Dec 10, 2017
This is the last podcast supporting our Kickstarter campaign for a new recording chain. The campaign runs through December 11th - please help out the podcast:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/823319547/mic-pre-update-for-art-music-technology
Paul Birken's name has come up in a few previous podcasts - he was one of the people pushing the techno envelope in the widespread and influential Midwest techno scene. He's still working his ass off; according to him, music remains an 'everyday practice' for him. And his output would back that up, between the massive amount of work available on his Bandcamp site and all of the live tracks he has on the Tonewrecker Soundcloud site, he remains one of the hardest working guys in electronic music.
But the interesting thing is that he balances this all with a job and a family - he's been vocal about not needing (or even necessarily wanting) to be a full-time musician. How can this be? Well, he's got some unique insights about musicianship that are quite interesting and inspiring, and I'll have to say that I now have a broader vision of what a creative life can look like.
We also took the chance to stroll down Vintage Gear Lane, covering everything from old Kawai sequencers to Sequential Circuits samples. And how you travel to gigs when you are hardware focused. And how you don't take crazily-valuable vintage gear on the road. The reality of life for a techno performan (not DJ) means some compromise - while still maintaining a purity of purpose.
Enjoy!