Xtreme Music: I’m here with Trevor Dunn at The
Tonic, New York City. I’d like to start the interview by asking, could
you tell us something about the recent release you’ve had on Ipecac
Recordings with your Trio-Convulsant?

Trevor Dunn: Yeah, it’s my second Trio-Convulsant record. I did one
like six or seven years ago I guess, with a different line-up.. I’ve
always been wanting to do another record of this music and this kind
of concept, so I’m happy to finally do it. Ches Smith is playing drums,
Mary Halvorson is playing guitar and basically I’ve been wanting to
do the second record for so long. I got so busy that I had to book myself
a month in August, just stay home and finish writing some music.

Xtreme Music: How does Trio-Convulsant, that
project compare to other jazz projects you’ve collaborated with in the
past, like Junk Genius and Snorkel?

Trevor Dunn: Trio-Convulsant is definitely my thing you-know
(laughs).. I write all the music except for a couple cover songs that
we do. It’s me leading a band which is kind of unusual because most
of what I do is work on the side. I mean a group like Snorkel or Junk
Genius were collaborative bands, but still I had marginal input as far
as compostions are concerned.. both those two concepts whether you’re
a collaborative thing or whether you’re really leading, calling the
shots all the time, I kinda like either of those situations. I don’t
really prefer one or the other, but it’s fun for me to lead my own band.

Xtreme Music: Which particular cover songs are
you performing with the Trio-Convulsant?

Trevor Dunn: Well on this new record I did an Andre Previn
tune [entitled “I’m Sick”].. it’s kind of a weird little short
jazz tune from a soundtrack that he did. Then a Duke Ellington ballad
from a piece in the Queen Suite [entitled “The Single Petal Of
The Rose”]. Yeah, actually on our first record I didn’t do any
cover songs. I’ve always wanted to do this Duke Ellington cover actually,
I thought it was an amazing tune.

Trevor Dunn: Fantomas is Mike’s band, so that’s another
example of that situation.. that was all his decision. With all the
other Fantomas records, he writes everything and for that record he
came up with the arrangements for each of the songs. Which is cool,
I like being in that situation too because I just sit back and play
what I’m supposed to play.. (laughs).. It’s a lot easier actually!

Xtreme Music: Do you have any particular favourites
from the Fantomas work that you’ve been performing live worldwide?

Trevor Dunn: You know I like a lot of the tunes from
the first record, and now that we’ve been playing so long, a lot of
them we play twice as fast and back to back.. so that was a lot of fun!
In the last tour that we did, we threw in a few sections from that album.
So we’d do like piece one through five, and then later we’d do twenty-four
through twenty-seven, and just do them back to back. That was always
a lot of fun because they were all like one minute long or something.

Xtreme Music: I’m also interested to hear about
your previous work with Secret Chiefs 3, a band led by Trey Spruance
the guitarist of Mr. Bungle. What’s that been like working with his
particular group?

Trevor Dunn: Well I only did a little bit, I worked a
little bit on the first record and then after that I kinda just spuradically
recorded a couple of other pieces with him. That was never really, as
far as I was concerned, it was never really a band. It was like Trey’s
recording project that eventually evolved into a band, and I’m not really
involved with it anymore. So Mr. Bungle was pretty much in the grave..
(chuckles)..

Xtreme Music: I know a lot of people are wanting
to hear the word on Mr. Bungle and the fate of Mr. Bungle. What’s your
particular thoughts on that?

Trevor Dunn: My thoughts on that are that it’s over..
It’s hard for me to say that actually coz it’s like letting go of a
girlfriend or something.. (laughs).. letting go of something you’ve
been with for a long time. I mean we started that band in high school..
going almost twenty years ago. It’s insane..

Trevor Dunn: Yeah, pretty much he and I are in agreement
with that. I mean I haven’t actually spoken with Trey in over four years,
for whatever reason I’m not sure.. I’ve spoken with everyone else occassionally,
but you-know everyone’s doing their own thing now. Two of the guys are
in Australia, I’m living out here and the another guy is in California.
Everyone is doing their own thing with conviction and I think that we
grew as a band so much that we just grew apart. We’re all doing individual
things now, I think it’s better that way.

Trevor Dunn: It’s been great!.. We struck up a friendship
when he produced the first Mr. Bungle record and I’ve been working occassionally
with him ever since then. I moved here to New York about four years
ago and it’s great! He’s really a great guy to work with, he’s really
super you-know in control of his music, what he’s writing and producing.
He knows what he wants and he knows how to get it, he knows who to call
for what job. Electric Masada has been a blast! Totally, really one
of the most fun bands I’ve ever been in! I can really play a lot in
that band and yet I have to maintain a groove and pay attention to him
because he’s conducting live. It’s a really exciting band to play in.

Xtreme Music: In terms of performing on bass,
who have been your major influences and how have they shaped your musical
direction?

Trevor Dunn: Wow! I’ve never had an easy time with that
question because I listen to a lot of different kinds of music and there
are lot of different bass players that I like for different reasons.
Lately, I’ve been listening to a lot of James Jamerson and he’s kinda
had an influence on me in terms of what I’m doing with Electric Masada.
Other than that, for upright-bass I listen to all the guys you would
expect, like Scott La Faro, Mingus and Jimmy Garrison, you-know all
those guys.

Xtreme Music: What would you say has been your
most memorable or highly enjoyable experience in your music career?

Trevor Dunn: That’s a good question, there’s so many
weird, different experiences.. lately I’ve been doing this duet with
a harpist, this woman Shelley Burgon. Actually, we just played the last
couple of days. We went to Philidelphia and Hampton, Virginia and played..
actually, last night we played in Hampton, Virginia and at this kinda
weird punk-rock spot and there were a bunch of bands. It was just in
this guy’s house basically that was covered in like artwork and walls
that they had painted. I reminded me of a place I used to hang out when
I was in high-school and college. So we played this show, the first
band was kind of like this noise-rock band, one guy got up a did laptop
thing and then Shelley and I played you-know just this like acoustic
bass and harp with no amplification at all. A lot of extended technique
and it was really comfortable to be with a lot of these young people
that are like dying to hear any kind of music. It felt good, we could
work, be ourselves and create something on the spot and we really enjoyed
ourselves. So I’d have to say last night was a very good memory for
me (laughter)..

Xtreme Music: You’ve collaborated in many live
collectives. How would you say the audiences, or the live performances
differ between say, Fantomas and Mr. Bungle shows?

Trevor Dunn: I wouldn’t say there’s that much difference
with those bands. With those bands it’s like when we started out, it
always took at least a year or two before we had weeded out the audience
to what it is now. Because a lot of people came expecting certain things,
you-know with Mr. Bungle, people were expecting like some kinda Faith
No More thing. With Fantomas, people were like expecting Slayer or Melvins
and they never got what they wanted. Now the people that come and see
us are the ones who know that at any given moment we’re gonna do something
different, which is great because I think they are much more open minded
audiences which are more fun to play with. I’ve played in a lot of different
countries and in general I think it’s really the same across the board.
There’s different opinions about European audiences or Japanese audiences
or American audiences. Basically, when people get drunk they get really
obnoctious either way (laughs). Other than that I really feel like the
people that come out to see the music, they are really appreciative
and in general it’s pretty good.