Queer Music Spotlight: Dan Unger of tunic

Queer Music Spolight - Dan Unger Photo by Jen Doerksen

One of Winnipeg’s premiere punk drummers talks emotional labour, Mario Kart and navigating the non-binary.
Queer Music Spotlight

This piece is a partnership between Sound, Phrase & Fury and Queer Music Spotlight, a blog by SPF staff writer Graeme Houssin showcasing the best queer-made music weekly.

In plus 30 degrees at last year’s Real Love Summer Festival, Dan Unger went shirtless with two words painted across their back and one on their chest: “they/them” and “enby.” After the weekend, the drummer for punk-rock trio tunic took to Instagram and said:

“Well, I can literally have ‘enby’ written on my chest, ‘They/them’ written on my back and people still refer to me as dude or man or guy.”

Since their debut in the music scene three years ago, Unger’s been unabashedly and unapologetically vocal of their queerness, of the emotional labour tied to constantly validating one’s presence in music and the necessity of examining the way we gender our language.

It was a perspective I’d scarcely heard in the local music scene, and as a non-binary person, it was a perspective I knew well. But I couldn’t imagine what it must be like to navigate punk spaces across North America as a non-binary musician, wolfing down incorrect pronouns and invalidation at every stop.

We sat down in a sunny corner of Forth on a Sunday, and I asked one of our city’s most prolific punk drummers (and one of the sweetest people I’ve ever been blessed to meet) to talk punk, touring and navigating the non-binary.

GH: Dan! Tell me a bit about yourself outside of music!
DU: Dan Unger just really wants to be soft and find a way to bring a little softness to their friends’ lives. On paper, I guess I’m fairly boring. I work and I play drums a lot and then see my partner a lot and my friends and just try to figure out how to do this whole adult thing.

GH: Did you say you were playing Mario Kart before this interview? Which one?
DU: Wii.

GH: Who’s your main?
DU: Yoshi, and I also like playing with the Mii, because the sounds they make are ridiculous.  

GH: They’re like a portly little neighbour.
DU: Yeah! My partner says it’s like they took sound recordings of me just being a dad and being super goofy.

GH: Tell me about your music career. When did you get into music?
DU: In high school, my friends and I started working together in projects and I joined Lev Snowe. We – George [Penner], Lev and Tim [Roth] and I – wanted to start a band for so long. At some point down the line I realized I wanted to start getting more into hard and aggressive music because I’ve been a metalhead since I was a little youngin’. It was actually in grade 12 where I kind of started to branch out and listen to other music. I think my first not-metal record was Wu-Tang Clan’s Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) and I just felt really behind everybody. I would talk like, “have you heard about this band Arcade Fire? They’re so good!” as if that was an underground indie secret band, just ‘cause I listened to nothing but black metal and death metal. I joined Pleasure Dens, a project that’s currently on hiatus, and I was kind of the only drummer in the music scene that played loud punk music apart from tunic, who I super looked up to, and when Sam [Neal] was quitting the band, David [Schellenberg] and Rory [Ellis] were both kind of like, “okay, who’s the other drummer in Winnipeg who plays loud punk music? Oh, let’s get Dan,” and here we are. I’ve been in tunic for about a year and a half or so now.

GH: Tell me about tunic’s music style.
DU: David and Rory are both super nerdy about indie rock, and so they bring a very unique style and taste into writing punk music. It’s very meant to be a pop song. It’s supposed to be catchy and have a strong hook, and it does a lot of the time, but it’s kind of just a different medium. It’s like, writing pop songs in just a filthy, disgusting way.

GH: There’s a juxtaposition – you’re a big softie, but you play hard rock music! How do you reconcile those two approaches?
DU: They’re very much about each other. I very much depend on my ability to take out all my frustration and dissatisfaction in my art – and just naturally beating the heck out of a drum, what’s more therapeutic than that? It’s almost relaxing. But it’s really hard when that type of music just has such cisnormativity ingrained in the fan base. I’ve always wanted to play metal music and I’ve always wanted to be a part of the punk music scene, but never really feeling accepted by the culture, never really wanting to feel a part of this.

GH: So then what’s it like touring with tunic, being non-binary?
DU: Since I’ve gotten to this point, I can really kind of feel myself grow as a musician, and not just playing live but the way we go about ourselves on the road. I used to not be able to talk to people after shows at all, and being able to do that is a little comforting; but also with being non-binary, it’s a big barrier because anybody who likes your set and wants to come up and talk to you afterward like, “hey man, that was super fucking sick dude,” and so a part of getting that gratification and that validation after a performance naturally comes with this uncomfortable feeling. David and Rory being very good people, they often take care of a lot of that stuff for me. Whenever we’re talking and hanging out with friends, Rory and David will often take people and be like, “hey, Dan’s non-binary, please refer to them as they/them and not use dude and man.” I’m very grateful for that and it makes being on the road way more comforting.

