Bryan Buss and Jung People Want You to Care About Pork

All photos courtesy of author

It’s been half-a-year since Jung People last performed at the Palomino where their intimate, hypnotic, and highly theatrical sound lulled the audience, and even themselves into reverie. It was a concert that bordered on almost being ritualistic. They don’t play very often, usually a show here and there every few months in Alberta and sometimes overseas. But when they do perform, it’s enough to make Matthew Kopperud, guitarist for Close Talker—the band whose headlining show Jung People opened for—remark, “Did you see those guys? Their guitarist is really talented.”

Recently Jung People performed at Calgary’s Theatre Junction, an avant-garde, surrealist performance venue traditionalists love to hate for it’s experimental and often bizarre shows. Tickets sold out quickly for the room that could only fill a hundred people. “There were set pieces; people were sitting around; it was pretty theatrical,” says Riley Marion, Jung People’s pianist. The room was on the third floor of the venue, a small room that was intimate, and personable, with much of the audience sitting on the floor as they watched the band perform on a stage rife with set pieces to compliment the show, making their performance seem like a play.

“It was pretty cool,” he says, eating a banana as we waited in the lobby of Leroux Music Studios for Bryan Buss, one of the band’s co-founders, to finish teaching guitar. When prompted about why they rarely play any shows, Marion laughs. “We want to, but we’re just very busy, busy people. Bryan owns the shop; Jordan is a mechanic; I teach; Darren and Lukas, well, we’re all just very busy.”

As I’m ushered into one of the rooms, he jokes that he’ll teach me drums afterwards, pointing at the electronic drum kit beside him. I told him about his performance at the Palomino: the palpable energy, and how they captivated the audience. He laughs. “Yeah, that wasn’t our best show,” he says. “We only had one rehearsal to prepare ourselves beforehand. I don’t know. Maybe it’s just me, I guess.”

In 2009, childhood friend Jordan Bassi (drums) and Buss moved to Hollywood for a year to enroll in the Musician’s Institute to work on and improve their musicianship. Afterwards, they moved back to Calgary where they could “have a fresh start, and start something new.” In 2011 Bassi and Buss formed Jung People. Initially a duo, Buss laments that they were a lot more progressive-metal influenced when they first started. “I listened to a lot metal back then, but things changed, Bassi and I wanted something different. I feel like, with a lot of bands like us, it’s a gradual change.”

Shortly after creating Gold Bristle, they decided to add more members to the band. With the addition of Marion, Lukas Albreicht and Darren Young, Buss says they’re not as limited as they were before. “I mean we could have done it without them, but it wouldn’t be the same as it is now, it’d feel like it there’d be something missing. Although, I’m thinking about having ten members,” he laughs.

Buss, a vegetarian, conceptualized Gold Bristle after getting annoyed by everyone’s fascination with bacon, creating a narrative where he would highlight the positive aspects of pigs. The LP contains a storybook by Miranda Bennett and illustrated by Grace Eakins. “We approached it in a way where it’s like, ‘if this is our last and only album, how would we do it,’ so we decided that it would be a concept album,” he says. “A lot of our music deals with animal rights.”

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Although their music is entirely instrumental, a lot of emotion can be discerned through their complex and multi-layered compositions. “I always skip out on the lyrics; my girlfriend is the total opposite of me,” he quips. “She’s a poet so she’ll be like, ‘did you hear what he said?’ and I’ll always forget.”

Buss has always been fascinated with film and its usage of music, so much so that he’s worked as an extra for AMC’s Hell On Wheels and FX’s Fargo. “I’m the redneck in the background with a shotgun,” he says. “Music really helps get the emotion across. Sometimes, I wonder if people imagine music when they’re feeling sad — I watched Furious 7 and I analyzed every scene and how it paired with the music, it’s really interesting!” he jokes.

Recently, they’ve composed the score for a local film titled Empyrean. Shot in black-and-white, the director, Thomas Robert Lee, wanted the film to look timeless. “We hired a few members of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra to work with us for Empyrean. It’s very different from our previous work, very classical.” Without a specific date, Buss says the soundtrack will be released alongside the film “sometime in the future, maybe fall.” Aside from the score, Jung People plans on releasing a few singles and a split LP with Calgary folk band Raleigh. As far as long term plans go, they’re hoping to collaborate with numerous Canadian artists to make something “kind of like a rock opera.”

Nikki Celis is a journalist based in Calgary, Alberta - @CelisNikki