Fuck Transcendental Meditation, listen to Soul Glo instead

Up until about a year and a half ago I always said that I didn’t like “loud” music. I didn’t mind if the volume was turned up, but too much noise made me uneasy; I prefer lullaby baby music anytime of the day or songs about fucking sluts and making money because who doesn’t like being brainwashed? And then I heard Soul Glo.

I’m not exactly sure what made me change my mind – maybe the fact that they’re black, but then again drummer TJ is white so it can’t be that. Perhaps it was because they allow the listener enough time to breathe before another auditory flogging occurs. (I’m listening to Diaspora Problems now, and no, it can’t be that either; the whole album scares me.) More likely because they’re really talented, and I’m lucky to have had the opportunity to chat with them.

Before we get to the good stuff, let me introduce the band: There’s TJ, who you’ve already met. GG the guitarist and Pierce on vocals.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

High Times: How did you meet?

TJ: I met GG some time ago. I met GG about a decade ago.

GG: I met TJ at a show in New York City at 538 Johnson. And I met Pierce through tape stuff. Pierce actually booked my old band’s old show in Philadelphia.

pierce: People came in, came out. And basically both TJ’s time and GG’s time were just in the band. I was in this band from the beginning, but everyone else joined.

HT: So, how does a song start for you? What’s it like going into the studio?

pierce: It really depends. Usually someone comes up with an idea. The idea could be a complete song that is already finished. Or it just takes a few little spices from each of us. Or one of us just has some riffs and then we just play things, play the ideas over and over again, talk about how we want them to sound. Or, sometimes for the digital shit, GG just makes beats and sometimes I’m there and have ideas that GG will then turn into songs.

HT: Do you go in with a topic?

GG: Musically, no. I don’t believe.

TJ: Somehow that just happens a lot.

pierce: There were times when we asked each other, what’s this next shit supposed to sound like? With an album I thought I wanted this shit to sound like pain. And I feel this way

HT: I feel like there is some comedy in the music videos. How do you think that plays into the music itself?

TJ: I was just the subject of the music video. The music video was really a Pierce idea. I mean, it’s about playing up side issues in this band’s existence. Was my experience of joining the band as a drummer literally being shackled by a rope? No. But it was painful. I got a call and it was like do you want to play this festival with us in a week and I was so sure. And then we practiced the set every day for a week, and I figured I could play that somehow. And then I just had to do it. It sort of got me in shape.

Photo by Christopher Postlewaite

HT: What role does cannabis play in your music?

GG: Jesus Christ.

(Laugh)

TJ: So I mean you heard the beginning of the album right? I’ve been smoking weed every day for over a decade, so it plays into pretty much everything I do.

pierce: Like other people drink coffee, I think I smoke weed. Like other people smoke cigarettes, I smoke weed. It really helped me manage my anxiety and depression in a way that took me many years before I really discovered. Smoking weed for the first time as a teenager, I just didn’t know I could feel good. Little did I know I couldn’t maintain a constant monologue driven entirely by fear. And that’s really underestimated for someone like me. Obviously I want to be a more versatile person, so I have to find other things in life that do that for me too; and grass also helped me to see that. They are all, as GZA said, planets orbiting the same sun. The music, the weed and everything else I love are the things that bind me to this mortal shell.

GG: I smoked weed as a baby.

HT: As a baby?!

GG: To join this band, one of the requirements, well not a requirement, but I was asked before joining this band: do you smoke weed? And I said every day. Now I don’t do this every day due to a specific situation I was involved in, but I smoked weed last night and that shit was crazy.

HT: Do you smoke together, like in the studio?

pierce: We used to like a lot, a lot, a lot.

HT: What caused the change?

GG: For me I was arrested. So it was throwing me off a bit and I can’t do it all the time because I’m getting super anxious now.

HT: How do you feel about mass incarceration related to cannabis?

GG: It’s bullshit from the top.

TJ: Especially if you have places that are instituting legalization. That’s ridiculous. How can you get locked up for some shit that’s not even illegal anymore?

pierce: It’s like the Emancipation Proclamation came out and niggas were still slaves ’cause nobody told them. It’s like niggas really just stealing your life and not telling you.

