names
Ted E. Gray, Natty Ted, DJ Gray, Ted the Head, SoundMaster

age
34

plays
Bass, Samples, Guitar, Melodica

dragking history
I actually was not one of original members of DragKing. I joined the band after it had been together for about six months. Stel, Sluggo, and I had been in a band together about two years before that called Speed Scat. Speed Scat broke up when it's lead singer Carla Bruce left to go hang out in Paris. While the band broke up we all still talked to each other. Stel and Sluggo formed DragKing with Barrett and LV in the winter of 89/90. I was doing solo stuff on my 4-track at the time. Experimenting with sound collages. I was getting into making tapes with Albert Ayler on one track, Richard Nixon speeches backwords on another track, Metal Machine Music slowed down on another, and Haunted House sound effects on the last one. It turns out that Stel didn't want me in the band because he didn't like the way I played guitar in Speed Scat. We talked at one point and I told him about the tapes I was making. We started talking about it and decided that it might be cool to add the samples into the sound of DragKing. I was into it and started going to the DragKing practices. I can still remember those first practices well. I remember not being able to even hear songs per say... every song seemed like a wall of noise/sound. I cranked up my samples and added them to the mix. It was horrible and beautiful.

Eventually I became a full fledged member of the band doing my sampling thing on my 4-track. Even though I wasn't involved in any of the songwriting at this early stage my samples were starting to make an impact on some of the songs. Jazz Monster was an interesting case. Because it was called "Jazz Monster" I thought it would be cool to use some free jazz samples over the music. I made a tape that had some Albert Ayler stuff on one track and Sun Ra on another. Mixed in with the band the samples sounded fantastic. In fact the sound of the saxes belching and wailing over the music sounded so good that it was decided that we should check out what it would sound like with a live sax going instead of the samples. We enlisted the help of our friend a.p. harris and the rest is history. a.p. ended up playing with DragKing for almost 7 years.

At some point my role in the band started to change. First of all Barrett left the band. Then at around the time when we were finishing up recording "Kill Yr Boss", Stel was getting increasingly busy with his job. We were working on a set for our live show and at one point Sluggo was working on a new song. Stel wasn't able to make it that particular night so I filled in on bass for him. I ended up coming up with a great bassline for the song we were working on. When Stel was able to make it to practice next we decided to just have him play along on bass as well. It sounded great. I ended up playing on more and more cuts on both bass and guitar. My role ended up as a multi-instrumentalist. I would listen to each new DragKing song and decide how I could best enhance the song. By playing bass, guitar, samples, or doing nothing at all. It was fun! As time has gone by I've become more and more involved in the songwriting as well. At this point it's mainly Sluggo and I who come up with the basic structures and ideas for most of the new DragKing material. On Indie Authenticity Crisis I am responsible for creating the initial ideas for about half the songs.

other band experience
My first band after graduating from college was called B.A.S.S. or the Black Ash Sound System. I was convinced that we were going to be huge! We played one live show at Batteries Not Included and released several self produced tapes. When that band broke up I helped form SpeedScat with Stel. SpeedScat was short lived and never played one live show. We recorded a tape of our "songs". At some point we should release those tapes. SpeedScat also included Carla Bruce who later went on to fame and fortune with Sabalon Glitz, and James Wardon who would later help form Stamen, 40K, and appeared on the first Directions in Music album with Bundy K. Brown. Once SpeedScat broke up I did things on my own for awhile and also formed a band with the young Jamie Hodge called The Noise Factory. Jamie has since gone onto to be a part of Conjoint and Born Under a Rhyming Planet. When Jamie went off to college The Noise Factory become defunkt. I joined DragKing at that point.

fave groups/influences
Lee Perry
Adrian Sherwood/On U Sound
The Flying Luttenbachers
60's Studio One
The Fall
The Swell Maps
TBW!
The Mothers of Invention
King Tubby
The Velvet Underground
Richard Hell
The Scissor Girls
Slint
Curtis Mayfield
Brian Eno
Gastr del Sol
Love
African Music
The Nonesuch Explorer Series
William Burroughs

current listening material
Amon Duul - "Psychadelic Underground"
Bounty Killer - "My Xperience"
Curtis Mayfield - "Live!"
Yabby You - "Jesus Dread 1972-1977"
Christian Marclay - "Records"

fave books
Thomas Pynchon - "Gravity's Rainbow"
The Rough Guide to Reggae
Legs McNeil - "Please Kill Me"

fave tv
Chic A Go-Go
Baseball games
South Park
old movies on A&E

first record bought
The Jackson 5's Greatest Hits

fave live show ever
King Crimson at Mandel Hall at the University of Chicago. 80 or 81 I think? It was right after Discipline came out.

day job
Warehouse manager and computer buyer.

dk body politic
I am the asshole of the band.

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