Welcome to the Machine — Intro

How technology became part of the way I make, record and perform music

Ever since I was a kid, I have been obsessed with gadgets and technology. My dad was an engineer and I was surrounded by electronics from a very early age. I was also obsessed with music from an early age, again thanks to my dad, so I suppose it was inevitable that those two worlds would collide when I later grew into both a musician and an engineer myself.

I thought it might be interesting to document bits of that journey and how, over the years, technology has become intertwined with many of the things my friends and I do musically.

I don’t profess to be an expert and this isn’t meant to be a definitive gear review or a technical manual. It’s really just me writing about the things I have learned, the mistakes I have made, the problems I have encountered and the bits of music technology that continue to interest me.

Some of it will be about guitar effects, some of it about recording, some of it about live performance and some of it about the slightly hidden machinery that sits behind the songs. Not because the machinery is the point, but because it has become part of how the music is made, shaped and expressed.

As is the nature of this site at large, there’s no set agenda for this series. I’ve written the first part (linked below) and there’s already an outline of the second one in the works

I hope you enjoy reading about it as much as I enjoyed writing about it 🙂

First up: Welcome to the Machine — Part I Building the Invisible Bandmate