Tunng presents… Dead Club is the forthcoming name of the new album from Tunng but it is so much more. As band member Mike Lindsay says “It’s not even just a record, it’s a discussion, it’s a podcast series, it’s poetry, it’s short stories, it’s an examination.”
Today they are sharing their second album single ‘Death is the New Sex‘. Lyricist, Sam Genders tells us “It’s a song about how, by challenging taboos, we might arrive at a place closer to the truth and find ourselves better able to support each other as a result”. That’s a positive statement that highlights where taboos can often do more harm than good…
Death is the one constant in the impermanent human experience so why are we so afraid of talking about it?
Besides the album, The Dead Club Podcast series features author Max Porter (more on Max in a moment), Derren Brown, Speech Debelle, philosophers Alain De Botton and A.C. Grayling, palliative care physician and author Kathryn Mannix, forensic anthropologist Dame Sue Black and Poetry editor Kevin Young. Listen and subscribe here: https://smarturl.it/deadclubpod
Sam on Death is the New Sex:
“Whilst researching this project I’ve been struck by just how much of a taboo the subject of death is in our culture. Partly because of the ways in which people have responded when I explained what we were working on. One person was seriously worried I might be suicidal, and others clearly felt it was an odd thing to explore. Partly because of my own reactions. I often found myself nervous when talking about death or grief, or reaching for a socially acceptable way of phrasing an idea and struggling to find one. And yet, once the awkwardness has passed, I’ve also found that people are often eager to talk about how death and grief have affected their lives. Sometimes as if they’d be waiting far too long for the opportunity to unburden themselves.
“Interestingly I feel that in many modern settings people are more comfortable taking about sex than death. We’ve journeyed so far in the last 60 years when it comes to talking about sex and I think you can make a very good case for that being a good thing. I expect the average person knows more about avoiding STIs or unwanted pregnancy, and is more likely to be comfortable with the idea of sexual pleasure or their own sexuality than ever before. I’m sure a lot of good has come from that. Now it seems like people are beginning to talk about death more. Imagine if we were so comfortable talking about death that everyone in our culture had the skills to support people who are grieving or to plan for the end of life for themselves or a loved one. It seems like there’s so much to gain. Palliative care is one obvious example of how more knowledge and awareness might help people live better lives.
“The song was inspired in part by my conversation with palliative care physician and writer Kathryn Mannix and her wonderful book ‘With The End In Mind’. Lyrically the song has clearly been through the Tunng filter. I wrote the words with a fantastical, almost comic book quality in places but it’s not flippant. I think these are genuinely important ideas.”
The initial trigger for the well of ideas in this latest project came from Max Porter’s novel Grief is a Thing with Feathers, which was first read by Sam Genders who was so moved by “Its viscerality and rawness and rage. Its beauty and love and connection” that he passed it on to the rest of the band to read.
There is a Tibetan text (actually two long texts) called Bardo Thodol, commonly called the Tibetan Book of the Dead in the west. While it deals with the process of dying and the after-death state and how to help those that are dying, it is also a work for the living. It includes guidance and practices related to transforming our experience in daily life. Penguin published “The Tibetan Book of the Dead: First Complete Translation” in 2008 and the Dalai Lama referred to it as ‘Extraordinary … this work will be a source of inspiration and support to many’.
While the book is not mentioned (as far as I could see) by Tuung on their website in relation to this project, it was the first thing I thought of when I read Sam’s introduction to the song above, especially when he says “Imagine if we were so comfortable talking about death that everyone in our culture had the skills to support people who are grieving or to plan for the end of life for themselves or a loved one.”
The Tibetan text has been a source of inspiration for many…
in unlikely ways:
Timothy Leary, along with Ralph Metzner and Richard Alpert, managed to use The Tibetan Book of the Dead in the 1960s as a focus for taking psychedelic drugs via their book The Psychedelic Experience.
and in more direct ways:
Laurie Anderson, Tenzin Choegyal and Jesse Paris Smith (daughter of Patti Smith) used the book as the core inspiration behind ‘Songs from the Bardo‘, a beautiful album that seems to share strands of inspiration ‘in thought’ with this new project from Tunng. Surely only good can come from such deeper self-exploration.
Dig deeper:
Read more about the DEAD CLUB project via the band’s site: http://tunng.co.uk/dead_club/about/
The Dead Club Podcast series – listen and subscribe here: https://smarturl.it/deadclubpod
Max Porter, Derren Brown, Kevin Young and Dame Sue Black episodes are out now. Listen back here:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6DwSsu0W1e3UEOxwDAmJpq?si=tpAaid7ESd2lL5-0HTMs5w
pre-order now: https://smarturl.it/deadclub