

Or read a transcription of the interview here:

MD: So you’re on your way over here, aren’t you?

DL: I am, I am! I leave in a couple of weeks.

MD: And on your way over you guys are doing a gig in Los Angeles with the Jesus And Mary Chain, is that right?

DL: Yeah, we’ve got two shows with them in Los Angeles and then we’ve got a bunch of shows in Asia and Australia…a lot of places we’ve never been in Asia, which is cool.

MD: Do you guys have a big following over there?

DL: Nope! This is the typical Place To Bury Strangers one-fan-at-a-time approach, where we just keep doing shows and come back and keep chipping away.

MD: Very cool. We’ll you’ve gotta take it as it comes, I guess. Are you guys excited about being on the bill with Jesus And Mary Chain?

DL: Yeah…I’m excited…I’m not overly excited, to be honest, to be truthful. I don’t know who I’d really be excited to be on a bill with other than, maybe my friends’ bands, things like that, you know. I’m not like a teenage kid anymore. And we get compared with them so often that it’s a little weird. But none-the-less, I am thankful to be invited to play with such a legendary band.

MD: Did you guys also do a thing in Austin, Texas…the Psych-Fest?

DL: Um-um, we did that, yeah. That was cool…that was really cool.

MD: Was that the gig where The 13^th Floor Elevators reunited?

DL: Yeah, they did, they did. Yes, we were on just after they were on so I only got to catch a few of their songs.  That was exciting, to be on the same bill as The 13^th Floor Elevators.

MD: How did they do?

DL: I thought they did great. A lot of people, I think, were a little down on them…didn’t think it was very good…but you know, they’re older dudes and they’ve been through a lot. They were a band that created quite a legacy and I respect them for that. I actually really liked it. They kind of started up every song…they just fell into it. You know how most professional bands are like, “One, two, three, four, boom, bang” You know, all together. They kinda just got…it was like a little steamroller that started up and picked up pace and stuff. I liked it.

DL: So how long have you been living in Brooklyn?

MD: I’ve been here for eight years.

DL: I was talking to someone the other day about the Auckland music scene and how it seemed to me to be fairly supportive of…each band kind of supports the other and all that, which seemed to me to be different than The States. Is that true or how are you finding it?

DL: I think people are very supportive. There’s always an element of competition. I’ve felt that anywhere, being in a band. But here, I think bands are very supportive and there’s so many people doing interesting things here that, you know, you get to meet these people and you get to have interesting conversations with them and maybe they walk away from the conversation kind of enlightened by what you’re doing and vice-versa and it’s kind of a healthy atmosphere for everyone to sort of push along.

MD: How would you describe the Brooklyn scene? I think a lot of people think of it as the place where all the indie rockers are all hanging out, The National, and folks like that. IS there a lot of that or are there other things going on?

DL: There’s so many little sub-sets everywhere. There’s a lot happening. Whenever I meet someone new I always need to ask how their album’s doing because there’s, you know, ambition.  You know there’s so many little sub-sets and little scenes and stuff like that. To me, as a musician, it’s kind of a dreamland because this is exactly the kind of place I wished where I could have been when I was growing up.  Nothing against New Zealand, I love New Zealand, but there’s just so much happening here that you can actually sustain a life being an artist.

MD: From what I’ve been reading, there’s been a few venues that have been closing up, including the Death By Audio venue and things like that. Is there a problem with the scene or it just a transitional thing that just happens?

DL: I think it’s a transitional thing, myself. You know, scenes come and scenes go and if they stayed around they’d get boring anyway. I think New York is always a city that’s on the move, changing, and if it didn’t wouldn’t be New York, it would become stale. So, as much of a bummer as our place, Death By Audio, closed down, it’s just the way things go. You either embrace the change or you get trampled…you kind of lie down and die. I embrace the change.

MD: Very good, very good. As a musician, being in this environment, how would you say that affects your playing and your attitude about being a musician?

DL: Hmmm, I don’t know. I mean, I’ve always been very focussed in what I do and hard working. There are times…I’m kind of impatient, I’m always wanting to do stuff and work on stuff, so that hasn’t really changed. The only thing that has changed is I have that opportunity to be that person now because New York is like that…very quick and fast moving. That suits me.

MD: I was reading a review of the latest album, Transfixiation, and somebody described your bass play as “the driving force” behind the record. I’m curious as to how you approach playing with A Place To Bury Strangers as opposed to, say, the stuff you did before with The D4?

