Classy, clean and comfortable contradicts just about every image that a frat house drums up. Sitting in his girlfriend’s sorority house, singer-songwriter James Bunning could only fantasize about what it would be like to live in a place with conditions other than the grimy arrangements college housing brings to mind. It was so bewitching, he just had to write a song about it.
The song, fittingly named “Gamma Phi,” is only one of the many that Bunning has written inspired by his real life experiences. Tonight, alumnus and Spring Sing 2011 winner of the Bruin Choice Award Bunning will perform as part of the Fowler Museum’s Fowler Out Loud: Singer/Songwriter Spotlight that aims to highlight the talents of musicians who write original music and have a distinguishable style.
The Fowler Museum’s Fowler Out Loud concert series showcases the musical voices of the community, as it allows artists to perform their craft in a fitting and welcoming environment. Describing his own genre, Bunning said his sound focuses on being lyrically witty and melodically catchy as he creates synergy between folk music and acoustic pop.
Accompanied by Chapman University student and vocalist Hannah Vally and current fifth-year mechanical engineering student, bass guitarist and trumpeter David Ross, Bunning draws inspiration from ’70s folk rock artist Jim Croce and current Internet sensation Jonathon Coulton, a singer-songwriter known for writing about geek culture. He translates these artists’ entertaining qualities to create his own anecdotal songs, which tend to talk about life as a young adult.
For the Fowler show, the previous Spring Sing alum said he hopes to showcase his distinct and characteristic music and lyrics while demonstrating his growth since he left UCLA.
Bunning will present his old style with a new flair as Vally accompanies him on vocals and Ross on bass guitar and trumpet tonight.
“James is going to showcase a couple new songs, as well as the favorites, the crowd-pleasers,” Vally said. “I’ll accompany him (with the harmonies) mainly with the funnier, comedic songs and he’ll do the more sappy ones on his own.”
With the help of Vally’s vocals and Ross’ background in jazz, funk and blues, Bunning’s sound and style has developed into something with a bit more of a funky and soulful undertone.
Ross said that, for his own style, he is inspired by the jazz and funk sounds of the ’70s like those of Stevie Wonder and Earth, Wind & Fire. Synergistically, this coincides with Bunning’s Jim Croce inspiration to create a more soulful and groovy vibe.
“James is definitely a pop kind of guy, but I think he wants to do a little more than the singer-songwriter kind of thing,” Ross said. “Like Jason Mraz – he’s a singer-songwriter and has that sound, but he also has songs with a full brass section and does a little jazz if he wants, and I think that’s what James is kind of going for (at the Fowler).”
After graduating in 2011, Bunning entered law school only to realize after the first semester that the monotony of incessant lectures and studying was not meant for him. So he left, changed career paths and moved back home, setting up the background for his song “Creeper.” The song explains Bunning’s post-graduation experience in a makeshift limbo, a state where he is not sure of his position in society.
“‘(Creeper)’ is about that feeling when you graduate college and you go back (home), and people look the same. You’re six months older than everyone else and all of a sudden you’re a creeper in the bar. You just get that label,” Bunning said.
As “Creeper” demonstrates, Bunning uses his most intimate experiences, with no topic off-limits, to model his music. Like “Creeper”, “Gamma Phi” and “Brotential,” a song about his intimate relationship with his best friend, almost all of Bunning’s songs tell a story that inherently relates to this generation through their unconventional lyricism, which he explained had a comical wit about it.
One of his most iconic and recognized lyrics comes from his 2011 Spring Sing performance where he sang a love song called “One More,” in which he talked about being “Sean Connery smooth,” a lyric that demonstrates his characteristic style of quirky puns, light-hearted perspective and profound imagery that organically develops.
“I think the songs where I don’t even have to stretch to make the lyrics funny and they just turn out that way are the best. … It’s just a straight description of what life actually is, and I think those are the funniest songs,” Bunning said.
In order to properly convey his stories, Bunning said he finds the true nature of his tunes as he goes along experiencing everyday life, whether it be while driving in the car or singing in the shower. He equates his process of creating music to being an archaeologist who slowly uncovers a hidden treasure.
“I look at songwriting as an archaeological dig,” he said. “Your life experiences come in, and they sit in your unconscious for a while and then you kind of dig into yourself to find it; piece by piece you’re uncovering it and you maybe break off some pieces until you get the whole thing, and in the end you get your record.”
Email Pandya at spandya@media.ucla.edu.