A Few Minutes With Ivan Neville

You would think that being born with the last name of “Neville” would pretty much dictate a life playing music, what with The Neville Brothers as well as the individual careers of Art, Charles, Aaron and Cyril.

Like his famous father Aaron and his musical uncles making up The Neville Brothers, Ivan Neville has blazed his own path in music.  Founded in 2003, Dumpstaphunk quickly became a regular on the festival circuit.  That is, when it’s not selling out its own headlining dates.

With the band’s third studio album, Dirty Word, scheduled to drop July 30 via Louisiana Red Hot Records/E1 Distribution, Neville talked with Pollstar last week about Dumpstaphunk, saying it’s not just about funk but rock, pop and a whole lot more

What can you tell us about the new album, Dirty Word?

We’re very pleased with it.  I think it’s a good piece of music.  It’s kind of a mixture of stuff.  All of my music is rooted in some form of blues, soul and funk.  We kind of stretched it a bit, stretched the boundaries … of the genre, I would think.  It’s not just straight up funk stuff.  We have some soul, all of it’s soulful but we got some that leans a little bit more toward rock.  We got some that leans a little bit toward blues.  We got some that leans a little bit toward, maybe what you might call pop. I don’t know … we just mixed it up a little bit.

There are five members in the band and four of us sing.  There are a lot of group vocals, a lot of trading verses, things of that nature and I’m pretty pleased with it.

Dumpstaphunk has a rep for improvisation and jamming.  Is it difficult to go into a studio and lay down tracks and settle on specific versions of songs?

It’s a different beast in a sense that when you’re playing live you’re feeding off of the listeners, the fans.  You’re feeding off them right then and there.  You give out something and get something back, an instance of sharing and return, give and receive when you’re playing live.  So the spontaneity can go in other ways that rapport, that conversation you’re having with fans can take it. That just widens the areas you can go in.

When you’re in the studio, it’s just you and music.  We absolutely are feeding off of each other like we always do.  For the most part, most of the songs on the record and all of our recordings, we’ve written a lot of stuff on the spot where we just make up some stuff in the studio and we start coming up with a piece of music or a grove and we end up turning it into a song.  So that part of it is definitely … the spontaneity in that process.  It’s different but it’s all music. 

We love doing it the way we do it.  We have a lot of things we don’t plan.  When recording, we do have some ideas, sometimes, of what we’re going to do and there are other times when we go into the studio with a blank canvass and say, “Let’s go,” and we start playing some stuff. Or sometimes we might be having a sound check before a gig and we start playing a groove.   We make up a groove or something and [say], “It’s pretty cool.”  And if we’re lucky enough to record it, we may relate back to that at a later date. “You remember that thing we were playing?  That sound check?”  That becomes a song. It’s a beautiful thing to be in the right place at the right time when the expression happens.

What do you think is the biggest misconception about Dumpstaphunk and funk in general?

Funk is a little more diverse than people think.  There are different types of funk.  You got the ’70s funk.  You got James Brown … James Brown, as far as I’m concerned, is the inventor of funk.  With our band, we just don’t play funk.  Most of the things we do play, it’s going to be a little bit funky here and there. But we do play other stuff that’s not strictly funk.  We lean toward a little Gospel, a little rock ’n’ roll.

You mentioned James Brown, but what’s your take on some of the other legends of funk, say, Sly & The Family Stone?

Sly & The Family Stone, that is a big influence on myself and the band. We love what they were doing.  Probably in a roundabout way, not intentionally, we do borrow from what they were doing. Some of our songs where we trade verses – one person sings a line, the other person sings a line – I think that was one of the groups that did that a lot in the late ’60s early ’70s.  It was one of the first groups I saw that incorporated a woman, a guy, another guy singing a song.  That group vocal thing that goes on, we incorporated a lot of that.  As well as the fact that Sly and them were playing funk music with a rock ’n’ roll attitude.  It was kind of funky but it was rocking as well.  The fact that they had a white guy on drums, there was a female playing the keyboard and a female playing trumpet.  We got a female playing drums with us who also sings. In that respect we love what Sly did.  Also, while I’m mentioning it, what George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic did. 

About your personal music heritage – does being born into the Neville family pretty much set a person’s life course?

