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| Hint: Have a band you'd like to see interviewed? Tell us. | | | The Glamour is an ill duo from Milwaukee specializing in house and club music. They've come up quickly through the blogging world, and they're now starting to embark upon extravagant journeys to large cities for bumpin' shows. Vocalist Asher Gray was kind enough to sit down with me (e-mail style, that is) for a little chat.
Y'all are really starting to break out now. To get our readers acquainted, let's start out with some of the basics.
How and when did the band form? Were there projects preceding the Glamour?
Richard and I met back during the rave days at a weekly party. At the time I was just getting into DJing, 1998, and Richard was already messing around with production. We decided to team up and learn from each other. We had a few different names before The Glamour, but it was pretty much the same idea.
How did you come upon your name?
We had these other names, which we never really felt good about. We had always liked disco because it was such a big influence on dance music, and The Glamour seemed like a disco name. Not that we were trying to be disco, but the name just sort of stuck.
Where do you draw your inspiration from, both lyrically and instrumentally?
We like rap lyrics a lot – also disco and R&B. We have basically been making party tracks that are about partying and dancing. I wouldn't say we model our lyrics off of anyone specifically, but we definitely grab bits and pieces from different genres. As far as instrumentation goes, anything with a synth solo, eighties stuff, or disco bass lines. We have a great guitar player that collaborates with us, Randy Gosa, and he's really good at figuring out what sound we're after based on descriptors we give him, which can sometimes be pretty general. We like guitar sounds from disco to metal.
What influences do you think were most important in shaping your sound and style?
I would say that some of our biggest influences have been groups coming out of Paris like Daft Punk, Cassius, Aloud, Ed Banger Crew, but also stuff like Michael Jackson, Chic, Spank Rock, and Mariah Carey. To be honest I think a lot of groups sneak into our sound but not totally intentionally.
With the likes of y'all and Flosstradamus starting to cause a great commotion, the Midwest looks primed to become a real party-starting force. What artists from the region do you see as ready to follow in your footsteps and start making some noise?
Well, we don't necessarily see these people as following in OUR footsteps ‘cause they've been doing their thing for a while, but other people we admire from the Midwest would be Matt Roan, E6, Juiceboxxx (also from Milwaukee), The Cool Kids, and Hollywood Holt.
You're starting to run parties in a variety of cities such as New York and Atlanta. What places do you see yourselves tearing up in the near future? Where would you like to hit up eventually?
Hopefully we'll get to NYC again this summer, and we really want to kick it in L.A. We'd love to play in Chicago as much as possible, Toronto would be great, more southern shows, more Midwest gigs like the Flufftronix party, and Europe hopefully.
You currently have four proper tracks and a few remixes by guys like Curtis Vodka floating around. What else do you have in the works?
We have a new track coming out this week called "Get into It." We have a few remixes in the works and also a new mixtape too.
Those four songs are listed as being a part of the Let's Party! EP on your Virb page. Is this the complete set of songs for that EP? Will this ever see a release through any medium?
Hopefully yes, but the EP name is just for kicks at this point. Basically whatever tracks we put out between now and until we get released will be part of the Let's Party! album. We'd love to release
all that stuff though.
By now you've performed with a handful of DJs. Name a few that have put on a particularly impressive show. Why was their set so extraordinary?
Floss, E6, Matt Roan, Cobra Kai, and Johnny Love have all played with us in Milwaukee and we love to bring up kids like them because there is always something new in their mix. We like to hear stuff we haven't heard before, new and old. I always like to get out and cut a rug too.
In the music world, everyone seems to have a few guilty pleasures or random obsessions. What artists do y'all dig that would shock the rest of us?
Maria Carey, but she isn't even a guilty pleasure for me. Ever since I was sixteen I have loved her. And Kenny Loggins.
Milwaukee is hardly a noted city for outrageous parties. Neither is my current home, Hanover, New Hampshire. What's the Wisconsin party scene like?
It can be good and bad. There are more and more kids getting turned on to dance music in our town so it's getting better, but sometimes the crowd can be really top 40 oriented. We're starting to get a core group of people that come out and dance hard, which is great. We've had some amazing parties at our monthly and weekly spots. Milwaukee can be really fun, especially in the summer.
I'm sure there are tons of artists you want to see that you've never caught in person. What shows have eluded you that you'd kill to see?
Daft Punk, DJ Falcon and Björk.
You've grown to fame in large through the blogging world. What do you think about the Internet as a venue to spread music?
I'm not sure many people would know about us outside of Milwaukee without the Internet. We owe so much to the blogging community for spreading our music and also for turning us on to new music. We practically live online.
There's a huge stylistic difference between a slower, choppy track like "Blast" and the bouncy, infectious "Kidz Night." Would you say we should expect more like the former, the latter, or a combination of the two from y'all in the future?
Well, "Blast" was recorded in '05 so it's a little old but we're going to return to that sound as well as the more up-tempo stuff.
What other plans do you have for the Glamour?
Try to travel as much as possible, find a label, put out a record, play live shows, body surf and meet Mariah Carey.
Thanks for your time! |
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Displaying posts 1 - 4 of 4. |
04:37 PM on 06/25/07 |
Yea man, for sure. I'm surprised you've heard of 'em. Nothing specifically about you, but I was just shocked that anyone that posts with any sort of regularity on this site digs the Glamour. They're so good. Thank God for Big Stereo introducing them to me. | | |
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11:17 PM on 06/25/07 | great interview. i fucking loooove these dudes. | | |
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