The Moogfest Q&A

Grimes:
• Favorite Moog instrument?
THEREMIN!!!!
• Favorite horror movie/book/TV show?
The X-Files
• Creepiest place you’ve ever been to?
Any time I’ve been in the woods in B.C. at night time (where they filmed most of The X-files)… that’s pretty creepy. 

Kode9
• Favorite Moog instrument?
I have a Moog Voyager with green lights so that’s all I can comment on really. It’s such a beautiful object, I’m slightly daunted by it. I’m less daunted by my cheaper synths that don’t look as good. Occasionally I turn it on and make music with it—usually that turns out very well, like on my tracks “2 Far Gone” and “Bullet Against Bone.”
• Favorite horror movie/book/TV show?
The films that left a scar on my childhood were films like the Omen and The Exorcist, but probably my favourite now is The Shining—the film, the soundtrack, the icy weather, the hotel and everything about it. I also enjoy Dario Argento films, but they seem to fit better in the comedy genre.
• Creepiest place you’ve ever been to?
The first time I played on pirate radio station Rinse FM in East London in 2003, it was located in a deserted warehouse next to City Airport in East London’s Docklands area. It was like the computer game Doom becoming real—completely dark, with no lighting except your mobile phone, long corridors, lots of empty rooms, dead ends and the green monsters of my mind.

Moon Duo
• Favorite Moog instrument?
Moogerfooger Phaser
• Favorite horror movie/book/TV show?
The original Halloween, hands down. Best soundtrack as well!
• Creepiest place you’ve ever been to?
The Sedlec Ossuary, a chapel in Kutna Hora, Czech Republic. It contains the skeletons of between 40,000 and 70,000 people, arranged into sculptures and various decorations. It looks like the set of a horror film.

Glasser
• Favorite Moog instrument?
My mom got me a vintage Moog Rogue when I was in high school because I was obsessed with Devo and that made me feel closer to them.
• Favorite horror movie/book/TV show?
I love the movie Suspiria by Dario Argento, and I also always enjoy watching Carrie. There are so many great performances in Carrie.
• Creepiest place you’ve ever been to?
The future.

Causing A Tiger
• Favorite Moog instrument?
Carla Kihlstedt (pictured, below): Taurus Pedals
Shahzad Ismaily: Moog Rogue
Matthias Bossi: Moogerfooger
• Favorite horror movie/book/TV show?
Carla: Rosemary’s Baby
Shahzad: Stephen King’s It
Matthias: The Tenant
• Creepiest place you’ve ever been to?
Carla: The Mall of America
Shahzad: The ruins of Cappadocia
Matthias: Graceland Too in Holly Springs, Mississippi

Ben Neill
• Favorite Moog instrument?
It would have to be the mutantrumpet, my own instrument which was originally created in 1984 in close personal collaboration with Robert Moog.
Favorite horror movie/book/TV show?
• The Omen
Creepiest place you’ve ever been to?
• A church in Otranto, Italy where the walls are covered with vitrines full of skulls and skeletons

Dan Deacon
• Favorite Moog instrument?
My Moogfoogers as modular synths
• Favorite horror movie/book/TV show?
John Carpenter’s The Thing
• Creepiest place you’ve ever been to?
A frat house

Jason Hann of EOTO:
• Favorite Moog instrument?
The Theremin. And I love all of their foot pedals
• Favorite horror movie/book/TV show?
The Walking Dead graphic novel series for the last couple of years.
• Creepiest place you’ve ever been to?
An old opera house in Austria. It had seven floors below the main stage where they kept rotating stage setups. I went to explore it after sound check and when I went down there it seemed very lively with random sounds and shadows moving on the outside of my peripheral vision. If it was dark down there, I would have been really creeped out.

Marley Carroll:
• Favorite Moog instrument?
Moog Synthesizer 1C
• Favorite horror movie/book/TV show?
Alien
• Creepiest place you’ve ever been to?
Catacombs, Paris

Ben O’Brien from the Wham City Comedy Tour:
• Favorite Moog instrument?
I’m a big fan of the Moog with the all-seeing, all-knowing eye. I got a mod-kit and added about forty silver tongues to it, which, as you know, causes it to bleed incessantly. Sometimes I would lay in bed all night and just let my essence be completely absorbed by the tentacles. I eventually got rid of it because the oscillators buried themselves in the Earth’s core and that made the low-end a bit tinny.
• Favorite horror movie/book/TV show?
Everyone screaming
• Creepiest place you’ve ever been to?
I snuck into a cemetery at night once and fell into an open grave. I freaked out and couldn’t climb out of it. When I finally did get out my step-brother pushed me back in.

