Electronic music has evolved into a myriad of different categories and styles. There is techno, ambient, dub, break-beat, house, acid-house, industrial, ambient, chill-out, etc. The list is endless. England’s trip-hop pioneers, Massive Attack were one the forefront of a movement and have influences thousands of people. Like Massive Attack’s later work, Teargas & Plateglass have that deep, dark sound and eerie atmosphere to their soundscapes along with thick rhythms and both sinister and angelic melodies. Teargas & Plateglass are not just an ‘illbient’ group but hip-hop is also apart of their music. Extremely reclusive and hardly ever photographed, Teargas & Plateglass have become an enigmatic group breaking the boundaries of music in general. They have done “beat-inspired mellow dramatic” remixes for 311, Natacha Atlas, Noise Conspiracy, Tweaker, David Sylvian, and Oba Funke. On the critically acclaimed “Being Black” compilation, they provided the music for poetess Ursula Rucker (who has been on almost all of the LPs by The Roots). In 2004, Waxploitation Records released their debut self-titled album, which took 3 years to record. While many other electronic groups make music strictly for dance floors, Teargas & Plateglass have weird, wild, and extremely dark rhythm and melodies. Like Severed Heads, they take chances and are unaware of where the music may take them. They let the music take control. They also have been known to talk of their creative process as if a ghost was leading them. The self-titled debut album by Teargas & Plateglass has some magnificent songs. “Adam’s Lullaby (remix)” features glorious vocals by Natacha Atlas. Both beautiful and sad, the song is a perfect theme for a precious moment. Fans of later Massive Attack would be extremely proud. Other incredible songs include “A Book Of Black Valentines” and “The Rain Falling On Ann’s Grave”. Besides Natacha Atlas, other guests include Lil Gong, Zap Mama, and Oba Funke. During the hot Spring of 2004, I spoke to the enigmatic and reclusive group. Enter the world of thick rhythm and dark melodies. Embrace the darkness and let the music take you away.

T.JONES: “What goes on?"
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS:  “Just getting in. Really need some coffee but recently switched to this green/white tea stuff. Less jittery on it, but there’s no kick to it. Oh well.”

T.JONES: “Your debut self-titled album is coming out. Tell us about it.”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “ Hmmmmm.  Are we allowed to say no comment?  It’s just kind of what it is.  It’s just a ghost to us. Very, very intangible. We didn’t really set out with a specific goal. We just let it happen and this is what happened.  It’s like being connected to a machine via an umbilical cord. It was a very subconscious experience.”

T.JONES: “How long did it take you to record it?”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “3 years at least. We work really slow and require long breaks.”

T.JONES: “What is your favorite song on the album?”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “There’s a bonus track on the album that was an early sketch of something we wanted to do and could never really do it right, but we put it on anyway and since it’s a song that we listened to the least, it still sounds fresh.”

T.JONES: “Can you explain the songwriting process?”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “It’s alchemy. We primarily find certain notes and sounds that feel right and then use them as the core message. Then start to layer the songs with a wash of other sounds until it feels right. The way we work, there’s more randomness to the process than not. That’s one of the reasons it takes a lot of time to craft. Some, if not most if the initial work, is not able to be repeated.   There’s a convergence of sounds, and so much happening on different tracks with a certain density of effects, that once we are recording live, a lot happens that we can’t control.”

T.JONES: “Besides the obvious reason, how is making an instrumental track different from track with vocals? Do you approach it differently? What makes you add vocals to it?”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “It’s odd. A lot of our instrumentals started out with vocals. There’s something great about using vocals to help make a song have a certain construction to it. It keeps the momentum going from start to finish since you want to change things up. For example, intro, verse, pre chorus, chorus, bridge. Having vocals helps you keep a mark on the feel of things, but a lot of times, we have vocals and then delete them at the end. It’s maybe counterintuitive to conventional songwriting, but it works well for us.”

T.JONES: “How did you get involved with Waxploitation Records?”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “Let’s just say it was Faustian in nature, ok?”

T.JONES: “How did you get involved with Natacha Atlas on the remix for ‘Adam’s Lullaby’? What was she like to work with?”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “We heard her original version of Adam’s Lullaby and were totally blown away by the dynamic of it. The vocal performance and melody was inexplicably soft and sweet, but also bittersweet. Very few artists can do that. It really moved us. But the original music of the song was very rich and uplifting…and we felt that it cried out to be taken in a different direction, so we asked her label if we could re-create the song with more of a sense of desperation.   The result of it is on our album. Shout out to The Beggars Group for letting it happen.”

