INTERVIEW: Ian Neville talks new music, NYC Thanksgiving gig with Dumpstaphunk

The members of Dumpstaphunk are some of the strongest, most resounding ambassadors of New Orleans funk on the music scene today. Headed by Ivan Neville and featuring the musical talents of Tony Hall, Nick Daniels III, Ian Neville and Alvin Ford Jr., Dumpstaphunk bring powerhouse grooves to their infectiously entertaining gigs and recorded songs.

More music is thankfully on the horizon.

After the well-received Dirty Word album, the band is starting to think about the next project and continuing to keep the audience moving on a never-ending tour around the United States. On Wednesday, Nov. 23, they set up residency at New York City’s American Beauty for their third-annual Phunksgiving with special guests Eric Krasno, Nikki Glaspie (former Dumpstaphunk drummer), Brandon “Taz” Niederauer & Steel Town Horns, and Maurice “Mobetta” Brown. Fans of funk should expect killer keys, groovy guitars and beautiful bass.

Ian Neville, cousin to Ivan and family member in the world-famous Neville family, plays guitar for the group and is excited to bring the band’s tried-and-true crowd favorites and some new tunes to the Big Apple concert.

“You can expect some new music, which ideally for us brings just some fresh life to the whole deal,” Ian said recently in a phone interview. “We’ve been working on a record for a little bit too long now. Hopefully it’ll be out soon. … But we’ve been picking and choosing some new stuff to drop here and there, mix in with just a few key new cover stuff we feel like doing or just random new sh– to keep it fresh.”

Ian characterized the new songs as the “next effort” and the “next movement,” almost like it’s the continuation of Dumpstaphunk’s funky story. “It’s different because we have different personnel,” he said. “It’s still got that Dumpsta New Orleans-ess to it that we can’t shake and wouldn’t want to anyway.”

Dirty Word is truly one of the most acclaimed highlights of the funk scene in the past decade. Featuring such songs as “Dancin’ to the Truth,” “I Wish You Would” and “They Don’t Care,” the album can simultaneously keep one dancing and break the listener’s heart. Guest artists include Ani Difranco, Skerik, Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews and Reggie Watkins, among others.

“Yeah, I thought it was overall a good effort,” Ian said. “I listened to that album like top to bottom. It felt like a whole solid unit, you know what I mean, which can’t always be said for some albums. I was proud of that one. It’s good. … Some of [the new album is] a little more diverse than the last one, I guess, but there’s definitely still some of the straight funk grooves that are undeniably New Orleans and just funky.”

The story of Dumpstaphunk begins with Ivan Neville when he was offered a gig at New Orleans’ Jazz Fest. The famous keyboardist put together the initial iteration of Dumpstaphunk for the concert, and they kept gigging around town and eventually around the nation. “It was like, damn, maybe we should do this probably more often,” Ian said. “It’s kind of fun.”

He added: “It’s a blessing to be able to just play music, you know what I mean. That being said, with how our operation is, we kind of spread out over weekend [gigs] instead of going out for two months at a time, so that makes the side project thing a little harder to schedule. But it’s not impossible. It’s doable, and … the more you can allocate for a side project and just doing other stuff, it keeps Dumpsta fresh. It keeps the other stuff fresh, and it helps all around.”

With a last name like Neville, it would seem that playing music for a living was always in the cards for Ian, but that wasn’t necessarily the case. The guitarist, whose father is Art Neville, had a choice in his interests at a young age, but his constant exposure to the music scene won him over.

“There was never any push to music, but … I was exposed to it my whole life,” Ian said. “I’ve been going to Tipitina’s since I was zero years old. We’ve got a gig there tonight again, and that’s still one of my favorite rooms to go see music in or play in. And, yeah, just being that close to the source of it, it draws you in, but there was never any push family-wise to get into it. If anything there was like a warning of what you’re getting yourself into. I appreciate that part of it. Otherwise, I don’t know, it’s kind of accidental when I look up and realize like, oh, I guess I’m going to be in bands my whole life. It was like right out of end of high school and college for a minute, and I had the opportunity to just start traveling, and going on the road and playing more. And that was what I wanted to do. It stuck so far thankfully.”

Ian started playing the drums when he was only 3 or 4 years old. He eventually stopped percussion and played piano for a “quick second.” The next instrument was the one that stuck: guitar. He was in fourth or fifth grade, as he remembers it, and after switching schools, he was hanging out with a friend who happened to have a guitar in the house. Ian started playing the instrument, and then he found a guitar at his own house. “I don’t know why, actually,” he said. “It’s just kind of random that that one stuck, but now it’s fun and a challenge always at the same time.”

Today, Ian seems to be living his dream, continuing his family’s contribution to music and also overcoming the obstacles of a band that constantly gigs.

“People always say don’t mix business and family, and sometimes that’s for a reason,” Ian said. “Then there’s the other flip side, which is funny sh–. Anytime we’re traveling back from somewhere, the other day, and like 20 flights got canceled. And we took 30 hours to take a six-hour trip, and all this kind of business. I’ll talk to my dad about that kind of stuff, and he’ll just be like, ‘So you want to play music, travel the world.’ … It makes us appreciate the actual gig more when you go through a bunch of bullsh– to get there, and it just keeps your perspective on it in check. When you do go through just a bunch of hassle to get to do what you want to do, it makes that part of the gig more fun and valuable I guess.”

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

Dumpstaphunk will play the American Beauty in New York City Wednesday, Nov. 23. Click here for more information.