ty for being the one to say this, because I was going to have to if not. let’s at least have the decency to respect the greats that came before by spelling their names right.
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A synthesizer is a work of art in itself; playing music on it feels almost vulgar.
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You ain’t getting rid of us that easy!
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Yep, same for me Octamed on the Amiga.
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I’ve had a few moments of this. In my experience, it is easier with other musicians, all operating at the limits of your experience and you often don’t realize until you’ve forgotten to swallow and notice your own drool on your guitar.
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Thinking about your questions this morning made me feel DEEPLY uncool. But since I’ve contributed too much to that big ol’ non-music chat these past few days, I feel obligated to weigh in here as well.
Vengaboys, PROZZAK, Aqua, and Eiffel 65 brought me to electronic music. I was probably eight or nine when I first heard that type of music on MuchMusic, and these bands were huge a few years later when I really started to care about music. I found “Blue,” “Strange Disease,” and “Boom Boom Boom Boom!!” particularly joyful, with the latter two feeling very adult compared to the Christian rock my family always played.
I didn’t stick with it for long: I got heavily into punk and metal through junior high, with nice little dashes of Aphex Twin and underground hip-hop thanks to a friend’s older cousin. Then in high school I made music my whole personality and dove deep into every genre I could stomach, snobbily turning up my nose at anything “unhip.”
But the seeds were sown. Now every time they play “Vengabus” at a wedding, I am helpless to drop what I’m doing and meet my wife on the dance floor. We’re actually going to see PROZZAK and the Vengaboys in Hamilton this month – apparently it will be seated-only, which I find hilarious.
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Can I just say I saw them live in Feb 1980, in a little Canadian town? Nice concert, didn’t think twice about it. Partner is mad jealous. Apparently they stopped touring in 1982.
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…nice one…really really nice one…
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Thank you
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Until 2017 I was a pretty hardcore punk/hardcore guy. I had a screamo/noise rock band, we toured, recorded albums, and I basically never looked towards synthesizers or electronic music. I was, however, very interested in recording and sound itself.
In 2017 I went to Berlin to see one of my favourite post-hardcore bands, Quicksand. I ended up breaking my arm in the mosh pit, so in a way Berlin completely changed my life, haha.
When I got back home, my arm was put in a cast, but I still really wanted to make music, as I always had. So I started learning synthesizers. A couple of months later I already had my first electronic project, with female vocals.
A lot of years have passed since then, and somehow I don’t even own a guitar anymore, haha.
My main ambition is simply to release music and have as many people as possible hear it.
At the same time, I know that whether people like my music or not isn’t going to stop me from making it. I’m going to keep doing it anyway. But of course it’s really nice when someone tells you that your music means something to them or sends you a few warm words about it.
I also play live quite rarely, and I’d really like to do it more often — actual live sets, not DJ sets.
In the longer term, I’d love to start releasing consistently on vinyl and become at least somewhat recognizable as a musician within my niche. I live in Russia, though, so this can be a little complicated.
From the very beginning, some of my biggest influences were early industrial music and especially the NDW scene.
In a way, Mark Reeder’s film B-Movie: Lust & Sound in West-Berlin changed my life. There was something about that whole atmosphere that really stayed with me.
These days, some of my strongest influences are probably Surgeon and Karenn when it comes to the heavier side of things, and labels like Act ing Press, SUED and Acido when it comes to melody, space and a more subtle approach to electronic music.
I think all of these influences somehow end up in the way I approach sound — not necessarily as direct references, but more as a kind of musical language that I’ve absorbed over the years.
I’ll be 44, so hopefully by then all the wars will be over and I’ll be able to play in different countries, at small and intimate events, and make as much music as possible with like-minded people.
That’s honestly enough of a plan for me.
I work as a nurse in a hospice, and I have pretty brutal 12–16 hour shifts. But because I’m completely obsessed with music, I still find time even during those shifts to sit down with a tracker on my TrimUI Brick and work on ideas.
When I have days off, I spend basically all of them in the studio or at home working on new material.
I don’t drink and I’m not really into partying, so I rarely go to events and my networking skills are basically zero, haha. I’m also terrible at dancing and quite shy about it.
So I guess I spend most of my free time making music.
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Shame on me for spelling his name wrong. 
I know they liked each other. It was meant metaphorically.
Jimi Hendrix did stuff with the electric guitar that nobody did before. So in a way it sounds like a big STFU to other players.
You’re absolutely right. I actually feel quite stupid. I love Jimi Hendrix and have a little picture of him in my room. Haven’t written his name a lot though.