Ghostland Observatory
• Favorite Moog instrument?
Moog Voyager. I also liked a Moog Rogue my friend had. I got some really cool sounds off of it.
• Favorite horror movie/book/TV show?
Tales from the Crypt and Creepshow.
• Creepiest place you’ve ever been to?
Milwaukee. We played a venue there that was pretty creepy. The guys working there said it was haunted.

Kip Uhlhorn of Cloudland Canyon
• Favorite Moog instrument?
Probably the Minimoog/Moog Voyager. I finally got one last January after wanting one forever, and it is AMAZING. Probably the most intuitive instrument I have ever owned, not to mention that it constantly surprises you, especially when sequenced. It has become almost the heart and soul of our band.
• Favorite horror movie/book/TV show?
Obviously, I am a complete synth nerd, so I really love the horror movies from the late ‘70s/early ‘80s that have soundtracks by Goblin/Giorgio Moroder (even though his stuff’s not really horror a lot of the time.) The first Halloween, Deep Red, Suspiria, etc. are great, especially for the soundtracks. However, if we are going purely on film alone without the soundtrack weighing in, I’d probably have to go with The Silence of the Lambs (book or movie). Some things I have actually seen recently that were super creepy were Picnic at Hanging Rock, as well as that documentary Cropsey, which is about escaped abused mental patients who were more or less released into Staten Island after the institution closed. Super crazy stuff happens.
• Creepiest place you’ve ever been to?
There were a couple places I’d go to with friends when I was little: an abandoned school
that I remember particularly after dark, as well as a couple other sites where alleged Satan worshipping occurred. All experienced through the fog of childhood.

Fine Peduncle:
• Favorite Moog instrument?
Right now it’s the Taurus. The deliciously dirty bass tone it gives off scratches the pineal core of the brain, and you can play it with your feet. 
• Favorite horror movie/book/TV show?
I really loved the Goosebumps choose-your-own-scare series as a kid. I love options, and linear format reads stress me out sometimes. In these, you get to the end of a chapter and have a choice of what you want to do. So, basically, it’s a book which reads like a video game. Genius idea.
• Creepiest place you’ve ever been to?
Creepy vibes are beautiful to me.  The Arthropod room in my apartment feeds me the best supply of creepy vibes. 

Emancipator:
• Favorite Moog instrument?
Moog Guitar
• Favorite horror movie/book/TV show?
The Shining
• Creepiest place you’ve ever been to?
An empty swimming pool in a masonic basement.

Ford & Lopatin:
• Favorite Moog instrument?
The Moog Liberation Keytar and the Memorymoog
• Favorite horror movie/book/TV show?
Dawn of the Dead and Curb Your Enthusiasm
• Creepiest place you’ve ever been to?
Bucharest

Paul Duncan from Warm Ghost
• Favorite Moog instrument?
My favorite is probably the Opus 3 – that thing is amazing and creepy. But I actually ended up playing the Little Phatty quite a bit on the new record, Narrows. I love the LFO / controls and how the filters sound. I actually am looking into getting one for our live set up. My new favorite Moog to look at is this one : http://synth.me/node/4633
• Favorite horror movie/book/TV show?
My favorite horror TV show is either Night Gallery or Dark Shadows, although those two aren’t always all that “horror-esque.” My favorite horror film is probably John Carpenter’s The Thing. My favorite “horror” book is Lunar Park by Brett Easton Ellis. That might just be one of my favorite books or pieces of entertainment in general. I’m not a huge fan of his, but that one rules.
• Creepiest place you’ve ever been to?
Savannah, Georgia…and not because it’s supposed to be haunted—the people are just creepy. Aside from that, probably Longview,Texas—where I grew up.

Darby Cicci from The Antlers
• Favorite Moog instrument?
I used to have a Moog Rogue, that is sadly not with me anymore. I still borrow or rent one from time to time. I love how simple it is to get some of the crazy modulation sounds that can be a bit more complicated on other synths. I’ve only used a Moog Modular once, but it’s definitely my favorite. Nothing beats the sound design capabilities of modular synths. Maybe I could afford one someday. The Voyager XL, combined with their pedals does have a ton of modular capabilities though. I have a Little Phatty now too, and it’s capable of some really beautiful bass sounds.
• Favorite horror movie/book/TV show?
Dario Argento’s Susperia is probably my favorite horror film. It’s about ballerinas and witchcraft and it has some brutal death scenes. Such a beautifully shot film as well. Very expressionist at times. Also it has my favorite horror score, by Goblin, who worked with Argento on quite a lot of films. Very psychedelic.
• Creepiest place you’ve ever been to?
I stayed in a house in rural Maine that was supposed to be haunted. A woman a long time ago hung herself in a closet on the second floor, and you were supposed to be able to see her in the room sometimes. I decided to sleep in the room where she died. I didn’t see her, but it was pretty difficult to try and sleep. I went to a medieval torture chamber in Italy one time too, and I still have nightmares about it.

