Glassjaw's Daryl Palumbo: From New York Hardcore to House Music

The acute, aggressive clangor of Glassjaw has been a cornerstone of the post-hardcore punk movement since the band formed in New York City over twenty years ago. Glassjaw's 2001 album Worship and Tribute is considered a masterpiece of the genre, infusing elements of jazz and ambient amidst the ear-shattering guitar work and tortured vocals of frontman Daryl Palumbo. The diminutive, but fierce singer's twisted croon and blitzkreig screams atop guitarist Justin Beck's cascading walls of noise are still as jarringly salient now as they were over a decade ago.

In 2004, Palumbo pirouetted into one of the biggest musical switch-ups in recent memory, debuting his Head Automatica project – a slick, guitar-driven pop band that championed 80s alt-pop like Squeeze as a main influence. Although they were an instant success thanks to the immediately palatable "Beating Heart Baby," for many who knew Daryl as the angsty face of art-rock, the about-face was a non sequitur.

Palumbo's slippery musical identity only deepened as he spent the turn of the decade flitting between a Glassjaw comeback, recording with Cold Cave, launching his Color Film project, and most interestingly, quietly releasing house music remixes and DJing around his native New York City.

"Over the years, there have been kids who are just perplexed," laughs Palumbo about his musical trajectory from his studio in New York. "But I'll be 36 in a few days, and, at this point, music is just music. Every five hours, I feel like that different dude. I'm not acting it outwardly, but in my head I'm, y'know, walking around, high on coffee, humming a fucking clubby electronic tune. And then after dinner I'm into some Black Flag record or a Capitalist Casualties record."

It's rare to find anyone who exhibits Palumbo's range even within the confines of dance. There are no house/gabber/dubstep producers, for example. But to exercise that variability out of the often all-consuming culture of straight edge hardcore is even more remarkable. "Hardcore and metal are very unique in that when you're into that, you're in to that," says Palumbo. "Heavy music is so passionate. It touches you very deeply. Hardcore kids see music and they see art with this narrow view. I can't say I why they're like that. I see art and music with blinders, too, but I guess I just let a couple other elements slip in."

Palumbo's unique journey makes a little more sense if you understand his background. "Glassjaw and New York hardcore, y'know, pretentious screaming-art-indie-rock – that was taking up a lot of my headspace in the 1990s," he begins. "But I was obsessed with rap and I was big on new wave and punk rock and metal. Even De La Soul, Public Enemy, being from Long Island, was pretty life changing. I remember having my mind blown and just wanting to make beats."

"On the electronic end – I really enjoyed it in the 90s, but it wasn't so much in my face," Palumbo goes on. "I think, being young and never doing any sort of drug, you can't really wrap your head around that sort of repetition. But by '98, '99, I started listening to Cassius, Dmitri from Paris, that over-the-top, glammy, runway house. It hit me because it was very sample based, just like hip hop. I was really getting into production and began to connect the dots between the sounds. It was the first type of funky, club shit that really got to me: filter house, MPC, loop house, that whole sound. I could understand it. I just got it."

Despite all the twists and turns, there's no high falutin' philosophy behind Palumbo's musical progression. His explanation is simple. "I just like making tunes. I just have to do it," he says. "And I like mimicking shit I hear. If I hear a song and I'm totally blown away by it, I just love to deconstruct it and emulate. Production, I just love it."

Palumbo's still-evident thirst for musical knowledge was nurtured both on the culturally active streets of Long Island and somewhere much less anecdotally sexy: Infotrac. "When I was little, like 10, I'd walk to the library and type in Anthrax or Pink Floyd on one of those old machines to see what would come up," he says. "I'd write down the number of the magazine, hand it to the librarian, and they'd see if they had the fuckin' Rolling Stone from January 1978. The little that I got to learn was definitive, though. If I had had Wikipedia or YouTube, I'd never have left the house!"

That fans and musicians alike in this generation have readier access to information is a double edged sword. "People are definitely more open minded than they were fifteen years ago," says Palumbo. "I think that's a product of the internet, and it's or better or for worse. Kids don't have to work as hard now for their information. It kind of perverts the concept of hunting for the niche that talks to you." Or, If we're talking the case of Daryl Palumbo, it's the niche or two or three that talk to you.

Check this epic 29 track playlist Daryl put together that charts his musical influences from start to finish:

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Jemayel Khawaja is Managing Editor of THUMP - @JemayelK