4. John FoxxMetamatic
AM: This is one I picked. It doesn’t mean Nicola doesn’t love this record but for me this is the most important record ever. I was in the 9th grade when I heard it. I must have had a really small record collection at the time, mostly punk, because that sort of stuff came through into record stores at the time and things like John Foxx didn’t; nothing in the synthesiser world. I bought this for the cover again.
NK: It must have been so wild to hear that back then and not even know what some of the machines on the record were?
AM: Yeah, you might hear Flock of Seagulls on the radio but the synth was still pretty much with the guitar, bass and drums. Or you’d hear Duran Duran. This record was just all synth and it was so mind-blowing. I had just started a punk band and I quickly grew tired of the formula and this record was like, ‘I’m going to get a synthesiser’. I got a Yamaha from Kmart, brought it to band practise and they kicked me out of the band. I was depressed, the band had lasted three years but then I was like, ‘how can I do this myself?’ That’s when I started learning about MIDI and drum machines.
