Jon Bunch was originally vocalist and songwriter with the band Sense Field. Signed to Warner, his band had an album release held up for nearly five years because the label insisted there were no commercial songs being recorded. Finally, Bunch's group was dismissed completely from the big label, went on to the smaller firm Nettwerk, and promptly scored a radio hit with "Save Yourself," one of the songs that Warner had been convinced had no potential whatsoever. Like many of the lyrics Bunch came up with, this one was semi-autobiographical. His father, a police officer in Los Angeles, married at the age of 18 and divorced only a few years later. The children from this relationship wound up both neglected and abused, tragedies that Bunch processed through various songs including "Haunted," "Burn," "Memory," and "No Medicine."

Bunch's main musical partner was guitarist Chris Evenson. The two formed their first band in 1986 in Harbor City, California. Bunch's first taste of recording was adding vocals to a demo his friend was producing for a college recording class. Soon the partners formed a group called Reason to Believe, named after a popular song written by Tim Hardin. The first version of the Sense Field band was formed in 1990, and a five-song EP emerged as the first official documentation of the group one year later. The Revelation label, known for hardcore music, put out both an EP (Premonitions) and the first full-length LP (Killed for Less) by the group in the first half of the '90s. Extensive touring in both the United States and Europe led to interest from Warner, which wound up resulting in the previously referenced debacle.

After the release of their second album, 1996's Building, Sense Field began undergoing lineup changes, but the bandmembers soldiered on, with several EPs and 7" singles -- the Part of the Deal EP on the Grape OS label and a split release with Onelinedrawing -- appeared before the decade's end. Tonight and Forever, Sense Field's fourth full-length, originally recorded for Warner and featuring the aforementioned hit "Save Yourself," was re-recorded and issued on Nettwerk in summer 2001. Living Outside, which appeared in July 2003, was produced by Brad Wood and would be their last album. In January 2004, after they finished touring in support of the album, Sense Field disbanded, with bandmembers pursuing other efforts. Most notably, Bunch joined Further Seems Forever as their new vocalist, before that group split as well. On February 1, 2016, Bunch passed away in Irvine, California, at the age of 45. ~ Eugene Chadbourne & Heather Phares, Rovi