Trace Bundy Thanks YouTube For His Music's Geographical Reach

Speaking to us from Colorado, Trace Bundy is a self-described jet-setter: "Since it's just me and my guitar, I fly everywhere. I fly a lot on one airline so I build up tonnes of status [points], so I'm, like, the first one on the plane with my guitar — I always bring my guitar on the plane [laughs]." So he hogs the overhead locker space then, huh? Bundy chuckles, "Yeah, I'm that guy." 

According to his presser, Bundy's act "must be seen, not just heard", so he tells us a little bit about the development of his distinctive style. "You know, it kind of first happened by accident. My brother and I bought a guitar when we were pretty young and I started playing the normal stuff; I think the first song I learned was by Metallica." Which one? "Exactly, the song One!" Bundy laughs, acknowledging our word-selection coincidence. "I got pretty good just in the normal stuff. And then I remember I was sitting on my bed one day and I started playing this guitar riff with one hand, and I remember looking at my right hand and thinking, 'I'm not even using this hand,' you know, 'What could I do with it?'" Once Bundy discovered he "could kind of incorporate some rhythmic things at the same time", the evolution was complete. "When you're listening, you might hear the melody, the bassline and some percussion, but it's just me doing it by myself on the guitar," he observes.

"I remember looking at my right hand and thinking, 'I'm not even using this hand,' you know, 'What could I do with it?'"

There's a lot of Bundy content on YouTube and, when asked whether he noticed his audiences increasing thanks to the global video-sharing service, the guitarist admits, "Oh, completely! I think I can credit a whole chunk of my musical career to YouTube," he laughs "'cause I think I got on YouTube at the right time, you know, it was early and there weren't a lot of videos of guitarists doing that kind of thing and, yeah! Just social media in general, like, has changed the whole face of the music industry and I'm a part of that for sure." One YouTube video shows Bundy performing Sweet Child O' Mine and the audience seems a bit slow on the uptake in identifying the Guns N' Roses classic. Bundy laughs, "I know exactly the video you mean… My assumption is they knew what it was and then when I kinda got into the classic riff someone started clapping, and then they all started clapping."

After this upcoming tour of Australia and New Zealand, Bundy will have taken his show to 28 countries. "The first time I came to South Korea, like, 200 people showed up and they all were calling out song names, and kids were playing my songs in the lobby, and I'm like, 'How in the heck did this happen, like, halfway across the world?!'"

Word's travelled fast on the bush telegraph: Bundy has readied a Crowded House song to play at these Antipodean shows. The guitarist reveals: "I've just kinda finished it up, and tried it out at a show a couple days ago and, yeah! I didn't say what it was and just played that opening riff, and everyone, like, instantly knew what it was." So has Bundy specially prepared songs for specific audiences before? "To be honest, I don't think I ever have until this tour," he tells.