Tracking Back: Telemachus
Every Thursday we delve into the lives of our favourite artists and discover what shaped their sound. Tracking Back takes us back as far as our memory will allow us and digs out the music from our childhood, growing up influences and some guilty pleasures along the way. All of which help build the music you hear today.
This time we visit Telemachus’ (Chemo’s) childhood…
1. What is your earliest memory of music as a child? We’re talking nursery rhyme early.
Peter and the Wolf was on heavy rotation, it’s a piece of music that tells a children’s story about a young Soviet pioneer and a hungry wolf. It’s a true epic.
2. What music were your parents/guardians into? What was played around the house growing up?
My dad was into stuff like Van Morrison and Talking Heads and my mum was more into classical music, but we had a few cassettes that were crowd pleasers, Simon and Garfunkel have about 30 stone cold bangers, and the Prince ‘Batman’ soundtrack (even though its pretty weird) got alot of spins. I was obsessed with this Orange Led Zeppelin cassete that we had, it had the track ‘Kashmir’ where they fuse Indian classical music into classic Rock. That was a big influence!
3. Did you have any tapes or records bought for you?
I think (like everyone who doesnt lie) that the first music that I owned was a ‘NOW thats what I call music’ compilation. Just looking through Wikipedia to try and isolate which exact tape pack I had... OK I believe Now 26 in 1993 is the golden nugget. So many bangers, we are talking... UB40, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Jazzy Jeff and Fresh Prince, Haddaway, Chaka Demus & Pliers, Radiohead, Meatloaf, Apache Indian... Too many anthems. Possibly the golden age of music?
4. What is the first music video you can remember?
I was always against music videos. Maybe because my folks refused to succumb to the allure of cable TV so I was never really exposed to MTV or THE BOX and I always just saw them as a gimmick. Nowadays I can see that they can add interpretation and value. Or actually maybe they are still a gimmick? I’ll let the reader decide
6. What music were you into in the early days at school? Were your friends into the same thing?
I think I first fell in love with Jungle music tbh, General Levy Incredible was like nothing I had ever heard before. The raw drum energy and the fusion between the Caribbean and british sound was mindblowing. I wasnt even sure if there were other tracks that sounded like it but the die was cast and I was hungry for more.
7. As a teenager did this change?
I think around 1997/98 when I was 13 I started listening to 279 on Choice FM and the Tim Westwood rap show on Radio 1. I was diligently making my own recordings off the radio and one song that piqued my interest was ‘Stop Being Greedy’ by DMX, a dark and angry vocal over a haunting organ loop. This song stood out hugely from the other tracks being played and I wanted to know more. Unfortunately I missed out on the name of the artist so I pencilled down ‘Stop Be Greedy - Bone Thugs and Harmony’ as I assumed that a song as grimy as this could only have been made by a group called ‘Bone Thugs’. A week later at Our Price in Streatham I am listening to the BTNH albums and wondering.. Why are they singing? This is not what I imagined them to sound like...
8. Did you play an instrument at school and can you still play it?
At school I wasnt allowed to play the drums as a punishment for misbehaviour. Ideally I would now be an elite drummer like Yusef Hayes so i could say ‘look at me now bitches!’ but that didnt happen so I did the next best thing which is to become really adept at sampling other peoples drums.
9. Give us a fond memory of one track at high school/college. Any house parties, road trips, holidays...
At my secondary school there was a bit of a divide between the garage crew and the hiphop boys, with the hiphop boys definitely being in the minority, and the garage boys quite possibly getting more girls... One particularly dumb memory I have took place in the common room where we had a pool table (winner stays on) and a CD player (which we could fight over). At the time I saw myself as a peculiar kind of anti-garage crusader, so during an afternoon break I decided to take over the CD system and in a revolutionary act - run the garage compilation CD face down across the brick wall, in effect destroying it for good. Silence echoed throughout and as I dropped the CD to the floor I felt a warm fist and a golden sovereign crunch into my jaw. This was the way of a martyr I thought. Although actually I love Garage now.
12. After discovering rap, which artists did you listen to the most?
After discovering the true author of Stop Being Greedy I quickly realised that the rest of DMX’s output was produced by Swizz Beats, so I moved on quickly to Mobb Deep who are definitely my most formative influence. There was something about the Queensbridge sound that just spoke to me, other artists such as CNN, Nas, Onyx and Tragedy Khadafi became my entire musical world. Enjoying the escapism of tales from the american projects but also seeking something more relatable I gradually started listening to more British rap voices.
13. What made you pick up a pen and start writing bars, or what gave you the confidence to start to compose music yourself?
I’ve been messing around recording stuff off the radio since I was in primary school and that messing around and playing gradually became sampling and then looping, and then chopping, and gradually building up techniques and skills and now suddenly I am composing feature film soundtracks from scratch. Still learning new shit every day, and still using trial and error as my main weapon, just now I have some very good tools.
14. Would you say your sound today carries influences from your childhood?
Undoubtedly yes. The breadth of influences that I have is probably my strongest attribute as a musician. I mentioned Peter and the Wolf earlier, and my new album as Telemachus entitled ‘Boring and Weird Historical Music’ has a similar idea in that the album itself tells a clear narrated story, a moral parable about the perils of greed. The music guides you along the road and hopefully provides the listener with a unique experience.
15. Do you have any idols in music? Have you met any?
Yes I do, but I definitely dont want to meet them. Music is for listening to, not chatting about...
16. Finally let’s end on an embarrassing question. What is your guilty pleasure today in modern music?
I just cant stop listening to UK Drill. I know its bad for me but much like chocolate digestives, I just cant stop myself. I am a big fan of the rhythmic element of the production. Some of the lyrics are so nihilistic and depressing, but equally some of the lyrics are incredibly creative and clever.
The new album titled ‘Boring & Weird Historical Music’ will be out this Friday 22nd May on High Focus Records, make sure you preorder your copy here.
Check out more artists on the Tracking Back series: