Jonny Trunk’s pursuit of the things he loves has salvaged great works from the scrapheap and quietly changed the flavour of popular music worldwide ~ Stewart Lee
Trunk Records – one of the great British musical influences and best kept secrets is now 25 years old. To mark the occasion there is a compilation ‘Do What You Love’ due 1st October which showcases 33 of Jonny’s (available for interviews) odd musical discoveries. Without really meaning to, he became a pioneer in his field shining a light on the overlooked and interesting corners of British culture, with far reaching effects…..
It was an entirely selfish project, the idea being to press music that had not already been pressed or was impossible to buy. Jonny had got to the stage where he had obsessively collected film music, TV music, jazz and exotic music for years and was finding it hard to find music he really wanted, because in some cases it had never been issued…
The first release was The Super Sounds Of Bosworth and was the first EVER commercial release of library music (and remember, no one in the record buying world had even heard of library music at that stage). It sold out, and was subsequently sampled by Everlast, Madlib, all sorts. And started interest in the shrouded world of library music.
The next release was the unreleased soundtrack to The Wicker Man. At the time (1997) the film would not have even featured in the top 100 of British films. It had taken Jonny three years to find the original music and effects masters and get permission to issue the music. The release kick-started interest in old folk music and new folk movement began to emerge. The film is also now in the top ten British films on most modern lists and, as predicted in his sleevenotes, the music has had a constant influence since the first ever pressing.
The unreleased pastoral space music to The Clangers followed, the tapes coming from Oliver Postgate’s “Underworld” (his basement studio in Chandos Square, Broadstairs). The music scored 10/10 in the NME. Jonny also tried to issue the music from Bagpuss but the composer (Sandra Kerr) wanted to do it herself.
Then the jazzy folk score to Kes, another classic British film with an unreleased score got the Jonny Trunk treatment, with Jarvis supplying sleevenotes that were just a beautiful as the music.
This was followed by spoken word tapes by porn star Mary Millington, strange TV themes by forgotten composers, and the discovery of Basil Kirchin, a long lost experimental composer and drummer languishing in obscurity and poverty in Hull. His excavated music has now proved to be of huge influence to modern composers and whispers of his sound can be heard in contemporary scores by people such as Tim Gain and St Etienne. Trunk Records has also been a key catalyst and influence in the Hauntology movement.
There have now been over 100 Trunk Records releases, all highly collectable (including one of the top ten rarest Record Store Day releases) and all powerfully influential on many different levels. Recordings have ranged from classic unreleased scores to home made space operas, classroom projects, buffet car announcements, the rarest British jazz, computer keyboard recordings, music for cheese and even tractors.
It’s also worth noting that Jonny Trunk holds the records for the shortest piece of music ever to break into the top 30 – The Ladies Bras is just 36 seconds long and stayed in the top 30 for two weeks.
As well as all the music Jonny Trunk makes books too…from a hugely influential trip into Sainsbury’s Own label packaging design (now a mandatory graphic course book) to graphic explorations of hordes, car brochures, fetish wear, sweet wrappers and flexi discs.
Jonny also produces and presents the longest running film music radio show anywhere in the world. The OST Show on Resonance FM (now over 20 years old).
And through the Trunk website he also has a long history of producing short runs of amazing and collectable tee shirts, sweatshirts, prints and ephemeral items – applying the same rules as the music he produces – the Vision On logo, Rumbelows, Sainsbury’s Lard packets, old egg posters, Woolworths Records Dept, lolly wrappers and a whole host of lost and defunct record shop bags are just a few of the sell out designs used and utilised over the years. In fact, the most recent Trunk tee shirt, with the “Save Records” shop logo on the front (a shop started in 1969 by the Rochdale FC goalie that closed in 2016) even made it to the Bury Observer!
One of the latest Trunk innovations is Pop Trumps, a series of sell out playing card packs all focussing on specific record collecting genres – Northern Soul Pop Trumps, Rare Records, Electronic Music Pop Trumps, Library Music Pop Trumps and so on. Expect Rare Christmas Records Pop Trumps this coming December.
Due to the renewed interest in vinyl, the wait for new titles to get pressed in now 7 months or more, and rising and the whole market is more competitive. It’s a difficult period for independent labels. But Trunk is not just a record label, and through strange innovation and fresh peculiar ideals Jonny Trunk moves on and survives, by just doing what he loves.