Photo by Alyssa Rorke

HT: Why do you make music?

pierce: I really don’t feel like I’m that good at too much other shit, really. When that stuck for me as a kid, it stuck. I mean, the simple answer is because I can’t skate.

GG: My dad is a percussionist and he gave me drums as a gift because he thought it was a good idea and haha. He probably kicked himself in the ass a number of times for that, because I’ve evolved as an individual. It’s just something I held on to. Somebody left a guitar in my crib and I just picked it up and taught myself how to play it as a bass and then I was like, yo bro, there’s two more strings on it. Then, shortly after, I started teaching myself to play the guitar. I don’t know, I just felt like I should keep going because it made me feel good as I progressed with the instrument. And as time went on, I met cooler and cooler people, which gave me a sense of belonging.

TJ: My father got me into punk. It’s just something I’ve always been interested in and it’s something people have encouraged me to do.

HT: Hm. Do you come from a wealthy family? Punk music seems to be something that only wealthy parents would introduce their children to. I don’t know why I feel this way.

TJ: Not broke, but not particularly rich. I think it’s just because my dad is young compared to other people my age. [He’s] still in [his] I’m in my 50’s now and will be 30 next month. He was just into cool shit and it helped me. He just had this huge stack of CDs. It’s either that or go to the library. I would just take shit out of the library and burn it. My mother worked in a library.

pierce: Of course I also burned a lot of CDs. I was just talking to someone last night about hearing Metallica for the first time on a burned CD they made for me. On one side it was Ride the Lightning by Metallica, then Doomsday by Arch Enemy [Machine] on the other hand. I was listening to a lot of rock music during that time… I was in middle school so I was probably around 12, 13. My dad was also very interested in music but he mostly liked jazz fusion and a lot of weird pop. He doesn’t really listen to metal or anything like that; that was more my own personality. But I feel like he definitely put me on the path to listening to very, very energetic and busy music. He worked for the Census Bureau; My mother was in the military, so we were middle class. We could go on vacation, not every year. And it was always through timeshare.

HT: How would you say does the class influence the music and the bands that come out? Do you think if they come from wealthy parents they have a better chance of succeeding?

pierce: Yes, I think it can definitely make a difference. For example, my parents paid for my tuition for a good seven years. And that honestly led to me having a mentor that changed my life and the way I looked at music and everything. And GG most definitely didn’t have that experience. So I feel like it doesn’t matter, but it can also just help if it’s there.

GG: I feel like it depends on your interests. The resources can definitely help, but if you shit with what you’re doing, then you’ll do fine.

HT: How do you feel about categorizing black art? Like Afropunk for example. Or go to a bookstore and see the African American section.

pierce: So, Afropunk is a hell of a meaningless term. I feel like the conversation we need to have about Afropunk and just that term and the festival around it is longer than ten minutes will allow. [That term] doesn’t really represent what it was originally intended for. I don’t know, I just have to say that.

Photo by Christopher Postlewaite

HT: Life after death. Does it exist?

TJ: I have a feeling if you die you’re done. I think that’s all we have.

pierce: I feel like the afterlife could exist like energy is never destroyed but just type beat transmitted. Heaven is kind of a selfish idea to me. We’ve already gotten a chance at heaven here, and we’re screwing it up. But I think hell is real.

TJ: Damned.

(awkward laughter)

pierce: I think reincarnation is real. It could be real You go back in the ground, come out a whole new nigga

HT: If I like you, who else should I listen to?

GG: Have you ever heard :3lon?

pierce: This shit will change your life. Spelling, orthography. Mesuggah. cloud rat. El Alfa. Tokisha. Tupac. Dance with the Devil by Immortal Technique. I was alone in the middle of the night when I first heard the song. I heard that shit and I just looked at the computer screen and stared in silence after that shit played. What the hell did I just hear?!

HT: What do you think the future of music looks like?

GG: Spotify.

TJ: They’ll just start running software to make jingles and shit. It will be an AI world.

GG: We will be able to fall out of thin air with our thoughts.

pierce: I think everything is going to… genres will merge a lot more and I think black music will just be a single genre where artists are just doing different traditions at the same time within the same song.

HT: Will white people be able to make black music?

pierce: You already are.

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