MWN: How do you feel now that your album is out for everyone to listen to?
Teddy Glass: It feels great. I’m very proud of this one. We even threw a release party on a boat that was a dream come true.
MWN: Who inspired your music growing up? Have those inspirations changed?
Teddy Glass: The Eagles were my favorite band when I was 7. Years later it was Third Eye Blind, then Muse in high school, then the Beatles and eventually Frank Ocean. Inspirations have definitely changed, but really all of it is some part of my vernacular as a musician. At this point it feels like it will always be evolving.
MWN: How do you guys manage being long-time friends and creating music together?
Teddy Glass: Iced coffee and perpetual one-up-man-ship.
MWN: How did you know you wanted to mix a folk-like sound with more modern-synth? Was that a natural process that was sort of born when making music?
Teddy Glass: There were a few factors. Partly it’s just where my interests were headed; the initial guitar demos were recorded direct in and had a quality that lent themselves pretty easily to effects and synthy accompaniment. Furthermore, our collaboration with Taft Mashburn, first on basic tracking and then again later on many of the synth arrangements, really helped set a vibe and defined many of the best synth moments on the record.
MWN: Can you walk us through the writing process? For this album did you go in the studio with a set idea of what you wanted with the album or did it just happen as the sessions went along?
Teddy Glass: Exploration was kind of the name of the game on this record. Almost every song was an experiment of some kind, whether it was the vocal approach or the arrangement. Songs were pieced together over many sessions in different places. Genevieve wasn’t even fully written when we started recording it. In doing it this way I feel like we captured a lot of first time takes that have a kind of purity that feels compelling to me.
MWN: What is one thing you wish you could change about the music scene in Texas and what is one thing you love about the music in Texas?
Teddy Glass: I wish that there was better support, and acknowledgement of value, in our culture for all of the arts and the role they play in building community. In that vein, I am extremely grateful the community that I do have, and the artists in my immediate scope are profoundly inspiring to me.
MWN: What do you hope people take away from your music?
Teddy Glass: We have a tune called “Grindin It” that for me is a note to self that says, “Keep on, in all things. Your work, your obligations, your passions. It feels like a labor sometimes, but keep on grindin’ it.”
MWN: Let’s go into a few fire round questions!
MWN: What is your dream venue to perform at?
Teddy Glass: As I mentioned before, we just had the release party for this record on a double decker boat. That was a dream come true. Red Rocks would be a dream too.
MWN: Favorite love song?
Teddy Glass: That’s tough. “A Wedding in Cherokee County” by Randy Newmann is up there. It’s got humor and sincerity and dysfunction and just the right amount of flawed romanticism.
MWN: First recollection of live music?
Teddy Glass: Seeing Styx when I was 6 at the VP Fair in St. Louis, MO.
MWN: Lastly is there anything you’d like to say to the people that are going to be reading this interview?
Teddy Glass: Make sure you’re registered to vote. Election Day is November 6, 2018.
By: Allison Wyrsch | Exclusively for @Music, Why Not! |
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