Author: catsynth

Ringo in the studio

Ringo poses for us in the middle of “his” studio, which he shares with our friend Damien Olsen. We see multiple Korg keyboard synths, a Waldorf Blofeld, Line 6 pedal, and more. We also see some of Damien’s artwork hanging on the wall.

Some thoughts from Ringo:

“I like more sardines than contemporary electronica.
For me the golden age of electronic music is the 70s and the 90s, not crazy about the 80s.
and the last 25 years totally sucks, too much technology,
ego and noise, poor imagination”

One Trick Pony

We recently watched Paul Simon’s 1980 film One Trick Pony here at CatSynth HQ. This was his one and only film, which he wrote and starred in. It follows a folk-rock musician Jonah Levin (Simon) who had several big hits in the late 1960s, including an anti-Vietnam War protest song, but now in the late 1970s, he and his band find themselves touring small venues, often riding in a small van around the Midwest, and opening for up-and-coming acts like The B-52s. At the same time, he is struggling with record executives on producing a new album, and with his estranged wife on their relationship and their son.

The film was a commercial and critical flop, and a bit of an obscure artifact of its time. But we at CatSynth really enjoyed it, and were a little confused as to why it was so panned. For one, it features an all-star band that included Simon, bassist Tony Levin (best known for his work with King Crimson), jazz guitarist Eric Gale, jazz and fusion keyboardist Richard Tee (who also did vocals), and drummer Steve Gadd. The original music was a lot of fun, including the bluesy title track played over a disco beat and the catchy “Ace in the Hole”; the band played live in venues like the Agora Ballroom in Cleveland, Ohio. We were rooting for Jonah and the band in their conflicts with the record company, including Lou Reed in his debut film role as a trendy record producer. And even though the studio sessions didn’t go the way they wanted, it was fun to watch the process of recording to tape, adding in strings and backing vocals, and reviewing the takes together.

And perhaps in this synopsis lies the disconnect with critics and mainstream audiences. It’s really a musicians’ film about musicians’ musicians. There was also the setting and the visuals, including life in New York City in the late 1970s, traveling along freeways, and music clubs on the outskirts of cities, all of which appeal to my own personal aesthetic. It also didn’t follow a traditional story arc, but joined mid-way and ended without a real ending, which again is something that appeals to me – recall my fondness for Michelangelo Antonioni’s “trilogy” (plus Red Desert). So while this film did not resonate with the mainstream, it did with us at CatSynth HQ, human and feline alike. We were the real target audience, 45 years after it was released.

Both the in-film story and the context surrounding it also make one think about one’s own journey, and the challenge of making “the music I want to hear” and the “films and videos I want to see”, and hoping others do as well. Sometimes one succeeds, sometimes a little less so. But hopefully one enjoys the work as it continues.

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Big Merp helps with Mercury-8 Video

Brown-and-white cat standing on a studio desk with lots of audio equipment and two computer monitors.

We start a new year of cats and synths with our very own Big Merp! He tried to help us with post-production on the Mercury-8 video from earlier this week. He certainly made it a challenge at times.

Because of, or despite, Merp’s efforts, the video came out quite well in terms of audio/visual quality as well as informativeness. You can check it out below.

Farewell to 2025: Brightness from Darkness

2025 is drawing to a close, so it is time for our traditional end-of-year collage and post, a year that was “the best of times, the worst of times.” It was simultaneously one of the darkest and one of the brightest. If I focus on the personal and professional, it was a great year. If we look at the country and the world as a whole, the story is completely different. Our collage focuses entirely on the bright, even as our minds and souls are pulled by both poles simultaneously.

For CatSynth TV, it was another year of strong growth, 50% again in views, and strong growth in subscribers. But it’s not just the raw numbers. I am especially proud that this growth came on my own terms, rather than by “following the crowd” so to speak, maintaining the quality, diversity, and uniqueness of what we do on the channel. We’ve done more interviews with more people, explored more highways, enjoyed the cats’ antics on Caturdays, and of course, reviewed a lot of great synthesizers and music. Indeed, I think of the channel as being more of a TV channel with lots of shows than the single “show” that is typical of YouTube. The blog has found some new energy as well, where we have drawn in more regular viewers to our tried-and-true photos of cats and synthesizers, as well as our long-running Wordless Wednesday series.

We found community at NAMM, at Buchla and Friends, and Knobcon. We traveled not only to New York and Los Angeles, but also to Chicago, San Diego, all through the southern California desert, and to India. And many new friends and new connections along the way. And close to home, the cats are doing great, as are the humans at HQ. I am grateful for the companionship, both human and feline, for family, friends, and community that have sustained me throughout the year.

But one cannot ignore what is happening beyond our bubble. On day one of the new regime (it feels more appropriate to call it that than an “administration”), they chose to cruelly target people like me in one of the first executive orders, and it has cast a dark and stressful pall over all the bright and exciting things that happened. And it was far, far worse for many other people. It was also disheartening to see so many institutions, in media, in business, and even academia, seem to cave so quickly. If there has been a bright spot, it has been the way ordinary people are standing up and resisting, on the streets, in the courts, and in their work, with more strength than I would have expected given those dark days in the early part of the year. And as strange as it seems to say it, the regime’s own incompetence gives me a modicum of hope.

What comes in 2026 remains to be seen. We will hopefully be adding more travel, including to Superbooth this coming year! There are so many videos in the queue as we speak that we are excited to share with all of you. At the same time, I want to find more time to focus on music, both recording and performing. Oh, and the perennial goal of de-cluttering both our physical and metaphorical space. On the larger front, I do hope the world can find a bit more peace, and the regime here in the United States continues to fray at the edges and perhaps even crumble.

We at CatSynth wish you all a Happy New Year and all the best for 2026!