T.JONES: “How did you guys meet and eventually form the group?”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “We’re a collective that adds and loses members from time to time. So it’s not really a ‘group’ in that sense.   The only thing we all have in common is, we love dark music and we love beats and we all are damaged goods.”

T.JONES: “What is the meaning behind the name Teargas & Plateglass?”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “When we were originally writing the album, it was during a period of time when people were uprising against the IMF, amongst other things and it seemed like there was a surge in local peoples trying to take a stand against globalization…so we kept seeing similar images on television, but all in different regions of the world. It was very poignant while we were making the album. One day, we were listening to albums and there was a line in a song by a great artist named A Silver Mt. Zion, that went ‘Let our crowds be fed on teargas and plateglass, because a people united is a wonderful thing’ and it just stuck as a phrase that was compelling and felt right to us.”

T.JONES: “What equipment do you use?”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “A mix of analog and digital gear. Vinyl, tape delay, plate reverb, samplers. We record and mix in Logic. We’re not really gearheads. We just have things that people send to us and use most of it in ways that are probably not the intent of the manufacturer.”

T.JONES: “Which instruments are your favorites?”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “Tape delay is the shit.”

T.JONES: “When did you first begin making music? What was it like?”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “Inspiring. Transforming. Cathartic.”

T.JONES: “How were you making a living before or outside music?”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “Soul sapping sh*t jobs like telemarketing, delivering food to fraternities, the usual.”

T.JONES: “Who are your biggest influences?”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “Akira Kurosawa, Wu Tang Clan, Noam Chomsky, Low, Philip Glass, El-P. Stanley Kubrick,  Lee Scratch Perry, Morihei Ueshiba, King Tubby, Elliott Smith, Hans Simmer, Will Oldham, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Bob Marley, Dmitri, Shostakovich, Yellowman, William Gibson.”

T.JONES: “Some people classify your music as Drum & Bass or Electronica. How do you feel about that?”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “Not a problem for us. DJ Spooky coined that term ‘llbient’, right? That works for us too.”

T.JONES: “How did you get involved in the ‘Being Black’ CD?”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “Faust.”

T.JONES: “In an interview, you said, ‘Every thing on the album was like being visited by a hungry ghost’. Can you explain that more?"
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “A ‘hungry ghost’ is a Tibetan reference to a person who is always searching without rest. Probably something related to Buddhism. It’s a phrase that seemed to best describe the feeling we have when writing and recording. It always feels like there’s a poltergeist at work, and that our hands and fingers are simply a vehicle for these visiting ghosts to communicate something so they can move on.”
 

T.JONES: “The cover was done by Sebastiao Salgado. Can you explain the cover? What do you like about the cover? How did you get involved with Sebastiao Salgado?”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “Sebastio Salgado is one of the most important photo journalists / photo essayists of any generation. He goes to the most tortured places in the world and allows or forces the rest of us to bear witness. He is a very important artist to us. We felt the cover photo was not just obviously sadly stunning and thought provoking, but also a good metaphor for the state of the world right now. People staring right into each other’s eyes, being totally conscious of everything happening, but there’s that decaying train in the background, moving away. It feels, to us, that the events of the world are happening without a way to stop them or have an impact on them.  Clearly, the child has been deserted. Pretty overwhelming.”

T.JONES: “Abortion. Pro-life or pro-choice?”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “Pro-Choice.”

T.JONES: “Death penalty. For or against?”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “Probably against. It’s a really complex issue.”

T.JONES: “Where were you on the September 11th terrorist attack? How did you deal with it? How has it affected the music industry?”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “Los Angeles. What a surreal experience.   We just dealt with it like most other people. Watched it unfold on the television and tried to communicate with as many people around us as possible and try to help out any friends and family we had in New York. It affected the music industry, like every industry. It’s pretty depressing to think about how the world was. For the briefest moment, all on our side, right after September 11th, there was a moment when the US could have helped lead a worldwide effort to make peoples’ lives better but they totally squandered it. I doubt that kind of thing will happen again in our lifetime. Makes it hard to not be cynical sometimes.”