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Exposure to local synthesizer group in San Diego drew me to get into music production. I had always liked old electronic music like Tangerine Dream for example. Ambition- to share positive uplifting messages to world as a stage through my music. Ten years- hope to retire and jam with other musicians across the world. I do it on weekends mostly due to busy IT day job. Influences- Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode, NIN, so many old bands who pioneered the use of synthesizers with live instruments and technology. I do not want to copy them but they do serve as inspiration.
@TheWrongMfkr on this I agree- my Virus TI2 is my workhorse such an amazing synth. I was fortunate to buy last year of new production. As much as I love my Waldorf M, the Virus still beats it feature wise.
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I was a teenager in the very late eighties early nineties, I wanted to keyboard so badly but instead I was given a guitar, started a band with by best mates - cut to the early 2000s and the band was finally taking off - but then it didn’t and I had my first child, and bought a sampler - cut to early 2010 and we gave the band another go, shelved the sampler - cut to 2015 and its all over, we’re done being in a band, and I have three kids now and on the second wife, so I make solo album (which my first wife says defames her so I feel I have to abandon it) - cut to lockdown, four kids now, and I find the old sampler and buy a cheap synth to go with it…uh-oh…here comes the obsession…now its 2026 and I have been down almost every hardware synth rabbit hole except for modular and there are five kids
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Q. Like what brought you to electronic music?
A. Reading Keyboard and Electronic Musician magazines in the 80’s. Once saw a salesman demo an organ at the organ store in the mall and was very impressed that it could do flute sounds. Then someone at the music shop in town demoed the Ensoniq Mirage for me and my mind was blown.
I actually initially hated the mid-80’s switch to thin-sounding digital synths with their two-line screen and endless menu diving, and preferred the analog synths sounds you’d hear from bands like Styx and Rush. Eventually I came around, but it took me a while. Still, in my studio the two prominent synths I have are the OB-X8 and the REV2.
Q. What are your ambitions as a musician?
A. To make music that people like and that I also like making. It’s a dialog that involves the discovery of where I can offer something unique that also has appeal.
Q. What are your influences, how do they inform your practice?
A. My influences are far and wide: Mozart, Grieg, Bach, Brahms, Max Bruch, Chopin, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis. So many different eras and genres. I’d really like to become more learned about traditional music and instruments from around the world (the actual original stuff).
Q. Where do you see your music 10 years from now?
A. Well hopefully I’ll have honed things down enough to where I can complete a concept album. Maybe have an accompanying film with some video or stop motion or something.
Q. How do you find time for music making (if it’s not already your main occupation)?
A. The moment I start messing with a sequencer, synth or a VST and get an idea, I won’t stop until I’ve realized the idea to at least a proof-of-concept. The whole thing of writer’s block or “I just don’t feel inspired anymore” and all that is just not a thing for me. I try not to work on anything for more than a couple of days, then move on to the next thing. If it becomes more than a two day thing, then the thing would have evolved so much it sounds nothing like what I started with. If it’s a choice of watching TV or working through the idea, then the idea usually wins.
Q. I’ll even entertain a bit of psytrance chat…
A. I’m always looking for new inspiration, doesn’t matter if it’s just a squeaky door, a loud bird, or the construction work going on across the street
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I was joking my fried! It’s all good. Jimi was/is amazing! Both revolutionary!
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Yeah shoutout to Jimi Hendrix he’s the original electronic musician! All points lead back to him in my opinion. He truly used electricity as his instrument. And as for synths, Bernie Worrell is that guy. Both of those cats were from different dimensions and are your favorite artists favorite artist
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I will take this opportunity to admit that one of the biggest influences for me getting into playing music was… the 1996 Tom Hanks film “That Thing You Do.”
It’s not a particularly great movie but it depicts the rise and fall of a one-hit-wonder band, with the drummer being the main character. Something about that movie made me feel like there’s nothing better in this world than playing drums in a band.
I started constructing little drum sets out of things around my house, like using an empty milk jug as a drum or hanging an upturned wastebasket on the end of a broomstick as a cymbal. Eventually my parents got me into drum lessons and later I got a real kit to play on (I’m eternally thankful for their support).
But yeah, a silly Tom Hanks movie gave me a push and I’m still riding the momentum today. Life is weird, music is the best.
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he put the wah and fuzz pedal on the map!
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That Thing You Do was great! My mom (rip 🩷) used to say that her favorite scene from any movie was the one where they hear their song on the radio for the first time and everybody freaks out. Also iirc they had like a contest for songwriters to write the big song for the movie and the guy from fountains of Wayne won, which i was stoked on because i loved their album Utopia Parkway. I remember trying to figure out the chords to That Thing You Do as a teenager tho and being like “this is too many chords”
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Your mom picked such a great favorite scene! Sounds like she knew a thing or two about movies 
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