"I just want you to take it..."
I had a kind of awful day today. One of those kinds of days full of frustrations that were totally self inflicted. I got caught up in someone else's artful misdirection (trying to be vague) and didn't listen to the voice inside my head. The outcome (trying to be more vague) is that tomorrow I will miss a very special event. I was so pissed at myself earlier, then 'generally' pissed and now I lay here just comfortably sad.
It is a pretty perfect time to listen to "Take It" by Glass Taxi. I mean, it sounds melancholy but is endearingly sweet. It sounds whimsical with fluttering piano sprints and lovely electric chamber pop ascensions. The girl / boy vox feel like a lover's duet sung shyly back to back or maybe a friend's duet shoulder to shoulder or maybe one that wants to be the other. The melodies stir like a teacher addressing lovely little kids and sucking up the stars in their eyes. Glass Taxi are Matt Norris and Melissa Burgess who have been friends since high school. Melissa was a portrait painter and a classically-trained pianist in Atlanta. Matt played in various bands in the same city, a permanent fixture in the scene but In 2015 he sold all his possessions (except musical instruments) and left the States, living in Berlin, Krakow, Taichung, and London, before settling in Poznan, Poland. Fate (and a love for creating, for songwriting and more) brought Melissa and Matt together again (in 2020) as they found themselves having a musical long distance affair collaborating on their sonic art as Glass Taxi was born.
About "Take It", they share:
"In life, we find ourselves tugged about by promises. We’re all waiting on something, sometimes. We’re all hoping that words spoken — by officials, advertisers, media, friends & lovers — play out in their actions. We all occasionally find ourselves at the edges of our seat, yearning for the thing suggested to be true — To put our guards down. To be surprised. To be taken."
Emotions and artistry distilled into something that will live forever is magical. As I lay on the couch wrapped up in a thick blanket with my laptop balancing against my knees it is Glass Taxi that is really keeping me warm. Any tears that dare come out of my tear ducts retreated down and I swallowed them. I am comfortably sad listening to "Take It" and bathed in the pure beauty of this song I realize that while nothing is perfect, everything is going to be ok.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
https://www.instagram.com/glasstaxi/
https://open.spotify.com/track/3NFeQQ7HsVsyO1Vgm0vG7A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chXAHCqgkNg
Songwriting, for us, has been inspired by time living & traveling abroad. Our music listening went from a deliberate pressing of “play” to a matter of complete happenstance — catching songs in transport vans, shops, and on the street. Factors of language and catchiness come to bear in how pop music sticks, and unmoored from our usual contexts we began to delight in the randomness of transmission; this playlist built from complete chance. Each of the songs we release this year will ultimately play through that filter: Eschewing a dominant sound that impacts every track, for something more curated & exploratory. Something that translates in the immediate.
“We want to build a Wunderkammer of songs and sounds. A Wunderkammer is a cabinet for curiosities, a place to collect otherwise unrelated fascinations, a catalog of wonders. The point is simply to follow our most intense musical obsessions ruthlessly.”
Friends since high school, Matt Norris and Melissa Burgess started sending songs back and forth during 2020. Melissa was a portrait painter in Atlanta when she began collaborating with Matt long-distance, pulling from her love of songwriting and art, as well as her experience as a classically-trained pianist. Matt was a fixture in the Atlanta music scene, playing in groups across genres and opening for bands as varied as Deerhunter, Mugison, and, randomly, Mumford & Sons. In 2015 he sold all his possessions (except musical instruments) and left the States, living in Berlin, Krakow, Taichung, and London, before settling in Poznan, Poland.
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We get by with a little help from our friends
Glass Taxi, Dream Pop, indie pop, divergent pop, pure sounds, Poland, Atlanta, long distance relationship, classically trained, "Take It", chamber pop,
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