I wouldn’t go so far to say that.  But, I guess, in my case, I was kind of born into it.  When I was a kid I liked other stuff.  I liked to play sports, I played football and liked to do normal kids’ shit.  But I saw my mom, my dad, my uncles, everybody was playing music.  So eventually I just kind of started digging into it myself.  Then I was like, “OK, that’s all I’m going to do. I’m going to play music.  That’s what I want to do, anyway.”  Fortunately I’ve been able to do that for quite a while. And I’m blessed for that.

Dumpstaphunk does a lot of festival gigs.  Do you like playing festivals?

We love playing festivals. This year we’re not playing as many festivals as we’ve played in the past. We’ve played pretty much all of them at one time or another.  We’re playing Outside Lands this year which we’ve never done and that’s a big festival.

But we’re playing a lot of the smaller festivals this summer. We’re playing Summer Camp this summer – Umphrey’s McGee and moe. host that festival up in the Chicago area.  We love playing to those crowds, music loving folks, you know?

Do you think your music fits a festival setting a bit better than just playing a hall for one night?

It definitely fits a festival setting.  Lots of festivals that we play have lots of different kinds of music.  We feel nobody does what we do the way we do it.

You’ve played with everybody there is to play with, from the Stones to Bonnie Raitt to Robbie Robertson. Is there anyone still alive that you’d love to play with but the chance just hasn’t come up?

Yeah, there are people I’d love to play with.  Sly’s still alive. I’d love to play with Sly, if he’d come out of hiding wherever he is.  I’d love to play with Peter Gabriel.  He’s a cool songwriter and singer.  I like the stuff he’s done.  There are tons of people I haven’t played with that I’d love to play with. Al Green would be a great one to accompany, to have him sing.

What’s the best advice anyone has ever given you?

Man, I’ve gotten tons of advice from lots of people.  I can think of many, many things people have told me and it kind of culminates … Never take for granted that you are blessed with the gift of being able to express yourself through music.  Stay in gratitude… Never believe that you’re bigger than what you are part of.

The touring calendar for Ivan Neville’s Dumpstapunk includes festivals and headlining dates.  Plus, the band will launch 2014 by appearing on the Jam Cruise, which departs Miami Jan. 4.  Here’s the schedule:

May 31 – Lyons, Colo., Oskar Blues
June 1 – Crystal Bay, Nev., Crystal Bay Club Casino
June 2 – Benbow, Calif., Benbow Lake State Recreation Area (Benbow Summer Arts and Music Festival)
June 6 – Burlington, Vt.,  Various Venues (Burlington Discover Jazz Festival)
June 7 – Houston, Texas, Last Concert Café
June 8 – Austin, Texas, The Belmont
June 15 – Croton on Hudson, N.Y.,  Croton Point Park (Clearwater Festival – Great Hudson River Revival)
June 21 – Greensburg, Pa., St. Clair Park Amph. (SummerSounds)
June 22 – Grand Rapids, Mich., Founders Brewing Co. (Founders Fest)
June 28 – Steamboat Springs, Colo., Howelson Hill (Steamboat Springs Free Summer Concert Series)
June 29 – Glouster, Ohio, Smoke Rise Ranch (Family Roots Festival)
July 3 – Telluride, Colo., Mountain Village Heritage Plaza
July 6 – Winter Park, Colo., Winter Park Resort
July 12 – Lone Tree, Iowa, Jerry Hotz Farm (Camp Euforia)
July 19 – Chicago, Ill., House Of Blues
July 20 –Seattle, Wash., Tractor Tavern
July 21 – Winthrop, Wash., Blues Ranch (Winthrop Rhythm & Blues Festival)
July 27 – Troutdale, Ore., Yoshida Estate (Artful Giving)
July 28 – Palmerton, Pa.,  Blue Mountain Ski Area (Pennsylvania Blues Festival)
Aug. 7 – New York, N.Y.,  Madison Square Park
Aug. 10 – San Francisco, Calif., Golden Gate Park (Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival)
Aug. 24 – Eugene, Ore., Downtown Eugene (Eugene Celebration)
Sept. 14 – Fredericton, New Brunswick, Various Venues (Harvest Jazz & Blues Festival)           
Nov., 14 – Live Oak, Fla., Spirit Of The Suwannee Music Park (Bear Creek Music & Art Festival)
Jan. 4-8 – Miami, Fla., MSC Cruises -MSC Divina (Jam Cruise)

Please visit Dumpstaphunk.com for more information.