Moogfest is coming up this Halloween weekend in Asheville, North Carolina. From Oneohtrix Point Never to M83 to Black Moth Super Rainbow’s Tobacco to Tim Hecker, forerunners of today’s most inventive bands will be showcasing their projects live for fans in costumes, Moog engineers, their contemporaries and progenitors of the electronic universe. Work from Brian Eno will be featured along with a performance by Suicide of their 1977 self-titled album as well as an appearance by seminal kraut-rock phenoms Tangerine Dream.
Jeff Cuellar, Director of Connectivity at Knoxville-based AC entertainment, the company that also organizes Bonnaroo, has worked in conjunction with Moog Music and the Moog Foundation to produce the second annual Moogfest. He spoke with Spectrum Culture about realizing Robert Moog’s vision of music and technology and why Moogfest isn’t just another decadent multi-staged fan fest.
Let’s start by talking about how you are involved with creating Moogfest.
We are thinking back on Bob Moog’s vision. The way I look at it is that Bob is known for pushing the limits. By creating these analog synthesizers, he changed the way people create, listen and enjoy immersing themselves in sound. Using that as inspiration, it’s what we wanted to do for the festival. Moog Music had the Moogfest going on as typically a one-day event in New York City at B.B. King’s or a place like that but it just wasn’t cutting the way they wanted it to. Moog Music approached us and some things were thrown around and then finally we were like, this is what we wanna do: we’re thinking Asheville, North Carolina – it’s where the Moog factory is and it’s where Bob Moog spent the last 30 years of his life. So last year was the first Moogfest and our goal was to forget about genre. It wasn’t about electronic music; it was just about innovation pushing the limits of music, period. We wanted artists to be on [there] that were doing that. We were interested in artists known for a live entertainment experience and known for trying to do new things out there. The artists didn’t necessarily have to have a Moog but we wanted to go after these artists that were changing the way we all experience music. We also wanted to make sure that we were paying homage to the founders while really taking a look at the new artists out there that are changing the way we listen to music today.
I feel that Moogfest is unique to this golden age of festivals and festival-going that I feel that the music industry is currently experiencing. I think there are more festivals being organized each year than there has been before, but I think there’s something special about Moogfest because there is an emphasis placed on technology and the innovation and the fascination the comes with learning about making electronic music. Can you say a little bit about the how and why of what you guys are doing at Moogfest and how it separates itself as a festival from something like Coachella, for instance, where it’s more about having a really good time and seeing the biggest band of the year?
We have workshops, we have panels set up and you can literally talk to Moog engineers. You can see how people use the equipment and people teach you what a Theremin is and how it makes the noise it does, for instance. You have some of the artists on the panels talking about how they made their record so it’s not just a fan festival; it’s an artists’ festival too, a sound-creators’ festival.
I heard from many of our artists last year that typically you come to an event and play your set and leave where as at Moogfest they came and they want to do other things and you see them watching their peers perform and they’re at the panels and workshops. For an artist, a lot of times it’s about the equipment their using, it’s about the people who are creating the equipment and artists get to talk to an engineer who created something like the Moogerfooger and say, “Okay, what did you have in mind when you were creating this?” And of course then the engineer is like, “Well what did you have in mind when you were playing it?” It’s this interesting collaboration and conversation that’s taking place across the board from some of the visual landscapes that we’re putting together to just the shows in general while it’s all kind of happening under one roof.
We also have a film aspect going on. We’re going to be doing a score for a film live in front of people on Sunday. There’s Brian Eno doing his Illustrated Talk and 77 Million Paintings, which is regarded as one of the most significant visual music installations ever created and it’s the third time it’s ever been in the US but it’s the first time it’s ever been on the east coast.
Let’s talk specifically about curating Moogfest. There are definitely some curious things going on. I understand that bands don’t necessarily have to have Moog products in their band and that’s clear by just looking at the line up, but you have some interesting contrasts this year. You have Suicide and Tangerine Dream but you also have John Maus and M83. So what are some ideas behind the line up?
Some of it is just that there’s a perfect combination. You know we were able to establish such a positive reputation with the first year that artists were coming to us asking to play. And you know we’re music heads ourselves and a lot of it comes down to people asking, “What’s Moogfest,” and “What artists play it,” and it’s so hard to say that it’s this artist or that artist but when you hear [who's playing], you’re like, “That’s Moogfest.” A lot of it is, you know, who do we want to see out there and who do we know out there that is pushing the envelope as we know it and who has laid the groundwork for someone like Neon Indian to be doing what he’s doing now? That’s where the inspiration is.
I mean, everyone from The Flaming Lips to Childish Gambino to Tangerine Dream, they all have their place because they’re all doing something that’s challenging what is expected. I think some people try and pin this down to electronic music but it’s not that, it really isn’t. It’s about innovation and not digesting the status quo but saying, “Okay, what can I make sound with? What can I cause my audience to shock and awe by making them say, ‘Oh my god, I didn’t know you could do that, I didn’t know you could create that?’” When we’re looking to book this thing, it’s what falls under that category. I’ll be honest with you, though, it is difficult, but when you know it, you know it. Sometimes you’ll say,”ummmm mmmmnno not so much,” and then for like John Maus, you go “Yup, that’s it right there.”
by Sky Madden
Find out more about the Moogfest here.
