RIP Robert Moog

Though news of his illness had been going around for a while, it was still depressing to hear that Robert Moog passed away.

In the course of doing a compilation of electronic music, I met and spoke to Moog a few times. He was a very decent, sweet guy for sure, always enthused about his ongoing work with electronics, especially his beloved theremins. Needless to say, he didn't create the synthesizer itself. Like most computers in the '50's, synths were these huge, cumbersome machines that took up an entire room and required days to program a simple command. Like Steve Jobs, Moog's contribution was to take these enormous monsters and shrink them down to size so that they could be much more easily used and not required hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase. Once synths were easier to afford and use, they become part of common vocabulary of rock and pop and later became indispensable to funk, techno and numerous other styles of music, increasing their vocabulary. For me, the sonic soundscapes that ambient music were able to cover were always a glorious wonder- of course, this would have been almost impossible without Moog's work.

This is an interview that I did with Moog a few years ago for my zine, covering his thoughts on his own work. I also recommend the recent documentary about him, even though some fools disparaged it for being too dry.

So here's to you Doc Moog. By the way, I always thought it was pronounced 'moo-g' but it was actually 'moe-g' (rhyming with 'vogue')- thanks to Rogue for correcting that for me.