What is That Thing and Where Can I Get One?

August 21, 2010 – Fifth Anniversary Tribute

Seva David Ball, Preservationist on BMF GRAMMY Grant Reflects on Bob’s Impact on His Life

My introduction to the Moog was at Christmas 1968, of course through Switched-On Bach by Carlos. I thought, what is that organ record sounding thing, then when I wandered into the stereo room, finding the record jacket was an Acme Anvil moment. I didn’t even remove the shrinkwrap from the record because I didn’t want the picture to get dirty. Occasionally I’d sneak my fingers under the cellophane and touch the Picture of the Moog.

No kidding.

Seva David Ball, Age 12, Florida State University, 1968 (courtesy Seva Ball

My parents taught college and a colleague of theirs was an alumnus of Florida State. She foolishly offered to take me with her because they had a Moog IIIp. The die was cast, I turned into fluid, poured into the mold, then the mold was broken. The accompanying picture illustrates this moment of pre-hormonal ability of focus, sans prefrontal cortex development, where an experience is so indigenously saturating that after I exited the building, the feeling was as if I’d traveled with Dr. Who and really had no idea what planet or timeline I was entering. That’s what the Moog did for me, what Bob Moog did for me in this unleashing of Pandora with absolute value. It’s all a plus sign.

Soon I had built my studio, replete with a IIIp, MiniMoog, and a PolyMoog, and drilled down into the soft surreal forms I’d heard in my head; now able to realize them. Vintage Moog, classical training, surrealistic music dreams: finally. Search iTunes if you want to find out what happened.

At some point I wrote to Bob Moog and asked if he had any room for my skills in his business in North Carolina; this was before the rebirth of Moog Music, and he simply replied “we have no need for someone with your skillset at this time”. It was the most wonderful rejection letter ever, and certainly the only one I have framed. Now, I sit every day with tapes of Bob Moog and witness small splintered fractal subsets of audio, windows into that time as he was building, creating, innovating, his Moog Synthesizer. I remain as grateful as any human is capable of feeling, to him, Bob Moog, for giving me tools which set me free, musically, beyond my wildest imaginings.

Seva
August 2010

Keep an eye out for Seva’s upcoming post on some of the 40+ tapes that he has been restoring this summer.

Click here to see more about Seva’s work with the reel-to-reel tapes from Bob’s Archive.