>TREVOR DUNN
TS:
When did you first start playing bass?
TD: I started playing electric in 1981 just before I turned 13. About four years later my high school band teacher talked me into playing upright though I was
against it at first.
TS: Who were some of your main influences?
TD: My first teachers turned me onto Stanley Clarke, Jaco, Larry Graham, Carol Kaye and Bobby Vega. As I got more into jazz I was taken by Scott LaFaro and Charles Mingus. Jaco and Mingus were influencial as composers, too. I also got a lot of inspiration from seeing local musicians behind the redwood curtain like drummers Michael Vatcher and Ed Campbell or guitarist
John Stowell.
TS: What was it like playing bass for the Melvins on Houdini: Live 2005?
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TD: As much as I love the way both Kenny and Adam play, their personal styles are less appropriate for that music than I originally figured.
TS: Do you expect the next Fantomas record to be released in 2007?
TD: No, I don't. Fantomas will be totally inactive in 2006, and since the year is already half over, and I have yet to hear anything about new music or a recording, I would guess that, at the earliest, recording could happen in mid 2007. Which means we're talking the Spring of '08 for a release. Like I said, at the earliest.
TS: How do you approach writing a song?
TD: I write down any ideas I have as they come to me even
if they are only two notes. So, I have a lot of little scraps of paper lying around with sketches on them. Eventually I can focus one or more ideas into something that has intent and direction.
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TD: I started playing electric in 1981 just before I turned 13. About four years later my high school band teacher talked me into playing upright though I was
against it at first.
TS: Who were some of your main influences?
TD: My first teachers turned me onto Stanley Clarke, Jaco, Larry Graham, Carol Kaye and Bobby Vega. As I got more into jazz I was taken by Scott LaFaro and Charles Mingus. Jaco and Mingus were influencial as composers, too. I also got a lot of inspiration from seeing local musicians behind the redwood curtain like drummers Michael Vatcher and Ed Campbell or guitarist
John Stowell.
TS: What was it like playing bass for the Melvins on Houdini: Live 2005?
__________________________
TD: As much as I love the way both Kenny and Adam play, their personal styles are less appropriate for that music than I originally figured.
TS: Do you expect the next Fantomas record to be released in 2007?
TD: No, I don't. Fantomas will be totally inactive in 2006, and since the year is already half over, and I have yet to hear anything about new music or a recording, I would guess that, at the earliest, recording could happen in mid 2007. Which means we're talking the Spring of '08 for a release. Like I said, at the earliest.
TS: How do you approach writing a song?
TD: I write down any ideas I have as they come to me even
if they are only two notes. So, I have a lot of little scraps of paper lying around with sketches on them. Eventually I can focus one or more ideas into something that has intent and direction.
__________________________
TD:
It was like putting a 50 pound prybar under the blade of a miter saw and then surging the fusebox without telling the electricians. They rarely call me back right away so who cares? Plumbers are the worst though. They leave copper sleaves everywhere and track sewage across the subfloor. I'm pretty sure they were taking a piss in the basement trap.
Bastards.
TS: Do you have any guest appearances planned in the
future?
TD: Nothing planned. Usually that type of thing comes up last minute. I did recently record for a well known born-again boogie-metal dude, but I have yet to be paid so I can't talk about it yet.
TS: How's the label search for you and Shelley's live recording going?
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TD: At a certain point I have to start thinking about the larger picture and I have to sit down and hammer out notes, forms, instrumentation, variation etc--those types of problems--until I am satisfied that the song is complete.
TS: What's your current main gear set up?
TD: It depends on the music and the band but in general I've been using either a small SWR combo or an Acoustic Image amp with my upright. My main electric bass these days is my '75 P-bass. With that I tend to use a GK800 with an SWR 4x10 cabinet or an Ampeg SVT with an 8x10.
TS: What do you use for recording?
TD: I don't use an amp when recording upright. I use a combination of one or two mics and DI. I tend to leave the mic selection up to the engineer. My recording set-up with electric varies considerably.
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Bastards.
TS: Do you have any guest appearances planned in the
future?
TD: Nothing planned. Usually that type of thing comes up last minute. I did recently record for a well known born-again boogie-metal dude, but I have yet to be paid so I can't talk about it yet.
TS: How's the label search for you and Shelley's live recording going?
__________________________
TD: At a certain point I have to start thinking about the larger picture and I have to sit down and hammer out notes, forms, instrumentation, variation etc--those types of problems--until I am satisfied that the song is complete.
TS: What's your current main gear set up?
TD: It depends on the music and the band but in general I've been using either a small SWR combo or an Acoustic Image amp with my upright. My main electric bass these days is my '75 P-bass. With that I tend to use a GK800 with an SWR 4x10 cabinet or an Ampeg SVT with an 8x10.
TS: What do you use for recording?
TD: I don't use an amp when recording upright. I use a combination of one or two mics and DI. I tend to leave the mic selection up to the engineer. My recording set-up with electric varies considerably.
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live recording entitled "Baltimore" will be out in the Fall.
TS: When do you estimate the next Trio Convulsant album will be released?
TD: It could be quite a while. I've sort of put that project on the backburner in order to focus on other things. Most projects of mine tend to take way longer to manifest than I'd like.
TS: How do you compare the first two Trio Convulsant albums?
TD: SisterPhantomOwlFish is much more focued, I think. I
had a better understanding of what that music is really about when I started writing it. Debutantes & Centipedes is somehow lighter and a bit more scattered. Part of me understanding the music also has to do with finding the right musicians to play it.
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TD: For the Melvins record I used my SVT, for Moonchild I used a DI line plus some sort of amp and cabinet--it was the studio's and I can't remember what it was. Often I use whatever is sitting around.
TS: How would you describe the sound of John Zorn's Moonchild?
TD: "Make your way towards the lake where the swans are. And I will tell you later why there is a completely black one among them, with an anvil on his body on top of which is the putrefying corpse of a great crab and I will tell you also why he rightly inspires mistrust in his aquatic fellows.
---Lautremont
TS: If you weren't a musician what would you want to be?
TD: A rich, lazy, fat bastard who spends three hours cooking dinner each night, drinks a bottle of wine with it and then sits around and watches movies all night long whilst petting his cat.