Exclusive Interview

Justin St. Vincent from Xtreme Music interviewed Trevor Dunn on August 12, 2004 New York (NY), The Tonic.

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: Could you tell us something about the writing process involved in the Trio-Convulsant compositions?

Trevor Dunn: Most of it I write on guitar actually. Well, either guitar or bass and I think of it as a complete album as I go along. As the songs come along, I think what do I need now.. Do I need it fast, do I need it to have this kinda vibe or whatever. I have my own personal little techniques that I go through with writing.

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.

Xtreme Music: I’m extremely interested in your work with Fantomas as well. One of my favourite recordings from them is “The Director’s Cut” which is full of cult and movie theme covers. Could you tell us about the decision process behind who was selecting a lot of the tracks that you were covering for that album?

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..

Xtreme Music: Does Mike Patton and yourself feel the same way about Mr. Bungle?

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.

Xtreme Music: You’ve collaborated on some works with alto-saxophonist and incredible composer John Zorn, here in New York City including The Gift, Electric Masada and some of his Filmwork releases. What’s it been like working with John Zorn?

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.

Xtreme Music: For my final question I’d like to ask, what future collaborations do you have in the works?

Trevor Dunn: Well, I’m working with this harp player [Shelley Burgon], we’re planning on recording. I just actually recorded a record with Curtis Hasselbring, the trombone player that you saw play tonight. Let me think.. actually I have this improvising quartet that I’ve recently been putting together with Curtis, the harp player and Ches, the drummer, and that’s been kind of in the works. I’ll probably start writing for that. As far as collaborations, not a ton I mean probably more of what I’m focusing on is my own compositions. I’d love to do a chamber music record one of these days, that’s kinda what I’m aspiring towards right now.

Xtreme Music: Well it’s been great to meet you Trevor, I want to wish you all the best!