Samantha

Our First Sunday Newsletter

Also published to Substack.

It’s been a while since I’ve written an essay or such. It used to be a regular occurrence on the CatSynth blog. Between the photos, I wrote music and art reports, “fun with highways” articles, and the occasional opinion piece. Music, art, and highways all migrated to CatSynth TV, and slowly after that, writing dried up altogether, other than the year-end post and the occasional other short piece.

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I’ve wanted to reverse that trend for a while, as there are ideas that don’t lend themselves to videos, music, or the highly compressed bits of communication on social media. But writing always took a back seat to CatSynth TV, to music, and to living life in general.

So what is finally getting me off my tuchus, firing up the ancient Tandy m102 laptop and assembling these words that you are reading now? A few factors stand out. One, I am finally starting to observe free time amidst my usual busyness, given a few external commitments this month. Another is that I have started reading *How to Do Nothing* by Jenny Odell, and resonated with her thesis and examples on how to step back from the ever-toxic milieu we find ourselves in. And finally, there is the toxic milieu itself, which lends a sense of urgency to anything that resists it without running away from it entirely. I have my escapes, and we will talk plenty about them in the coming weeks and months. But for now, I think this is sufficient, being present in this moment outside on the patio at CatSynth HQ, typing on my cute little retro computer while my cat Sam Sam enjoys the cool, fresh air.

Please join me here on most Sundays for more wordy thoughts.

Sam Sam and Big Merp in the studio

We kick off the week with our very own Sam Sam and Big Merp doing what they do best in the studio. We also see our trusty Nord Stage “big red keyboard”, Yamaha TX802 and TX81Z FM modules, a Korg DVP-1 voice processor (also from the 1980s) and sundry other gear. We also see one of our miniatures, a replica of a Mellotron.

I love having both kitties in the studio with me when I work 😻

Sam Sam with Vintage Yamaha and Korg synths

Sam Sam has been recently sitting in front of the studio equipment rack. Above her, we see some vintage instruments from the 1980s, including our Yamaha TX802 and TX81Z FM modules, and a Korg DVP-1 “Digital Voice Processor”. Our Korg Volca and Roland Boutique synths are stored in the open space.

Farewell to 2024: Beautiful Dissonance

2024 has come to a close, so it is time for our traditional end-of-year collage and post. You might notice another kitty in the corner this year – that’s Golda, one of the wonderful cats I stayed with in Berlin. She is representing our European adventure this summer, along with Plac Grunwaldzki in Wroclaw, Poland.

It was a banner year musically. I am especially proud of the album, the best musical work I have done to date! If you haven’t heard it yet, you should. Opening the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival was a special experience. And we had numerous other musical adventures both live and recorded, and an ever growing community of musicians scattered across the country and beyond that are not just colleagues, but friends.

It was a banner year for CatSynth TV, our best to date in terms of viewership, subscriptions, and audience interaction. 50% year-over-year growth ain’t bad. January of 2024, with NAMM, was our best month on record. We even saw an uptick in blog readership, including a new cohort of loyal followers for our cat+synth posts and Wordless Wednesday.

Indeed, with CatSynth TV, I look not only at what we accomplished this year, but what was left undone. So many videos partially complete or in the ideation phase, waiting to be finished in 2025. We are particularly looking to jumpstart our interview series that was big in 2023 but took a bit of a back seat this year because of various circumstances.

The dissonance between things at a personal and CatSynth level, and at a national and world level, is deafening. The election here in the U.S. this year was tragic and heartbreaking, and this coming year is going to be difficult. This time, it wasn’t a fluke, it was a choice, and we chose…unwisely. In my usual cynical way, the best I hope for is sheer incompetence by the new regime, but even so, a lot of people will be hurt, including people who are a lot like me.

So we go into 2025 in a very strange place. The personal successes and hopes for the New Year, set against the fear and coming disasters in the world. All we have is forward motion, each other, and defiance.

Sam Sam, MiniBrute 2, Modular, Octave CAT

Black and white cat standing on a covered synthesizer and keenly inspecting the patch bay on an Arturia MiniBrute 2 analog synthesizer. Next to her head is a small modular setup with modules from several manufacturers.

It’s rare that Sam Sam ever gets up on one of the synth desks, so when she did I rushed to snap some photos. This was the best one, with her standing on our vintage Octave CAT (safely covered) and inspecting the Arturia MiniBrute and RackBrute modular setup.

A full account of synth brands in this photo can be found in the tags.

Sam Sam, Yamaha TX802 and TX81Z

We don’t get a lot of “CatSynth pics” of Sam Sam. But she does like this cozy little corner of the studio, especially after the recent reorganization of the studio. The rack next to her has our vintage Yamaha FM modules, the TX81Z and TX802 (with the latter turned on), along with a cassette deck that comes in handy every once in a while.