Anika
• Favorite Moog instrument?
Beak> and Geoff [Barrow] introduced me to the joy of synthesizers. They hadn’t really entered my life so much before. I checked out the Moog shop in Austin around SXSW and left dribbling slightly. It was good.
• Favorite horror movie/book/TV show?
I really like the film Peeping Tom. I like the way it’s shot and the subtle attention to detail, like the fact that he writes for “The Observer.” I love horror films in general because when I was younger, I suffered from insomnia and this channel in the UK used to play loads of classic horrors between midnight and 6am. Films like Rosemary’s Baby, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and the Hammer Horror series. I value the older ones a lot more. They don’t rely on special effects and in-your-face 3D graphics, but more on what you can’t see. It plays a lot on your own ability to imagine.
• Creepiest place you’ve ever been to?
This tunnel out in the country just outside of LA. I shot some footage there with PBW [Peanut Butter Wolf] and his mate, the ginger kid from Airplane! [Ross Harris], who’s now a very talented film-maker. It was pitch black and all we had was a small flashlight. I was petrified. I didn’t really know PBW very well at that point, so being so far down a concrete flood tunnel in the depth of the night was a little worrying. We recorded a creepy a capella version of “Terry” there. Every time I sang the line, “He rode into the night…” there’d be a massive crashing noise that would bellow down the tunnel, along with lots of amplified dog barking. It will be in the “Terry” video, which is due to come out soon…

Adrian Belew
• Favorite Moog instrument?
The new Moog Guitar. It’s amazing!
• Favorite horror movie/book/TV show?
Alien. It really scared me. I was hoping that when we finally met the aliens, they’d be friendly.
• Creepiest place you’ve ever been to?
Gary, Indiana. It just has this smell…

Brandt, Brauer, Frick
• Favorite Moog instrument?
The Little Phatty. We use it in our 10-piece ensemble as the only electronic instrument, and it integrates perfectly and can sound really subtle and organic when we want it to. In the studio we also play most of our bass parts with it.
• Favorite horror movie/book/TV show?
Shining. We also like Marc Leclair’s music project “Horror Inc.”.
• Creepiest place you’ve ever been to?
Italian jail a couple of days ago.

Jacob Graham from The Drums
• Favorite Moog instrument?
My favorite Moog instrument that I currently own is the CP-251. I don’t know if you’d actually consider it an instrument unto itself, but it is certainly a very handy tool for anyone involved in analog synthesis. I did hold onto a classic Minimoog for a friend of mine for a couple years and grew rather attached.
• Favorite horror movie/book/TV show?
I don’t like any horror movies. I think it’s strange that they’re even allowed to be made. But my favorite book is Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis. I can’t tell you how much I love this book.
• Creepiest place you’ve ever been to?
We stayed at this hotel in the middle of nowhere, out in the woods, in Holland I think. It was like half hotel, half recovery ward or something. To this day, I do not understand what was going on there.

Hans-Joachim Roedelius from Lunzproject
• Favorite Moog instrument?
The AARCHY Moog
• Favorite horror movie/book/TV show?
We don’t have the same taste.
• Creepiest place you’ve ever been to?
There was no creepy place yet.

Beats Antique
• Favorite Moog instrument?
Slim Phatty
• Favorite horror movie/book/TV show?
Friday the 13th
• Creepiest place you’ve ever been to?
The Mall of America!

Amon Tobin
• Favorite Moog instrument?
I don’t own any.
• Favorite horror movie/book/TV show?
Sex and the City. Covered my eyes through most of it, and the rest haunted me for days.
• Creepiest place you’ve ever been to?
Dallas, Texas

CANT (Chris Taylor)
• Favorite Moog instrument?
Minimoog Model D
• Favorite horror movie/book/TV show?
Ben Frost’s By The Throat (LP)
• Creepiest place you’ve ever been to?
Salt Lake City

SBTRKT
• Favorite Moog instrument?
Moog Filtatron app on the iPhone. Great for messing around with LFOs whilst sitting on the tube. I am definitely buying an Etherwave Theremin for the live show shortly!
• Favorite horror movie/book/TV show?
The Birds. There are a massive amount of crows that hang around on the the roof of my building. A reminder every time I see them!
• Creepiest place you’ve ever been to?
I grew up a in a very old house. It had super long corridors and rooms that had a cold chill when you went in them! I used to run up the corridors at night time because I feared what may hide in the shadows!