It’s not so much a GAS thing for me. Or maybe it is, and I just don’t see it like that. But almost every instrument I’ve owned at one time or another, has been a positive experience for me. I’ve enjoyed working with them, playing with them, composing on them. The Electribe’s funky groove and flexibility, the grit of the Tempest and the amazing swing of its sequencer, the punch of the Tanzbär, the endless depths of the Octatrack, the genius workflow of the Circuit and the warmth of the Analog Rytm, that almost reminds me of the summer nights up north.
I enjoy them all and I do get shit done on them. But with little time to spare for music, and an ambition for coherence that might lead me to a body of work which might earn me proper gigs and even an album or two of modest success, I have to discipline myself, and find that balance between where my skills are, what I enjoy and what’s realistic, given my circumstances.
I’ve learned that my skills lie in playing and composing. I can’t mix or master, I struggle with gain staging, I don’t know how a compressor really works or how to work an EQ. And I won’t even try. If I got a good track, someone can help me with those bits.
I’ve learned that I enjoy just to play and to write music with immediacy, probably from my roots as a piano player. I don’t mind complex instruments, but they don’t fit my life situation. By complex, I mean beasts such as the Tempest or the Analog Four. By immediate, I’m refering to kits like the Circuit or the Volcas, and hopefully now the DigiTakt. But the raw experience of just playing led me to the Sub37. It all began with the keys for me. That’s what the Moog stands for.
And what’s realistic, is a small rig that in its limitations, defines very much the space in where I can work. I don’t have much time, I have three kids, I work a lot and my wife’s not well. But giving up music is not an option. The rig needs to talk to me with the same immediacy as a piano does, and it needs to be as enjoyable as just that experience of letting your fingers flow over an instrument and see where the subconscious takes you.
So that’s where I’m at with all this. Took me awhile to get there, but I’m in the right place now.
