Jim Sclavunos

James Sclavunos is an American multi-instrumentalist, record producer and writer. He is best known for his work as a drummer, having been a member of two seminal no wave groups in the late 1970s, Teenage Jesus & the Jerks and 8 Eyed Spy, both alongside Lydia Lunch. He is also noted for stints in Sonic Youth and the Cramps, and has been a member of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds since 1994. Sclavunos has led his own group the Vanity Set since 2000 and was a founding member of the Bad Seeds spinoff band Grinderman.

Sclavunos, a half-Greek and half-Italian from Brooklyn, New York (known for his exceptional height at 6'7"), was memorably described in the pages of The Wire as an "infamous elegant degenerate". He has long been a prime mover in New York City's vibrant underground music scene, helping to kick-start the vital no wave movement in the late 1970s with Teenage Jesus & the Jerks and 8 Eyed Spy (both with Lydia Lunch), before playing with Sonic Youth and the Cramps. He has also recorded albums with Grinderman, Sonic Youth, Tav Falco's Panther Burns and Congo Norvell as well as recording sessions with many artists including Marianne Faithfull, Iggy Pop, Beth Orton, and Seasick Steve. He has also toured with Lunch, Alex Chilton and Wreckless Eric.

A key member of the Bad Seeds since 1994 and a founding member of the Bad Seeds offshoot Grinderman, he also formed his own New York-based musical ensemble The Vanity Set in 2000, releasing two studio albums to date.

Further to his work as a musician, Sclavunos has produced a wide range of bands including Gogol Bordello, the Horrors, the Jim Jones Revue, Black Moth, and Teenage Mothers (Lead guitarist and co-vocalist Raph Brous has dedicated his upcoming novel, Empire of Ants, to him).

He has done several remixes, both on his own and as one half of Silver Alert (along with Vanity Set bandmate Peter Mavrogeorgis). In 2012, Silver Alert performed "Faustian Pact" at the Perth International Arts Festival in Western Australia, a live adaptation of FW Murnau's film Faust, produced in collaboration with director/choreographer Micki Pellerano.

In 2012, Sclavunos began an ongoing collaboration with Australian performance artist/musician Michaela Davies on a composition titled "FM-2030" (named for the transhumanist philosopher Fereidoun M. Esfandiary) utilizing programmed electro-muscular stimulation of classical string players to generate involuntary playing movements. The composition premiered at the 2013 Sonica Festival in Glasgow.

While attending NYU School of Arts, Jim Sclavunos co-founded No Magazine, an underground fanzine devoted to coverage of NY punk rock and the burgeoning No Wave movement. He briefly fronted his own band Mimi And The Dreamboats, before joining No Wave bands Red Transistor, and The Gynecologists with avant-garde composer Rhys Chatham and Nina Canal to play drums. Around the time the Gynecologists were disbanding, Sclavunos joined Lydia Lunch’s band Teenage Jesus and the Jerks as bass guitarist, releasing both an EP Baby Doll (1979) and a compilation mini-album on pink vinyl on Lust/Unlust. A short-lived side-project with Lunch called Beirut Slump featured Sclavunos’ first recorded work as drummer on the group's single "Try Me / Staircase" (1979) on Migraine. Following their European tour in June 1979, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks broke up, and Lydia and Sclavunos joined 8 Eyed Spy.

In 1980, Sclavunos and Lunch formed a short-lived live blues project, The Devil Dogs. In 1981, following the death of bass player George Scott, 8 Eyed Spy released a self-titled album on Fetish. Sclavunos designed the covers for both the ROIR 8 Eyed Spy release and for Suicide’s Half Alive album (1981). Sclavunos ended up moving to Memphis and joining Alex Chilton's side-project Tav Falco's Panther Burns, ultimately releasing an EP Blow Your Top (1982). The same year he briefly joined Sonic Youth and recorded drums parts for their debut album, Confusion Is Sex, but quit before the sessions were over. He moved on to co-founding Trigger & the Thrill Kings with Dutch singer Truus DeGroot, with the group touring extensively throughout the Netherlands and Germany with various line-ups including Jim Duckworth on guitar and Annene Kaye on keyboards.