Synth historian Oli Freke will spend big on a good bicycle

Oli Freke is a musician and journalist whose works have appeared in Sound on Sound, The Quietus, and Mixmag. This has included using math to explore the melodic potential of the Western 12-tone scale and deep dives on effects plug-ins. He’s even written a book tracing the evolution of the synthesizer from 1963 through 1995, charting the change from analog to digital and back.

His new project is Beat Gems, a coffee-table visual history of drum machines from publisher Bjooks. Like other Bjooks titles, Beat Gems is loaded with gorgeous photos, fascinating historical tidbits, and practical advice for making the most of your gear, whether it’s a vintage Roland TR-808 or a modern oddity like Erica Synths’ Pērkons.

What is the first app you install on a new phone or computer?

If I’m buying a new computer, it’ll almost certainly be my music computer, so I’ll be installing Ableton Live straight away. It’s a remarkable piece of music software, with a feature set that still feels staggering compared to when I started making electronic music with an Atari ST 520 that could just about manage MIDI, with no audio at all.

Which social media platform do you use the most (if any)?

Probably YouTube, if we’re counting it as social media. It’s brilliant having experts in almost any subject area explain ideas, concepts, and methods. I watch a lot of science, maths, chess, and, inevitably, electronic music. I could do with fewer algorithmic clickbait temptations, which is one reason I’m not a heavy user of other social media platforms.

Which is the most disappointing gadget you’ve ever owned?

Vegetable choppers and cubers seem like a great idea, but they never work properly and never actually save any time or effort.

What game do you have the fondest memories of?

Elite on the Atari ST was incredible. It’s world-building on a (memory) shoestring when severe technical constraints existed, and the results were truly creative.

What is one thing you wish you had created?

As a musician, I wish I’d written a song that the whole world knew and loved, and that fans would demand I play at every opportunity — until I got so heartily sick of it that, in the end, I wished I’d never written it. Perhaps this has happened, and all these wishes have come true!

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

From my father (I’m appropriately writing this on Father’s Day in the UK): “Say yes to any opportunity that comes your way — worry about whether you can do it or not later!”

What is your current obsession?

Drum machines! Researching for the Beat Gems book has reminded me of the primacy of rhythm to the human musical experience; how drum machines have tapped into this need, and in doing so have transformed musical culture over the last sixty years. It’s utterly fascinating.

What do you do when you need to focus?

I put on www.rinse.fm/kool, choose a set of banging drum’n’bass rollers, and then I’m very happy (and focused).

What do you do when you’re feeling stuck?

Remind myself of the infinite number of combinations of ideas. I once wrote an article that demonstrated there were 82 quintillion (82^18) 10-note melodies that can be written with the eight notes of the octave.

What’s the last piece of physical media you bought?

The soundtrack on vinyl to a beautiful film called Resynator. It’s about an obscure synth from the early ’80s and a daughter’s quest to learn about her father, who invented it but sadly died while she was a baby. Can’t recommend it enough.

What do you think is worth splurging on?

A high-quality road bicycle. Compared with cars, bikes are cheap, and you can buy machines not far off the quality professionals use for relatively reasonable sums. The difference between a good bike and a run-of-the-mill one is vast. Cycling in the countryside on a good bike brings me a great deal of joy.

What would the tagline for your biopic be?

Watch a man type words into a computer. For ages. Then watch him make music on a computer. Also for ages. Then watch him do some normal things involving a house, family, and car. Occasionally he is turned away from boarding a plane to Berlin to go to the launch of his Kickstarter because they changed the rules without him realizing it! Disappointingly, this doesn’t transform the biopic into a Falling Down-type scenario.

What’s the last GIF or meme you used?