Dub Trio (Mean Street - February 2008)

This interview ran in the February 2008 issue of Mean Street. Check it out.

Stir of Echo

While the members of Dub Trio keep pretty busy with their own elaborate instrumental dub-metal jams, the Brooklyn outfit paid its dues playing for other people

We’re all professional musicians by trade,” says drummer Joe Tomino. “We’ve all spent some time at music school. We’re versed to play multiple styles. We’ve all researched different genres, so we’re capable musicians on that level. As far as what we played in before Dub Trio, [bassist] Stu [Brooks] and [guitarist] Dave [Holmes] played a lot of funk and more groove-oriented stuff. We spent a good amount of time playing the drum-and-bass genre when that was big. Myself, I played a lot of straight-ahead jazz and more avante-garde and free styles.

”The Trio began in 2000 as a group of session players for larger established acts. Tomino was a touring drummer for the Fugees. Brooks recorded with 50 Cent and Mobb Deep, while Holmes recorded with Mos Def and Common.

The band released Exploring the Dangers Of in ’05. Former Faith No More frontman and Fantomas/Tomahawk mastermind Mike Patton guested on the song “We’re Not Alone” on the Trio’s 2006 follow-up, New Heavy. Until recently, that was the group’s only tune featuring vocals.

Patton also recruited the trio to tour with him as his live band for his Peeping Tom rock/hip-hop project. Dub Trio’s latest, Another Sound is Dying, is the group’s first for Patton’s (who guested once again on a track) Ipecac Recordings. This album continues the Trio’s weakness for melding noisy punk-metal and effects-laden dub reggae in the tradition of King Tubby.

Dub Trio hit the road recently supporting Helmet and Clutch. Even though it’s the musical oddball on the tour, the group was surprised by audiences’ positive reactions.

“Each tour is a little different,” Tomino says. “We tour with a lot of different bands genre-wise. Each genre or scene relates differently to it. People that go to a Clutch show…they’re more musically inclined. They appreciate the jams more. Clutch has a lot of musical integrity as a band. They were open to what we were doing. A lot of them knew reggae and dub. We were in this one place…total biker kinda dude…came up to me, he was like, ‘Dude, I appreciate what you’re doing. I hear the King Tubby in there.’ He knew who King Tubby was. That blew my mind!”

On the web: dubtrio.com