Interview With Mike Brown Of LiveWire Electronics

Vicmod has posted another nice interview, this time with Mike Brown of LiveWIre Synthesizers, creators of some extremely awesome Eurorack synth modules.

In the interview, Mike talks about what originally inspired him to get into electronic music:

When I was *really* young, I remember hearing “Funeral for a Friend/Loves Lies Bleeding” on Elton John’s “Yellow Brick Road” LP…

Honestly, that was probably my first real awareness of synthesizers…. (yeah, I know… pretty lame, huh?) after that… I remember my friend’s hippie older brother playing this record for me through headphones… it was “Autobahn” by kraftwerk. now that REALLY blew me away… then the late 70s & early 80s came… some records I specifically remember would be “TVOD” by The Normal, “Metal Beat” by John Foxx, the “Leave in Silence” 12″ by Depeche Mode, that first Heaven 17 LP… what was it called?, “Rage in Eden” by Ultravox (Conny Plank’s work…amazing), the “Replicas” LP by Gary Numan, “Your Silent Face” & “Temptation” by New Order… all this stuff really got me into electronic music.

It was like an explosion really… all this great music and most of it made with synths. then in the 90s I remember the first time I heard “Papua New Guinea” by FSOL… and then all that big beat stuff… “Block Rocking Beats” & “The Rockefeller Skank”… and then drum n bass… and IDM… Autechre & Aphex Twin… man, so much great stuff.

I love hearing what inspired people to get involved with electronic music (45 of Edgar Winter’s Frankenstein anyone?). Stories like Mike’s tell you a lot – about the person and the time in which they grew up. 

I had the opportunity to meet Mike at the 2008 Winter NAMM Show. He’s a very nice guy with some really interesting ideas for modular synthesis. 

Check out the full interview with Livewire’s Mike Brown at the vicmod site.

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