ghoti@phranq.com

Unlike a lot of techno musicians, recording bleeps, bumps and screeches was not my unalterable destiny. It was not in my blood, as it were. My mother did not listen to Kraftwerk when I was in the womb. I didn't grow up in Detroit or Berlin. Oh, how I wish that my inspiration came from discovering a dusty crate of funk and soul records in my attic as a child, but alas... The music I listened to before getting into Techno wasn't cool -- some weird people at my high school listened to Nitzer Ebb and Skinny Puppy, but I was not one of them. I was more of a prog-rock, 70's art-rock enthusiast. Rush, King Crimson, Yes, Genesis, ELP, Jethro Tull -- if you could do air-instruments to it, I liked it. I played the guitar, created seventeen-minute rock opuses, planned concept albums, etc...

Then some friends dragged me out to a rave. It was 1993, the bras were furry, the hats were "Cat in the", and everyone was ridiculously friendly. The music was infectious; I didn't want to like it, but I did. Within a year, I had sold most of my guitars and my big loud amp, and had started building a decent studio for making techno. At its apex, probably in about 1997 or so, my studio took up the better part of my bedroom -- TR-909, TR-808, TR-707, SH-101, MC-202, to name my Roland gear alone. I made lots and lots of tracks. I never really did anything with the tracks, mostly because for me the fun was the creative process; everything else was a pain in the ass. But as luck would have it my friend Pete started his own label, Woodwork Recordings, and asked me I would like to do a release. It doesn't get any easier than that! So, in 1999 the sixth Woodwork release was "Iron Lung" by yours truly. Unfortunately Woodwork is now defunct, but 6 years later you can still find Iron Lung if you look hard enough.

Techno-oblivious to techno-evangelist in the span of a few years!

In the studio, I have trimmed down quite a bit. I still own the hardware, but most of it is tucked away in a closet or the basement. My prized possession, the Nord Modular, still occupies some prime desk real estate but I am rarely if ever at that desk anymore. Instead I prefer the compactness of a laptop and headphones these days.