Introducing #157 - Telgate
Let us introduce you to Welsh glam rocker Telgate, who have got us excited with their fired-up single ‘Love Zone’ - they took a moment to talk to us about their music.
Hey there Telgate, how are you? So your new track ‘Love Zone’ is out now - can you tell us what it is about?
Love Zone is essentially the opening to a story about lust, desire and temptation. As you descend into the song you are being taken further into the Love Zone. We took this ridiculously camp and over-the-top theatrical approach with the concept of the song - so throughout the song the listener is being introduced to characters and scenes, as though it was some sort of cheesy rock-n-roll pantomime.We know that we’re extra and pretty in-your-face people, and the song gimmicks that. Love Zone branches out from our usual heavier sound to create a soundscape that pokes fun at what people often expect us to sound like at first glance, we’re ultimately stereotyping ourselves.
Within the dialogues of Love Zone, we explore taboo eriotic themes in a light-hearted, almost humorous manner. The song is intentionally vulgar. LGBT sex lives have been treated as an unspoken taboo for centuries, the explicit nature of our lyrics exist to reject these traditional expectation of the “tolerable queer” - who tones down their sexual identity to be respected by a cishet society. We are bold, outspoken and secure in our identities and refuse to censor our lifestyles for the comfort of anti-queer prudery culture.
Where was the track recorded? Any behind the scenes stories from the creative experience?
We started recording ‘Love Zone’ in Kings Road Studios with producer Andrew Sanders just as the pandemic hit in 2020, meaning that it took nearly a whole year to get this song recorded due to national lockdown restrictions. The prolonged time frame did have its silver linings however, since being furloughed and having live events delayed meant that we had more time to experiment with our sound. Love Zone’s producer Andrew Sanders has been an incredible support to the band for years, and played a core role in innovating the sound of Love Zone, surprising Casper with a Soviet-era intercom mic to record some spoken-word parts and experimenting with recording sections of lead guitar through a tiny 5W amp, with every dial at maximum - for that extra dirty sound. We were also joined in the studio by keyboardist Nathan Insley who elevated the bluesy sound with his impressively part-improvised piano melodies.
When we write new music together, oftentimes we utilise ideas and sections of unfinished or scrapped songs which we had previously put aside, and repurpose those sections into new songs - combining different pieces to create one song that feels particularly special to us. This is how ‘Love Zone’ was formed. We started by desecrating the twelve-bar blues chord structure as a joke, before realising, “Hey, we could actually work with this.” Then, after piecing together new ideas with the parts of old songs that we had previously put aside aside, bassist Jay began experimenting with gimmicky dialogues, collaborating on lyrics with Vocalist Casper, who also wrote a detailed concept for the song which we used to influence the songwriting process in order to effectively communicate the storytelling intentions. We had a lot of fun writing Love Zone since it provided an opportunity to bring the most ridiculous of ideas into life. It’s surprising how many of our songs start off as inside-jokes from us messing around in rehearsals, and then end up becoming our newest release.
So, how did you all meet and what made you want to form a band together?
We first met in our comprehensive school music classes, and happened to bond over our love of music, our politics and “outcast” status in and out of our school lives, often being rejected by peers for being queer. Casper had been consistently writing mellow acoustic music since the age 9, which he played as a solo musician in bars from the age of 14. He became increasingly bored of being background music to punters and frustrated that the mellow sound he wrote made the message behind his music sound passive. He decided that he had had enough of creating music that was easy to ignore, and became determined to start a project which gave people no option but to hear what he was saying - something loud, something in your face, something so outrageous that it could not simply be background noise. So in 2017, as Casper was just turning 15 years old - he came together with guitarist Chris to start TELGATE.
Chris was a guitarist already making music in a different band at the time after, and so we made a callout for musicians to start a band with. It was tricky to find people at first, we didn't have any experience and we were still technically children. But we managed to get a group together and started jamming. In that first jam session at the age of 15 we wrote our debut single Cherrytight. Funnily enough we started with the intention of being a goth/post-punk band with our first ever photoshoot being in Cathays Cemetery. We started getting a couple gigs here and there, meeting people from the local scene and sussing out how things worked as we went along - our age always being a sort of enigma. Our first ever gig was a stonewall (LGBTQ charity) fundraiser in the Moon Club in which we wore our pride flags and played to a crowd of what was practically just the bar staff.
Where are you based and what are your favorite things to do there?
We’re based in Cardiff, and Casper likes to dance - a lot... And not particularly well at that apparently, since he recently sacrificed his knee cap, ending up in crutches after having an accident while dancing in his kitchen. When he’s not doing things for the band, you can find him writing poetry, solo music, creating art, trying and failing to keep houseplants alive and reading up on lgbt working class history.
Chris’ favourite things to do include spreading political dissent, producing alcohol, and listening to music at uncomfortably loud volumes to emulate the feeling of being back at the venues. No matter how much beer I spill on myself, no matter how many times I get bumped by random objects in my bedroom, I just can’t get that same feeling back.
Of course prior to the virus, we spent a religious amount of time hanging out on womanby, we’ve probably broken a couple people’s toes from jumping into moshpits while wearing dangerously large platform boots.
What are your key influences as a band?
One of our major musical influences is Jayne County, one of the most iconic original punk singers who was a trans woman and a massive inspiration and influence to Casper. Jayne has a tendency to sing about the most taboo of topics in the most unapologetic, in your face manner. Her feisty, no cares given attitude and performance style can be heard through all her recordings along with bluesy guitar tones and carefree solos. This attitude to music, and to life, is something that we especially incorporate into our music. Hole are also a massive influence for similar reasons - but our musical influences are vast, ranging from 60s/70s prog and psych rock such as Aphrodites Child, 80s post punk bands such as Xmal Deutschland to the likes of 90s alt rock bands; The Smashing pumpkins, Concrete Blonde and Pearl Jam.
However the key influence for what we write about and why we do what we do, comes from a place of healing. Writing and performing music has allowed Casper to take hardships that he experiences, and turn these negative experiences into art that he can be proud of. He started writing music at the age of 9 as an outlet to cope with distressing situations he faced in his early years, Casper being autistic meant that it was sometimes hard to properly verbalise his emotions - so to this day, his strategy of healing through songwriting and using music to discuss difficult things has a clear influence on what TELGATE communicate as a band. To us, music is more than simply a hobby or a career, it is a tool of survival.
How would you describe your sound to someone who has never listened to your music before?
We like to use the term ‘aggro-glam’ for our music. We combine elements of punk with the glitter of glam. Our music is unapologetic and gets-in-your face about various issues that we want to expose / raise awareness to. Our previous release, Cherrytight was an introduction to the louder, aggressive side of our music and an outlet to discuss serious topics concerning LGBT rights which is a common focus in our music. Love Zone, however, shows another side of TELGATE - It introduces listeners to our theatrical side. But our live sets are a mix of both, from fierce tunes and wailing guitars to spacey psychedelic ballads. We also have an addiction to writing big climaxes into every song, so if you have a low attention span (like we do) we’ll make sure to keep you on your toes, and hopefully when shows start up again we can get right back to assaulting ‘yer eardrums!