Teardrop Estates Featuring Frank Leone & Gary Wilson Release "Scary Gary"
"Scary Gary", a collaborative Teardrop Estates track featuring Frank Leone and Gary Wilson, has arrived just in time for Halloween. It's no secret that Gary Wilson is a huge inspiration to the WMF universe, so the track caught our interest. And while Chicago artist Frank Leone is new to us, the man behind the Teardrop Estates moniker is Ross Harris, who is a crucial figure in the ongoing Gary Wilson narrative.
Experimental music trainspotters may already be aware that Ross Harris is not only the the former child actor who played opposite Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the famous Airplane! cockpit scene and member of 90s electronic/exotica band Sukia, but also the Beck photographic collaborator who introduced Beck to Gary's music during the Odelay era. In 1996, Beck famously name-checked Mr. Wilson in "Where It's At" with the line "Passing the dutchie from coast to coast/Let the man Gary Wilson rock the most", introducing the underground legend to a new legion of fans around the world.
We spoke with Gary about "Scary Gary" and his connection to Ross:
"He's part of my resurrection. The first show we played together was at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood, when that used to be there. Then we did a big Stones Throw show where Ross had to rescue me - the doorman didn't like my appearance or something, and wouldn't let me in the El Rey Theatre, so Ross came out and sneaked me in. We did a couple other shows together, and on one [of those], Ariel Pink was on bass, and Ross was supplying synthesizer noises.
Recently, Ross contacted me about working on "Scary Gary", and I thought it was a cute song. It's always good to have Ross around."
Harris describes "Scary Gary" as "a spooky, moody Halloween tune", and adds that that it's "an interesting project, seeing the generations involved. Frank is 21, I'm 48, and Gary is timeless. The song was inspired by Gary, and I asked him to jump on the track. [I'm] very excited that he did."
The video for "Scary Gary" will quite appropriately be released on All Hallows Eve.
