Vicmod continues its excellent series of interviews with synth gear designers with a talk with Harvestman’s Scott Yaeger. 

In the interview, Yaeger discusses the ideas behind his line of synth modules:

Those sounds are what I first heard when being introduced to electronically generated sounds at a young age. Atari 5200 and a Casio SK-1 with one of the batteries put in backwards… combined with my brother’s Synsonics drums this formed a great timbral influence. It was certainly more influential than the sounds that the polysynth mob were making those days.

I think a lot about power electronics and death industrial when considering system-level modular configurations, and to some degree individual module designs. It pleases me to hear them used in that context more than a lot of other things. I’m coming up on a decade as an enthusiastic listener and occasional composer and performer in related styles, and this appeal does find its way into my collection of instrument design ideas.

I don’t put much effort into anything unless there’s a good amount of defiance involved, so I guess there’s a parallel between noise actions and the design of my modules. That’s not saying much, though. In these days of ideological cowardice, self-confidence is itself a socially transgressive act.

Check out the full interview here.