Maxwell:
The mid and late 70s were terrible for music, in my estimation. The top of the charts were dominated by disco, and redneck rock and this terrible pop music pap like Seals & Croft, Peter Frampton, Fleetwood Mac and America... Even the Bee Gees had gone disco. Debbie Boone had the biggest hit of 1977. It was a horrible period. The I heard Elvis Costello's first single. and heard Talking Heads music. And saw the Ramones live. So I called Cris and I said, "Hey, it's safe to come back out, now."

Bontos:
I was excited about it, because what I had been doing wasn't very satisfying. I was playing music, but not my own stuff. Gary Thompson and I had a typical bar band, you know, playing some hits of the day and some oldies we liked. It was okay, but nothing special. When Butch contacted me and said he was going to come back and finish school, I thought, "Great. We can write songs again. We can put a band together."

Maxwell:
We always understood each other. I've never worked with another partner in any creative project that just worked so smoothly. Even across the miles, we would share musical ideas with each other and say, "Damn - I want to be a part of that." Well, I had two and a half years of undergraduate work to complete - and I thought that would be enough time to see if we could put something together that would be successful.

Bontos:
The ideas just poured out of us when we got together.

So far, they are secluded in Gary Thompson's basement in St. Clairsville, Ohio, where they are rehearsing and planning to play live. They especially hope to record, even if they have to pay for it themselves. And they will. I, Deborah Delicious, may break open my piggy bank to help the cause.

The blend of is, well, interesting. The can all agree upon loving the Beatles. But who doesn't? But from there, the influences vary wildly. Gary is primarily inspired by Ted Nugent and his ilk, Frank is an easy-going Eagles kind of guy, Chris is more inspired by the Rolling Stones, while Butch is pushing a new wave sound, like Elvis Costello, Talking Heads and the Ramones.
~ Deborah Delicious, 1/15/79

Maxwell:
We recognized our differences as potential strengths.

Bontos:
Until it drove us all crazy.

Bontos and Maxwell began pulling out a number of older songs they had written together, and writing more. Gary Thompson came up with one original, “Got to Get Away” and later he wrote a song called “Dream On.” Meanwhile, Bontos and Maxwell moved beyond the simpler three-chord straightforward composition style they had used in the early 70s, and now came up with more interesting rhythms and themes. One such song was “Lost Fortune and Fame,” which had an unusual edge untraceable to the Beatles and Stones roots of their early works. Others followed - "Ain't It a Shame" and "Good Guys Always Won" - which would also endure as mainstays of Teaser's set in years to come.

Bontos:
We used to rehearse in Gary's basement, and Butch had a little cassette recorder that he used to record the sessions - just in case anything interesting came up.

Maxwell:
Chris and I were listening to a playback in his car one day, and in the middle of some jam, Chris started playing this arpeggio guitar lick while I was playing an octave counterpoint. It was in the same key, but it was a counterpoint. It sounded robotic - futuristic.

Bontos:
It was weird. We both looked at each other and said, "That's it!" at exactly the same time.

That germinal idea was fashioned into a song in the next rehearsal session. With Gary's guitar echoing Butch's bass line (but playing the octave in opposite order), and Frank's kick drum affecting a heartbeat, it was an unusual configuration of mechanical and organic. The song became Teaser's signature: "Welcome to the Future."