Mr. Laswell grew up in Detroit, and played with a number of disco-funk bands before arriving in New York City in 1978, where he met Michael Beinhorn, who plays synthesizer and manipulates pre-recorded tapes, and the drummer Fred Maher. These three first played together in a group called the Zu Band, but by summer '79 they were working as Material, with Cliff Cultreri, as the first of several guitarists to pass through the ranks.
The word "energy" crops up frequently in Mr. Laswell's conversation. It was energy that originally attracted him to Sonny Sharrock, who first recorded with Pharoah Sanders and other jazz musicians during the middle and late 1960's. Mr. Laswell played with Mr. Sharrock in a trio before introducing him to the other members of Material.
It seems that the fusing of exploratory jazz-disco-funk and punk rock that has been shaping up in Manhattan during the last few years, is finally going to get national exposure.