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Not many of my friends will recognize the name 10 Speed Guiloteen or that I was ever in a make shift electro-industrial noise making band. I was the thrid guy basically. Fan turned musican. I bought a Roland S10 sampler, drum machine, mixer, and just started making sounds and songs. I had been doing that since highschool. I loved creating soundscapes and beat driven pieces even though I couldn't sequence worth a crap really. Just about all my good tunes happened by chance.
The first band I was in was durning highschool. I wrote songs in Principals of Democraticy, POD, with a friend now turned stand up comedian Steve Eblin. He and I were like silent comedic partners. I was the "hatchet" he was "horny". It was good trade off, he did the tolet humor and I added the chainsaw massacre. In the beginning we wrote, and wrote, and wrote what seems to me now like a billion cover songs. It was alot of fun really. Song lyrics come to me almost as naturally as me typing this now, they just flow. Everything was up for grabs, from the Muppet Show theme to classics from the years 84-88.
My first band with Steve, and it was really just a band to express our writings was called MEGASNOT. The letters fit perfectly on our fingers, that part, and probably that part alone is why we loved it. We never played together, we never practiced, we had one semi-sung outing at a party I remember where our group of friends got Steve and I to sing out some of work... classics.
During that time I also had semi-more serious ventures with Rat & Darryl in a bad we dubbed Applied Furniture. Together the three of us created some tunes I still feel strongly about today. Classics like Trees, Brocolli, and I'm Gonna.... heh. Rat played bass, Darryl on guitar, and I wrote stuff... and occasionally, ok most of the time sung. I ran into Darryl the other day, I haven't seen him in about 15 years. All the songs came back to me in a flash. We had a few drinks and walked down that memory lane.
Probably before Applied Furuniture ever took root I had been doing my own solo stuff for awhile then under the name Synthetic Handshake. When i was done with highschool I moved out of the house and roomed with Andy Izold, half of 10 Speed Guiloteen. Back then, 18, and lost basically, 10 Speed, the sound of Andy and Jeff Central (the other half of 10 Speed) really really worked for me. I loved their sound, I still do today. The should of been signed way back when. They were next Moby in my mind, actually they were if anything ahead of what was being produced. Todays triphop is what 10 Speed did 15 years ago.
Andy was creator of what some of you may hear me say the "pleasure lab". He was technology, machines, parts and pieces. Heck he built instruments and loop boxes, he loved vynil records and found strange ways of manipulating them. He was the beat track of a 10 Speed tune. He was the dance of a 10 Speed song. Jeff was anger, the stange sound you didnt expect to hear. If Andy was the Speed, Jeff was the Guiloteen.
I would go nearly ever 10 Speed show I can get into. Jeff is about 7 years older than me. Andy is about 5. 10 Speed cranked out a few records, most of which were highly popular on the local scene. That another thing I used to be really into. Who was doing what on the local scene in terms of experimental industrial dance music. I used to pride myself on knowing all of that. Some of the gang are still left standing today... Mark Gunderson is still kickin.. he's more of an Andy then a Jeff.
I was closer to Jeff than Andy even though I roomed with Andy for a time. Jeff had worked at a music store in the Bethel center when I was in highschool. He was like a mentor in sound for me. I came in one day looking for something new, fresh, i had no idea what I wanted... something local would of been interesting too. Jeff turned me on to Caborette Voltaire, Skinny Puppy, Ministry and it all started from there. His own first record is something I still listen to today. Thanks Jeff.
Sound is a great thing. As time went on and as 10 Speed played its part in the columbus music scene I was there as a roadie, then video and lights guy. I created many a bizzaro video for them. Then I'd bring the latest, at the time, in video game systems from CS to them. We'd pull out all the samples and sounds from the games and distort them and use them in music. A few times we had jam sessions in the pleasure lab, one of which i still have on cd today. Andy insists its one of our collective best works. It has old Amiga samples and anime sounds in it. I found those 2hr jam sessions utterly and completely relaxing. I miss them. I miss the experimental side of me.