DL: Yeah, when I first joined the band my approach was to try to let go of what I’ve learned and learn from Oliver how he wants things and his approach. I think, after a few years of being in the band, I’ve learned a lot from him and the way he likes things done and learned a lot of things in general. So now my approach is a little bit…I don’t know, you can never take your own signature off things, it’s just always going to be there. And I think now, I’m a bit more comfortable in the band, and I get what it’s trying to do, and I know how to get to places where I think it’s trying to go, I’m a little more free with my approach to it. It feels a bit more natural.

MD: So when you had that discussion with Oliver when you first joined the band, what did he tell you he was looking for?

DL: I didn’t really have a discussion…there was no discussion at all. That was just me, just my conscious effort, of how I wanted to approach it.

MD: The same review that I was reading described the latest album as the most “group-sounding” album yet of the band.  Do you guys look at it like that? Is that something you tried to work in more?

DL: Yes, definitely a group effort. This is, in my opinion, the strongest the band’s ever been. Robi, our drummer, he joined maybe three years ago, and we’ve done a lot of touring since then so we’re going to have a pretty good synergy and so yeah, it was a real group effort trying to capture that synergy.

MD: Being the bass player, you’re relationship, musically, probably is strongest with the drummer, am I correct?

DL: I…um…maybe…I approach…I try to listen to everything but myself. That’s when I find I’m in the groove best…is when I can hear everything at the same time…especially other people and not myself…and just kind of sit in the spot that is left for me. But, yes, it’s really cool playing with a drummer who’s super-tight and we can lock in pretty good.

MD: Perhaps, for folks who haven’t seen the band yet, from what I understand, Oliver tends to get fairly excited on stage and get up to some antics, what kind of things should we expect?

DL: Yeah, I don’t know. I always say, don’t expect anything. I always find my favourite shows are the ones I go to not expecting anything and just going with an open mind and just seeing where the night takes me. I would advise that.

MD: Very good! You guys played here last at the Laneway Festival in 2013?

DL: Yeah.

MD: Do you have any memories of that thing that stayed with you?

DL: (chuckles) Yep. It was the first time we played there so there was that. I hadn’t been back to New Zealand in a long time. I suppose one of the memories I have was flying into Auckland and kind of feeling a sense of, ‘Oh wow, this is awesome!’ Just a sense of peace and home, I suppose, a little bit. Maybe I’d forgotten that a little bit because I’d been living here for a while. That probably what I remember the most.

MD: Do you see yourself being a permanent resident of New York or do you see yourself coming back here at some point?

DL: I have no idea. I became a citizen last year.

MD: Oh, congratulations!

DL: That was pretty cool. Yeah, I was stoked. I tend not to…I can’t really say…I kind of go with the flow. But, I love New York, I really do love it and I’m not really wanting to move from here in the near future. Anything could happen.

MD: I don’t blame you. If I could pull it off I’d be living there as well.

DL: Yeah, it’s pretty exciting, it’s pretty cool.

MD: Since you’re a citizen of The States, they have the elections coming up…all this political stuff is going on…do you follow much of that?

DL: I don’t follow it intensely but I definitely try to be aware of what’s happening around me and policies that affect us all and the way people are and things like that.

MD: They just had the Republican, the first debate, and from outside of The States it just looks ridiculous, I guess.

DL: I didn’t see it. I heard about it today. It was the one with Donald Trump and a bunch of people, is that correct?

MD: That’s the one.

DL: Yeah, I heard about it. It’s very strange how they do it here. It’s like a baseball game or something.  It’s all very theatrical and like a movie…it’s all very entertaining.

MD: That’s for sure! It seems to me…my feeling is, that New York seems to be an entity unto itself. How do you compare the rest of the country when you venture out and are playing to this…

DL: It’s so different. It’s so different, you know, New York is an entity unto itself, and then you’ve got the other coast with California which is also so different to the rest of the country, and then you’ve got the whole…the rest of it. I really love travelling through it. It’s kind of a crazy country with a lot of different landscapes, a lot of different people. But the people, I find, are generally really nice and friendly and I like that, it’s cool.  I remember once, I was in Louisiana at some little diner and I asked if they had fresh orange juice and she told me, “Yeah, fresh out of the carton!”

MD: (laughing) That sounds about right.

DL: We always, always, obviously we get, “You boys…let me guess, let me guess…you boys are musicians, right?” Ah, good guess, yeah. I really love this country, it has so much to offer and so many different…yeah, I don’t know…things going on.

MD: Well, I can’t wait to see you guys, because I didn’t see you when you played Laneway last time so I’m looking forward to this one. The Kings Arms should be pretty awesome.

DL: Cool, I’m so looking forward to it a lot too, man. I’m doing a lot more interviews and the more interviews I do, the more excited I am.

A Place To Bury Strangers performs at The Kings Arms on Monday, September 7th. Click here for tickets.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sI3Q9yNPXq4]