Synth historian Oli Freke will spend big on a good bicycle
He’s hard at work on the upcoming Beat Gems, a gorgeous coffee-table book about the history of drum machines.
Synth historian Oli Freke will spend big on a good bicycle
He’s hard at work on the upcoming Beat Gems, a gorgeous coffee-table book about the history of drum machines.
is the Verge’s weekend editor. He’s covered the tech industry for over 18 years and knows a thing or two about synths.
Oli Freke is a musician and journalist whose works have appeared in
from 1963 through 1995, charting the change from analog to digital and back.
, a coffee-table visual history of drum machines from publisher
is loaded with gorgeous photos, fascinating historical tidbits, and practical advice for making the most of your gear, whether it’s a vintage
What is the first app you install on a new phone or computer?
If I’m buying a new computer, it’ll almost certainly be my music computer, so I’ll be installing Ableton Live straight away. It’s a remarkable piece of music software, with a feature set that still feels staggering compared to when I started making electronic music with an Atari ST 520 that could just about manage MIDI, with no audio at all.
Which social media platform do you use the most (if any)?
Probably YouTube, if we’re counting it as social media. It’s brilliant having experts in almost any subject area explain ideas, concepts, and methods. I watch a lot of science, maths, chess, and, inevitably, electronic music. I could do with fewer algorithmic clickbait temptations, which is one reason I’m not a heavy user of other social media platforms.
Which is the most disappointing gadget you’ve ever owned?
Vegetable choppers and cubers seem like a great idea, but they never work properly and never actually save any time or effort.
on the Atari ST was incredible. It’s world-building on a (memory) shoestring when severe technical constraints existed, and the results were truly creative.
As a musician, I wish I’d written a song that the whole world knew and loved, and that fans would demand I play at every opportunity — until I got so heartily sick of it that, in the end, I wished I’d never written it. Perhaps this has happened, and all these wishes have come true!
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
From my father (I’m appropriately writing this on Father’s Day in the UK): “Say yes to any opportunity that comes your way — worry about whether you can do it or not later!”
book has reminded me of the primacy of rhythm to the human musical experience; how drum machines have tapped into this need, and in doing so have transformed musical culture over the last sixty years. It’s utterly fascinating.
, choose a set of banging drum’n’bass rollers, and then I’m very happy (and focused).
Remind myself of the infinite number of combinations of ideas. I once wrote an article that demonstrated there were 82 quintillion (82^18) 10-note melodies that can be written with the eight notes of the octave.
What’s the last piece of physical media you bought?
. It’s about an obscure synth from the early ’80s and a daughter’s quest to learn about her father, who invented it but sadly died while she was a baby. Can’t recommend it enough.
A high-quality road bicycle. Compared with cars, bikes are cheap, and you can buy machines not far off the quality professionals use for relatively reasonable sums. The difference between a good bike and a run-of-the-mill one is vast. Cycling in the countryside on a good bike brings me a great deal of joy.
Watch a man type words into a computer. For ages. Then watch him make music on a computer. Also for ages. Then watch him do some normal things involving a house, family, and car. Occasionally he is turned away from boarding a plane to Berlin to go to the launch of his Kickstarter because they changed the rules without him realizing it! Disappointingly, this doesn’t transform the biopic into a
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