“As a musician, there’s a freedom you get when you play instrumental music.” That’s guitarist Kurk Stevens talking about Mayan Bull, the band he plays in with drummer/sounds Phil Vera and bassist Chris Walters. “We enjoy writing songs with four different time signatures and eight different tempos, with four different melodies happening in unison. Mayan Bull gives us the opportunity to do whatever we feel like with whatever instruments we feel like using.”
Anyone familiar with the trio’s musical backgrounds will know that instrumental music is a distinct departure for everyone involved. Stevens plays in the noise rock outfit Keverra, Walters plays in the shoegaze band The Slow Signal Fade while Vera plays an entirely different instrument—guitar—in L.A. powerviolence kings Despise You and Trappist. “I’ve always had a fascination with drums and this band allows me to work that out,” Vera says. “And Kurk has such a unique guitar style, so it’s a blast working with that.”
“Trappist, Despise You and Keverra are very heavy bands,” Stevens acknowledges. “Mayan Bull is an outlet for us to express different musical sides of ourselves. Most people know Phil as an amazing guitarist and vocalist, but he is equally a kick ass drummer and overall instrumentalist. For my part, I love the fact that I can use so many delay pedals and reverbs and amps at once—and then use my feedback as an actual guitar solo. There are absolutely no rules in this band, and that's what makes it so much fun.”
Mayan Bull formed in 2011 after being approached by director Todd Hickey to write a song for the soundtrack of Takedowns and Falls, his documentary about high-school wrestling in Pennsylvania. They recorded the 10-minute track “A Dangerous Gun” in Vera’s living room with producer Paul Fig (Alice In Chains, Deftones). “The song was chopped up into bits and sprinkled throughout the film in a great way,” Vera recalls. “We had so much fun recording the song that we kept practicing and came up with new songs.”
With a slithering krautrock groove and shimmering guitars spread across several movements and tempos, “A Dangerous Gun” set an auspicious tone as Mayan Bull’s first creative output. But it’s also just the beginning. “There always has to be something—a rhythm, a drumbeat, a melody—that keeps you moving forward and backward with us and within the musical piece,” Stevens observes. “That’s the greatest challenge—and the most fun to try and achieve.”
With two new songs completed and more on the way, Mayan Bull are planning more film and TV work, with an eye toward slowly releasing tracks over the coming months. “We discussed Mayan Bull as being a project that we could do for decades to come, something that isn’t pinned down to any particular genre of music but will grow over time,” Stevens says. “We want people to hear us and watch this project evolve. We enjoy Mayan Bull for what it is now, and we especially look forward to what it will become.” - J. Bennett