I was 100% ignorant of synthesizers for most of my life. I have always been a guitar person, and still consider myself a guitar person. So listening to Nine Inch Nails, and then later Aphex Twin, I came to realize there was this whole world of electronic instruments out there making some amazing sounds. But I still felt kind of locked out, since I didn't even know where to begin. And this was all of course before The Internet made all information easily accessible.

I remember talking with a friend once about music, and how he was making music with a computer at his other friend's house. I asked if he would show me how they were doing that, and he was like "I can't, I don't have a MIDI keyboard."

I didn't say anything because I was embarrassed by the fact that I didn't even understand what he meant. To me, we were talking about computers, and he was talking about a keyboard, so I thought he was referring to some kind of special typing keyboard. Didn't even occur to me that he was referring to a music keyboard which had MIDI. I didn't even understand what MIDI was. I would download MIDI files and when I clicked them, it just opened up QuickTime and played what sounded like video game music. I was totally mystified by it all. How do you get from 8-bit Proud Mary to NIN's Closer?

It was probably The Flaming Lips' album Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots that really acted like a funnel into synths for me. Since that band is guitar-driven but heavy on the synths, it was easy for me to understand. I loved that album and listened to it almost exclusively for almost a year. I loved every sound on that record and as I read more information on the Internet, it all started to make sense and then I became very interested in using synths to make music.

I still don't feel like I exactly fit in with synth players. I dont know how to play proper keys. In fact I usually don't even touch the keys, relying more on MIDI or CV sequencers. When I do need to work out a specific melody using my hands, it usually takes me a very long time to get my hands to work correctly on the keyboard. Even then it looks awkward and wrong because I don't have the proper technique.

I don't know anything about EDM, never really got into most synthpop. For me, the synth is just another tool to make textures and sounds and noise. Which is something they are very, very good at doing. But when I need to work something out musically, I still reach for the guitar.