I want to do everything at the highest possible level. So basically, I’m gearing up for a busy couple of years! (laughs)

Like a lot of people, my first exposure to your jazz work was the Goodbye to Romance: Standards for a New Generation CD. Was it intentional to rework metal classics in the hopes that you would broaden the minds and palates of your fans and get them to come along for the ride you’re on now with the Alex Skolnick Trio?

There were a number of things involved. For one, I didn’t want to do a typical jazz album. At the time, I was in New York, going to jazz gigs every week and playing whenever I could with a lot of different artists [while] getting my degree [from New School University]. I was working with a lot of artists I wouldn’t have worked with before. (horn honks) I felt like I was missing out in playing with different genres of music and different instruments by playing in Testament. Beyond that, the trio format is my favorite jazz context; it allows for the greatest flexibility and is a standard for most jazz musicians to explore. I figured, I could force trying to be accepted in the jazz community or I could just do my own thing and [rework] these metal songs.

If that inadvertently converted and brought in metal fans, that’s great, but that was not the byproduct of an intention or gimmick. My thought was: Do an album that helps express yourself in jazz idiom and don’t deny where you come from.

Parts of the last record Last Day in Paradise reminded me of the group The Bad Plus, although not as proggy perhaps. Are you into them at all and who are some of the newer artists in the jazz realm that you’re drawn to?  

The Bad Plus is excellent. They’re great musicians on a whole other level. But I haven’t listened to them a lot as a group; I am much more familiar with them as individuals. There’s a band called EST [Esbjörn Svensson Trio] which some journalists have mistakenly called “Europe’s answer to The Bad Plus.” They don’t do rock songs, but they add rock elements to their work. EST is a big influence on me, and one of my more favorite bands...

[Two weeks after this interview was conducted, pianist Esbjörn Svensson died in a scuba diving accident at 44 years old].

Other that that, I’m a Pat Metheny fan, I like a lot of Herbie Hancock’s work. I really admire both of those guys. All of what they do is so diverse. Bill Frisell, John Scofield… I try to look at what all my favorite artists are doing and, without knocking off, try to incorporate elements of those influences.