Last week Applesauce blogged about the electronic song by Seattle artist Three Ninjas called “The Wenatchee Pterodactyl.”

Before I took off for a brief vacation I contacted Three Ninjas via MySpace and asked a few questions about the song. Amongst the dozens of e-mails flooding my inbox this morning was a response to those questions from Jason Brunet, the man behind the song (seen in the photo with the hamster).

Here’s the exchange:

Do you have any family, friends or connections to the Wenatchee Valley?

I have a very good friend who lives in Wenatchee and often visits Seattle, where I live, but until last weekend, I had never visited her in Wenatchee. I went camping with a friend at Lake Wenatchee Friday night, and on Saturday we went into town to meet her. She pointed out the bridge near where the guy crashed his car. She loves cryptozoology. We talked about the raptors that were nesting in that bridge or a nearby bridge, and how the guy, in his allegedly drunken state, probably confused a hawk for a pterodactyl.

Why did you want to name a song after the Wenatchee Pterodactyl?

I was working on it Sunday night after my trip to Wenatchee, and the story was fresh in my mind.  I repeated it a few times, and it just sounded so good and so happy, and it seemed to fit the uplifting mood of the song.  Actually, at first it was “A Wenatchee Pterodactyl”, but I could picture people looking puzzled and saying, “What’s an ‘awenatchee’?

Is there a connection in the song between the music and the pterodactyl or is the name the only connection?

I wasn’t thinking of the pterodactyl when I put the song together, at least, not until the very end.  But in a way, yes. I collaborated with several good friends on this song, and that’s the first time I’ve really done that since I started making electronic music.

Friends would come to my apartment and I’d say, “Hey, can you come up with a keyboard part for this?” The song symbolizes the great friends I’ve made in Washington since I moved up here three years ago. So Taisha, my Wenatchee friend, kind of indirectly put the finishing touch on the song by showing me the bridge.

How did you find out about the pterodactyl and what were your thoughts when you found out?

I read a lot of skeptic blogs and science blogs.  I think this story was linked to on Pharyngula (www.scienceblogs.com/pharyngula). I was pleased at the attention to something so close to home, but kinda wish there was more to the story than a drunk driver’s one word testimony.

How did you get into music and what do you do for a day job? Is there a connection between music and your work or a connection between prehistoric creatures and your day job?

I’ve played guitar since I was 13 and my sister signed me up for lessons.  I did alternative / rock type stuff with my friends until I moved up here and found myself without a band.  At the same time I met people who turned me on to underground hip hop, and Three Ninjas was born when I realized how easy it was for me to make music by myself with a computer.

For my day job, I’m an SEO Specialist, which means that I tweak websites so that Google and other search engines will find them. No prehistoric creatures there, except for the occasional computer illiterate client. But I volunteer at the Seattle Aquarium, and I do plan to go back to school for paleontology.  The theory of evolution is sort of a passion of mine, and I love learning as much as I can about it, especially how the fossil record backs it up.

Are there plans for any more songs that include prehistoric creatures in their titles? Or perhaps a song with a title that has to deal with the Ice Age Floods, which have a connection locally?

ABSOLUTELY! I really want to write a song about Ambulocetus, a whale that lived about 55 million years ago and actually had 4 legs and could walk on land. It’s my favorite animal. I’d also like to write more songs about evolution.  My song “The Premise of Dogs” kind of touches on it, but it doesn’t actually make sense.  As for local influences, I’m actually working on a song right now with a friend from the Aquarium called “Bucket Sex”, which is about salmon spawning.  It’s amazing.  The only thing left to do is lay down the vocals.

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