T.JONES: “How do you feel about the U.S. involvement in the Middle East?”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “Seems like it’s a mess. There seems to be some genuinely kind, humanitarian, smart people over there, even in the military. They are there to help the people of Iraq, even in the military but also a pretty serious lack of knowledge of history and how the U.S. is perceived there as well as an understanding how the different religious sects operate. Good intentions don’t count for much with this level of mistrust and misunderstanding. It is what it is.”

T.JONES: “Word association. I am going to say the name of a group or artist or person and you say the first word that pops into your head. So, if I said ‘Public Enemy’, you may say ‘Revolution’ or ‘Fight The Power’. If I said ‘The Beatles’, you may say ‘Revolver’ or ‘Yoko Ono’. Okay?”

T.JONES: “Jurassic 5.”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “Too commercial.”

T.JONES: “50 Cent.”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “Too boring.”

T.JONES: “Eminem.”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “Underrated producer.”

T.JONES: “Severed Heads.”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “Rwanda.”

T.JONES: “Massive Attack.”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “Geniuses.”

T.JONES: “Happy Mondays.”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “Kill the ravers.”

T.JONES: “Jay-Z.”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “Don’t retire.”

T.JONES: “New Order.”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “Joy Division.”

T.JONES: “Jamiroqaui.”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “Yawn.”

T.JONES: “George Clinton.”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “F*cking freak.”

T.JONES: “The Roots.”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “Philly girls.”

T.JONES: “Gil-Scott Heron.”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS:  “Immortal.”

T.JONES: “George Bush.”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “Who knows.”

T.JONES: “Which artist would you like to work with in the future who you haven’t worked with yet?”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “Mimi Parker, Scarface, Buju Banton, Method Man, Octavious, Sara Lov, Ivy Queen, Will Oldham, Trick Daddy, Albert Griffiths, Dead Prez.”

T.JONES: “How do you approach remixes? Do you strip the songs down? Do you just add to it? What goes on?”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “We usually just write a song that is inspired by the vocals of the original song and then put the original a capella over it.  They are less ‘remixes’ and more ‘interpretations’. So it’s a lot of new composition and production.”

T.JONES: “What remix are you most proud of?”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “Our ‘Zero 7’ remix that will never see the light of day for whatever reason.”

T.JONES: “Production-wise, what is the best produced album you have ever heard?”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “Danger Mouse’s Grey Album.”

T.JONES: “What CDs or LPs have been in your CD player or on your turntable recently?”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “Tweaker’s ‘2a.m. wakeup call’ CD, ‘Wolfpac Mixtape Volume 1’ CD by J. Wells, Beck’s ‘Sea Change’ CD, ‘Deep Space 9mm’ single by El-P, Danger Mouse & Jemini ‘Ghetto Pop Life’ CD, Hymie’s Basement ‘Hymie’s Basement’ CD, RJD2 ‘Exotic Talk’ single, Killing Joke ‘Killing Joke’ CD, Viktor Vaughn ‘Vaudeville Villain’ CD, Dopestyle 1231 ‘KutMasta Kurt Presents Dopestyle 1231’, Sevara Nazarkhan ‘Yol Bolsi’ CD.”

T.JONES: “You worked with Ursula Rucker. How did you hook up with her and what was that collaboration like?”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “She recorded these passages from a book by Angel Kyodo Williams and gave us the spoken word to one called ‘When We Are Ignorant’ and we put it down on top of a track we were working on for our own album. It just seemed to fit nicely. It’s a really short, simple interlude. The track ended up on the Being Black CD.  She’s an amazing artist and amazing woman. Powerful.”

T.JONES: “Favorite drug?”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “Sleep.”

T.JONES: “Are you for the legalization of marijuana?
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “Sure.”

T.JONES: “Favorite movies?”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “Anything by Akira Kurosawa or Stanley Kubrick. Shout out to Netflix.”

T.JONES: “What is in the future for Teargas & Plateglass? Remixes? Collaborations? Tours?”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “We are remixing a tweaker song featuring Jennifer Charles from Elysian Fields. We are desperately trying to get VP Records to send us the parts for Buju Banton’s ‘Paid Not Played’ so we can remix it. Also working on an EP that we want to put out pretty soon. We thought we’d take a year off, but we were moved by some things that we feel compelled to unleash.  So hopefully, we will release it early next year.”

T.JONES: “Any final words for the people who will be reading this?”
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS: “Want to thank our family and friends and extended music community for all the love and support. Thanks, Todd.   Your questions were unusually thought provoking.”
 
 

Label:
www.waxploitation.com/