Interview: Optiganally Yours

http://www.optigan.com

Taking their name from a Mattel children's instrument from the 1970's 'The Optigan', Optiganally Yours are one of the oddest electro pop bands you will ever encounter. Hideously popular with critics when they released their 1997 debut Spotlight On, few people could actually believe that they were making great music from what is essentially a retarded keyboard. Their last album was released in 2000 and since then there has been little sign of them (apart from a track on the cartoon Powerpuff Girls). Its 2007 now and band member Pea Hicks lets us know what's been happening with the project.

HOLV: Pea, how is life treating you?

PH: Good! Things are pretty mellow at the moment. Half of 2006 was spent hiking the pacific crest trail, with music being the furthest thing from my mind. Now I'm starting to get back into working with music again, and I have a renewed enthusiasm for it.

HOLV: Could you sum up for readers who are unfamiliar with the optigan just what it is and why you use it?

PH: The optigan, like the mellotron and chamberlin, was essentially an early iteration of what we call sampling technology today. While the mellotron and chamberlin used magnetic tape to play back pre-recorded sounds from a keyboard, the optigan used a cheaper technology- LP-sized celluloid discs with concentric rings of optical soundtrack waveform encoded on it. This is the same technology used in optical film soundtracks. Since the optigan was set up like a typical home organ, you had accompaniment patterns in a variety of styles to go along with the keyboard. Each disc represented a different style of music, ie bossa nova, country, etc. the key difference was that the optigan played back looped recordings of real instruments, as opposed to electronically generated tones and drum sounds. The technology had severe sound quality limitations, though, so the optigan never sounded much better than an AM radio. But it's that very haunting lo-fi murkiness that instantly attracted me to the sound. it just has a huge amount of character and mystery.

HOLV: Other than the Optigan are there any other handsome oddities from the 70's due a revival (apart from Burt Reynolds obviously)?

PH: Actually, as far as gear is concerned, I think anything interesting from the 70s, even the really obscure stuff, has already more or less been re-discovered and played out by now. What I'm currently starting to get back into is early digital gear from the mid 80s. Partially that's because i grew up using that gear, and enough time has passed that I can now see the inherent charm and character in, say, a casio cz-101 or ensoniq esq-1 synthesizer. Back then I was always frustrated by the limitations, but now I see those same limitations as an asset. Also, you can get this stuff really cheap right now. The bang-for-the-buck factor is really great, and it's not going to be that way for much longer. Kind of like how you could buy a minimoog for $200 in the late 80s, but by the late 90s you'd have to shell out $1500 minimum. So I'm starting to pick up hardware again, which is something I haven't done in quite a few years.

HOLV: What about the two previous albums are you most proud of?

PH: I suppose the song writing, really. And the overall concept. I'm never too happy about the mixes. I'm a terrible engineer. The plan is to get someone talented to mix the new album.

HOLV: Exclusively Talentmaker was released back in 2000 in the UK, which was your last album. We've heard rumours there are plans for a third, what's the story?

PH: Yeah, the new album "OY IN HI-FI" has actually been in the works since about 2000! It's been in a state of half-done-ness forever. A lot of that has to do with Rob's schedule vis a vis his more popular bands. But we're hoping to finish up the new album this spring. Not sure when it'll be released, but hopefully by the end of the year. Seems like I've been saying that forever, though!

HOLV: Lastly where is the best place to listen to Optiganally Yours?

PH: Where I'm sitting right now, in the sweet spot of my studio, where I mix this stuff. It probably sounds like crap in every other environment!

Interviewed By Hammond