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KeyboardMag.com >> This Month >> The Volt Per Octaves
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Click on the Images Music Makers The Volt Per OctavesTribal armbands, Celtic knots, Chinese characters, and . . . the Moog Music logo? For 22-year-old Nick Montoya, it was obvious which tattoo belonged on his tricep, because the fluid, organic character of analog synthesis had long since made just as indelible an impression on him. “My mom always played a lot of music around the house when we were kids,” he recalls, but the biggest memory has to be Stevie Wonder. “I was just mesmerized by the bass sound of ‘Boogie on Reggae Woman.’ The second biggest thing would have been Steve Winwood’s solos. I knew they had something in common.” Nick’s curiosity about what could make that sound led him to synthesizers, and finally to Trevor Pinch’s bookAnalog Days. “I’d been in other bands, as the drummer actually, but as soon as I got my first Moog, I felt like ‘Man, people need to hear these instruments in a close-up, live way. They deserve to be taken out and played.” With the help of high school sweetheart and spouse Anna, a classically-trained pianist-vocalist who credits Aphex Twin and Portishead as formative influences, the Volt per Octaves were born to evangelize analog, at first just to intimate crowds in coffee houses and wine bars around Santa Barbara, CA. While you had to go there to hear the oscillators, the buzz made it a lot further, culminating in their opening Moogfest 2005 in New York City. “The promoter held a contest through sonicbids.com, and we knew the caliber of some of the virtuosos submitting stuff, but said, ‘What the heck?’ We couldn’t believe it when we won, because our sound is very simple. I love the basic stuff the Mini is known for — basses, wormy leads, filter sweeps — all that stuff. I guess they decided it represented them in the right way, and the next thing we knew, we were sharing the stage at B. B. King’s with people like Jordan Rudess and Edgar Winter. Gulp!” Currently preparing to record their first full-length album, their biggest regret is clearly, “Not getting to meet Dr. Moog before he passed on,” according to Anna. They also fondly hope daughter Eva, now seven, will join them onstage when she’s a little older. “She’s fascinated by the sound of these things, and already coming home from school complaining ‘Dad! None of the other kids know what a Moog is!’” THE VOLTS GEAR“Our first Moog was a Prodigy,” explains Nick. “Later, we finally saved enough to get three synths at once: a Minimoog D, MG-1, and ARP Axxe. [Master keyboard tech] Kevin Lightner brought the Mini up to mint condition, and added blue-backlit wheels like on the Voyager.” Speaking of which, how they attained their Voyager makes for another great story. "We had a loaner unit to play Moogfest. We’re a young couple with a child, and I’d resigned myself to knowing that we’d have to send it back — just not in the budget. Then, Moog's Linda Pritchard and Mike Adams offered to let us pay it off over time, something it’s their policy never to do. Moogfest or not, I mean, it’s not like we’re Keith Emerson or somebody. We were just blown away by their kindness.” Onstage, Nick mans the Minis while Anna riffs on the MG-1 and sings through a Korg MS-2000’s vocoder. They program their beats on an Electribe ES-1. Check out the Volt per Octaves’ music on the Web at www.humboldtmusic.com/voltperoctaves. |
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