Munook

Savannah music lovers have the opportunity to experience music that is more a conceptual art project than it is pop or rock.

David John Lanier performs as Munook, which rhymes with book or nook. He will appear July 17 at The Sentient Bean.

“It’s electronic-based music,” Lanier says. “I live in Cullman, Ala., where there’s not a lot going on musically. There’s either country or rap music.

“There’s not a pool of musicians who are classically trained, so I had to rely on machines,” he says. “I wanted to incorporate analog, so it’s live musicianship with the machines.”

The result is music that is truly unique.

“I don’t have a genre,” Lanier says. “I treat it as an art form. Whatever comes out, comes out.

“A lot of electronic equipment lends itself to that,” he says. “It has syrupy, ambient, spacey sounds.”

Often, Lanier works alone in an introspective state.

“I don’t write songs about girlfriends, or all the things people tend to write music about,” he says. “I’m always deep in thought, which does come through in those tonalities.”

Lanier created his own recording studio, Ninja Dave Sound Waves LLC and Parasaurolophusongs Publishing. He explores studio experimentation, live remixes, onstage production and the fusion of electronic/digital music with live instrumentation.

His first album is “In & of It,” and he is now working on a second album. “It is more themed than the first,” he says.

Lanier was about 8 years old when he began playing piano.

“I went to private school and piano was one of classes offered,” he says. “I think I always wanted to be a musician. You have those delusions of grandeur.

“It seems like a fun, cool thing to do,” Lanier says. “I went to production school to learn to do it properly.”

In high school and college, Lanier had his own band and sang.

“At one point, they replaced me with another vocalist because they didn’t like the way I sang,” he says. “So I really set out to learn to do it properly.

“There are always things you can learn to do properly,” Lanier says. “It’s like any skill; you have to learn it, so I took classes.”

For a time, Lanier was deeply hurt by the rejection.

“I started my own band,” he says, “It was like an ‘up yours’ to the band. We’ve all made up since then.”

The name Munook comes from Lanier’s time with the band.

“We all pitched in and bought a dog named Aurora,” he says. “The guys kept calling the dog Munook, a mispronunciation of a character in a movie.

“I did some Google searches. It’s also related to a Shaolin monk and an Alaskan Native American princess. It’s also the name of a tributary in Alaska.”

In all, Lanier tours about three months a year.

“I have a wife and children and other jobs and responsibilities, so I can’t do as much as I’d like,” he says. “I’m getting in the hang of doing it.”

When Lanier participated in a competition in Nashville, he placed fourth out of 100 entries.

“The music is kind of a bit strange and I’m strange,” he says. “When I came off stage, this big guy hugged me and said, ‘I don’t care what anyone tells you, keep doing what you’re doing.’ That’s something I keep in the back of my mind.”

Although Lanier has visited Savannah, he’s never performed here.

“It’s a beautiful town,” he says. “I’m so looking forward to being there.” - Do Savannah

Members of UNA’s Film and Digital Media Production (F&DMP) Department presented The Munook Experiment April 5 in the Communications Building, showing an uninterrupted public screening of music videos they created to accompany Munook’s album “In & Of It.”

The music of Munook is written and performed by David John Lanier with contributions from other artists on the album.

“Each musical creation is left open-ended and largely improvisational in order to allow room for the songs to ebb and flow with subtle changes, thereby staying fresh to the creators and the listeners from performance to performance,” according to Munook’s website.

Every one of the 10 videos was made voluntarily, nine by UNA film students and one by Jason Flynn, assistant professor of F&DMP.

“There are three things you need in this field: talent, drive and luck,” Flynn said. “Voluntarily making these videos demonstrates drive. When an opportunity is put out there and (students) take initiative, it makes me proud. That’s the part I can’t teach.”

UNA student Adam Robinson said he enjoyed attending The Munook Experiment.

“Being a film major, I always like to see what other film students are producing,” he said. “It encourages me to work harder on my own projects.”

Lanier gave the students total creative freedom, allowing them to listen to the music and do whatever inspired them, Flynn said.

Leah Franks, who made the video for “Making Fire,” said the song inspired her video.

“I thought the lyrics’ jaded themes about wanting to make a difference in the world could fit a weary war vet, so I asked my dad to be a part of it,” she said. “He’s a Naval Reservist who’s toured Afghanistan with the Army, so he had plenty of inspiration to give. The whole thing was really fun. It gave me a good chance to spend some time with my dad, which I don’t get to do very often these days. It felt good to be able to involve him in my creative pursuits and show him how proud I am of him and his military duties.”

Each of the videos will be sent to separate film festival competitions, free of charge for the students, and all of the videos will be online.

“I think the music was a labor of love, and I think the videos were a labor of love,” Flynn said. “I expect us to do something like this again in the future.”
- The FLOR-ALA

“The Munook Experiment,” a collective effort of like minded musicians, joined with the Film and Digital Media program at the University of North Alabama, for a project April 5th. The project’s purpose is to allow students to create videos to accompany each of the ten songs on the album.

Munook was begun by Cullman, AL musician David Lanier, along with the collective talents of various musicians from Lanier’s past, resulting in the 10 song album that the students will use in this project.

The project deemed Munook, was named after a dog Lanier shared with his former band mates. The dog marked the end of a phase in my life, both musically and personally, so I went with Munook, as that dog was just this weird happenstance in the middle of that transition, Lanier said.

Department head Jason Flynn was approached by Lanier 7 months ago in an effort to get the Film and Digital Media program to film a video of one of the songs. Flynn enjoyed the music and encouraged his students to create videos for each of the songs, and then contributed a tenth to complete the album.

”I’m just really proud of our students. There was no enticement for the students other than, ‘Do you like this music, and does it inspire you to want to make something visual. Are you interested in this idea, this experiment?’, and they went for it!” It was up to the students to decide whether or not to go for the project. “It could have been none and instead, it was nine which is fantastic!”, said Flynn.

Each of the ten videos will be sent to at least one film festival throughout the country. The struggle with having ten videos to submit, Flynn said is finding separate film festivals to accommodate all of the entries.

Due to the success and enthusiasm of students, the Film and Digital Media department has decided to make this an annual project, choosing a new album each year.

To learn more about Munook you can visit the their website at: www.munook.com - The Quad-Cities Daily - Written by Sheenan Gray

This is a music lover's show! This is for those who want to be part of new things, and for folks who like to dance!

"BFP will be hosting the debut of Munook, a musical experience! Following the mind opening stylings of Munook you will be ready to let it all go and have too much fun with Birmingham's own, the High Fidelics! " - Birmingham Free Press

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f19/new-music-munook-me-one-song-852819/ - Parasaurolophusongs (ASCAP)

http://grayoverdixie.livejournal.com/942.html - GRAYOVERDIXIE Blog

Brett C: "Ilike this because its deep and rich with tasty full beats and a progressively seeping creeping along rhythm and for a fan of teamsleep and radiohead, this is a similar taste of mine as well. I love you munook! you my boy" - ilike