Being queer and knowing that I’m being honest with myself about who I am and carving my spot in the music scene is its own benefit, its own reward.

GH: Did you start identifying as non-binary before or after you got involved in music?
DU: I kind of came out just after I finished high school, so about three years ago. A lot about finding my identity came along with finding my identity as a musician in the Winnipeg music scene, so they almost kind of feel intertwined in a way. Being able to put myself out there as a queer person intertwines with putting myself out there as a musician and just constantly seeking permission and validation.

GH: What are some of the challenges navigating that punk scene as a non-binary person?
DU: A big part of it is being misgendered. Also, when I’m on stage, people hear something they like but they see something through a completely different lens and so it doesn’t really reach me at all. It doesn’t feel like people see me as a queer artist, especially because I stopped kind of performing gender, I suppose, for playing. I dress to “pass,” I guess, and so that can be naturally really hard because they just see this dude rocking out behind the kit, but that has never really been me.

There’s plenty of queer artists out there, but I don’t really get an opportunity to play next to them and see more of me in the people that we play with because the punk scene can be fairly male-dominated. That can be a little upsetting, a little frustrating because I want to be able to use what I’m doing to share platforms and space with other people, and when you spend a lot of time with dudes on the road, that sense of dysphoria really kicks in. You just kind of feel hidden.

GH: Do you think there are any benefits from having a queer perspective navigating those spaces?
DU: When I started getting big opportunities in the music scene, it felt like I was able to make a difference and be seen by other young queer people, and also be an inspiration for cis people in the scene to re-analyze the way they think about gender. I do get into little ruts sometimes when I feel like I’m not really doing anything at all because I could be more vocal or I could experiment more with how I present on stage. But being queer and knowing that I’m being honest with myself about who I am and carving my spot in the music scene is its own benefit, its own reward; just to feel good about what you’re doing – and that comes with support from cis people – knowing people are changing their minds and starting to progress and think better. Not that me feeling better is dependent on what cis people think of me, but knowing that people are changing around me, that’s a good feeling.

GH: What’s the choice behind how to present in a certain way over another on stage?
DU: I guess when cis people think of non-binary people, it’s always very androgynous and very gender-bending – almost like I’m expected to be in drag at all times. Doing that is fun as hell and can be what gets you through a performance and gets you into that right mind and feeling good, but it can also not be. It can be me feeling comfortable about how I’m looking, and that needs to be embraced as well. People’s definitions of non-binary can’t just be so ramped up in how people present and how people perform gender. There shouldn’t be an unfair expectation of those artists to present in a certain way if that’s not what makes them feel comfortable.

GH: Absolutely. Because there’s no expectation for cis men to present in a certain way and performance is labour! It shouldn’t be a responsibility to blur the lines in order to be respected.
DU: Exactly. I’m just trying to play a show. I’m just trying to get people to mosh – but also be conscious of space. Moshing if it’s fun, and if it’s what everyone around you wants.

GH: Do you think it’s important for visibility sake that you’re out in punk scenes being vocally queer?
DU: I certainly feel that pressure to be constantly vocal on myself. I think it’s important to be having these conversations. Every time I get misgendered at shows, it sticks with me. It’s something I’m always thinking about and something that I feel like not a lot of people think about at all, so it’s important to be always having that conversation, but sometimes I don’t want to. Sometimes I just want to focus on feeling good so I can play this show even though I’ve been misgendered like five or ten times at this show already.

It’s important for me to put that pressure on myself, but it’s also important to be putting pressure on cis people to be following the conversation and extending the conversation outside of shows – interrupting misgendering when it happens but also talking to your friends who are always addressing people with gendered language. It’s important for cis people to do some of that work as well.

There’s plenty of queer artists out there, but I don’t really get an opportunity to play next to them and see more of me in the people that we play with because the punk scene can be fairly male-dominated.

GH: So what does respect look like to you in those interactions?
DU: I think when you can’t really assume that about people, you should always should use gender-neutral language. Always being cautious about the use of pronouns and maybe privately asking them for their pronouns. Privately, to avoid forcing someone into a position where they have to publicly out themselves in front of somebody that they don’t want to. Never assuming much and having gender-neutral language in your repertoire – like addressing people as folks or y’all or buddy. There are so many creative ways to address people that don’t have these gross implications that everybody uses.

GH: What’s coming up for tunic?
DU: I just got home from tour on Monday and it’s been lovely to be back in the city. I’ve only got like two or three more weeks to earn a bit of money because tunic goes and does a bunch of touring in the States and Canada. We’ve got six weeks coming up in April/May, so that’s super exciting and I’m looking forward to that. Touring never stops!

 

Catch tunic before they embark on their next tour at The Handsome Daughter on April 13 with Blessed and Softswitch. Check out other spotlights on the careers and works of legendary LGBTQ+ artists on queermusicspotlight.wordpress.com.


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