From:Amanda Scotese [ROUGH DRAFT] Can you please tell me a somewhat detailed history of Cybrid? Both as how you got together and each of your histories with music. Back at the dawn of time, cavemen banged rocks together. Big rocks went "BOOM" and little rocks went "TIK", and thus it was good. Around about the time of the invention of the wheel, some especially savvy cavemen found that if a couple of 'em got together and banged big and little rocks together in a certain way, it made their hearts beat a little faster, and made their cavewomen move in a rather pleasing manner. Then some evolution happened, and along came KRAFTWERK. JimG, well removed from the breakdancing streets of NYC, was stuck in circa-1982 suburban hell, so to him those German robots were just the backing music to Saturday Night Live's "Sprockets" skit. But he knew something was up, and was intrigued. Spent the next few years weathering parentally-enforced piano lessons, and the endless storms of bad power rock and hair bands. Purchased first synthesizer in 1986. Ran away to college and dabbled in synthpop and industrial music, finally reaching the safe harbours of techno around 1994. Began producing 'electronic listening music'. Discovered the "Analogue Heaven" synth-geek email list, where he started reading lurid posts from some guy calling himself 'Audioel'. Soon after moving to the Bay Area in 1997, he started bumping into this 'Audioel' guy in person, whose real name was Gustavo. Soon they were both religiously attending those Tuesday-night 'Static' parties, at the time, held at the Cat Club in San Francisco. One night, these guys from Florida - 'Phoenecia' - performed, and blew lots of minds with copious bass and "Me and my Rhythm Box" samples from the cult-classic movie, 'Liquid Sky'. The "BOOM" and the "TIK" achieved perfect rhythm, lots of hearts beat a little faster, and the cavewomen moved in very pleasing ways. Electro was re-born in San Francisco. Knowing a good thing when hearing it, Gus and Jim decided to work together to give electro a home in San Francisco. Is it usually just the two of you? Wasn't there a third on vinyl at Club 6? Yep, it's usually the two of us, although we've been known to occasionally collaborate with turntablists like DJ Bre-Ad (Brad Steinberg) from Exact-Science, other performers such as Single Cell Orchestra in live-battle action, and various MCs who step up to the mic. What instruments/equipment do you use? Gustavo's Gear: Apple iBook laptop w/external keyboard Propellerheads Reason MOTU Fastlane 2x2 USB midi interface Emagic EMI 2|6 USB audio interface Jim's Gear: Apple iBook laptop Propellerheads Reason MOTU Fastlane 2x2 USB midi interface Emagic EMI 2|6 USB audio interface Peavey PC-1600 MIDI control unit Evolution MK-125 MIDI control keyboard Clavia Micromodular synth/processor (vocoder) Audiotechnica wireless microphone Subsystem Interface: Rolls mx602 line mixer Sony mdr-v600 headphone MAM MAP-1 arpeggiator Opcode Studio 128x midi patchbay/router Alesis Nanoverb effects unit FMR Audio RNC1773 compressor Can you explain, in detail, how you make your music? Originally the live show was a full-on jam session. Gustavo programmed the drums, and Jim programmed the synth parts, and then the machines were synced together, and things just flowed -- nothing was planned and they never really knew what direction it was going to take. Hence the name 'Cybrid' -- the machine controlling the human. Although there are identifyable 'songs' these days and the equipment has evolved into a more powerful, flexible setup, things are still done in very much the same way. What makes your music unique, in your opinion? The music is very much tied to the live performance...and as such, it is unique in that every show played is different, because -- as mentioned before -- it's still very much of a live improv/jam. Also, the music has always been geared to the dancefloor -- the primary objective is to make people dance. How do crowds react to you at clubs? Are they used to your non-DJ way of making music, or confused? What kind of things do they ask? Cybrid crowds get up and dance! Sometimes a few people seem non-plussed, but as soon as the vocoder is brought online and the gold chains start swingin' and flashin', they get it and can't help themselves. Generally people ask what software Cybrid uses. What venues have you played around town? DNA Lounge (:code, Qool, Mozilla Release party) Club 6 (Aranji) Robotspeak Sessions Hush Hush Lounge (Minimal Monday, Vehicle party) Lazlo (Synapse) Galaxy Club (Hot Hair Car, Electro Rodeo) The Otherworld Presents..."Beats & Bass Throwdown" (underground) An Sibin (Impulse) Sitio.sf (Incognita) Whitebox VIP Lounge Li-Po Lounge Storm the CPU #2, Los Angeles CA (underground) Cafe Babylon, San Jose Technostate Live Webcast Lost-n-Found (Odyssey Sound) Kelly's Mission Rock (The Bridge party) FOCUS on electro party (underground) Presidio Bowl ("It's a Big Booty Bass Bowling Christmas" XLR8R party) Cloudfactory house party Alchemy (underground) Pow! a cocktail lounge :SFMachines (underground) Betalounge Live Broadcast The Sno-Drift (Exact-Science 'SF Bass vol.1' record-release party) Edinburgh Castle Partytrap (underground) Cat Club (Static) Waves, San Jose What do you have planned for the future? [Funk, funk, and more funk.] Please return these asap, preferably before this Saturday. I may have some more questions by then, too. And I wasn't able to get a photographer to the show. So do you guys have any pictures we can use? Preferably not live pics. Thanks! Amanda