Do you remember the first time you thought about recording music?
I don't remember thinking about it — I just remember it happening. We were stationed in Germany, the Army. I was probably around six or seven. My dad played in a couple of bands — one was a more traditional orchestra where he played bass clarinet. The other was more of a show band, meaning they had things like electric guitars and drum sets. The Panasonic Cassette-Corder, or whatever it was called, was pretty much a staple in my life at that point. Someone had to record my dad's shows. When I had it I'd sit next to the drummer. I think we made a lot of tapes for my grandma who lived in NYC. There was an [Pioneer] RT- 707 reel-to-reel that I started using around then too. My dad said there was a way to do sound-on-sound recording... he would overdub and harmonize with himself. I didn't understand it for a long time, but once I did things got interesting.
So how did you first come to start playing in bands yourself?
My dad had a collection of reed instruments, recorders, French horn, a tuba (which eventually got traded for a Volvo) and a trombone. We also had a Wurlitzer electric piano which is still around — a wooden console version. I think I also conned them into buying me a $25 guitar — a Kingston I think — which I'd figured out how to play through one of our junk stereos lying around. Flash forward about five years, and I'd begged my folks to get me a synth. I really wanted a Jupiter 8 like Nick Rhodes had, but I got a [Korg] DW6000, which served me well for a long time. Joining a band was something I found to be heartbreakingly hard to do. I've always just been a basement hacker and didn't really relate to people on that level, until I moved to Boston and hung out in a different scene than the insular DC punk scene. I later found out that forming a band was more about hanging out with your friends than "starting a band."
What were you recording on then?
From like '85 to '89 I was recording to cassette and reel- to-reel. I got a Yamaha 4-track in '89 and went mad in the basement pretty much until midway through college. It's funny to think that even back in '90, the DAT was this pretty spectacular advancement — CD burners weren't really around at all. And recording to computer was totally a novelty.
How did you first come to record other people's music?
