JOHN ENROTH: Mark likes to collect things.

BILL HOLLAND: What kind of things?

JOHN ENROTH: Anything really. A lot of this stuff, I have no idea what it does because you’ve got old video decks, old DA-88s which we used to use.

BILL HOLLAND: Yeah, there are some of those. You got some beta up there it looks like.

JOHN ENROTH: Some old Opcode stuff.

BILL HOLLAND: Yeah.

JOHN ENROTH: Well, Mark only changed from Studio Vision to Digital Performer like three or four years ago, and he only recently started using Logic because Digital Performer just wasn’t working out for him. There’s usually some Moogs here but they’re in San Francisco with him, and then --

BILL HOLLAND: What of which -- I mean there’s a ton of stuff in here. I mean you’ve got a JP-8, you got the Polybox, Wasp -- I mean just look at all this. This is crazy.

JOHN ENROTH: Unfortunately, the Wasp doesn’t work anymore.

BILL HOLLAND: What happened?

JOHN ENROTH: The keyboard doesn’t work because it’s heat sensitive, and apparently the old story was [PH] Jerry Casale loved the bass sound on it, so he wanted to use the Wasp onstage, and it was fine during rehearsal but then once the stage lights would come on and heat up the keyboard, it would be just be this loud [IMITATES THE SOUND OF A DYSFUNCTIONAL WASP SYNTHESIZER] the whole time. So, and then eventually the thing stopped working unfortunately because there’s not a lot of O’s around I don’t think.

There’s a million things. I think most of the them work. I know the Korg Polyphonic Synthesizer doesn’t work, and then he’s got Raymond Scott’s Electronium.

BILL HOLLAND: Raymond Scott’s Electronium is right here.

JOHN ENROTH: Yeah. This was kind of donated to him. This doesn’t work. The only guy that knows how to make it work isn’t alive anymore.

BILL HOLLAND: Was that Raymond Scott?

JOHN ENROTH: Yeah. [LAUGHING] There are people that come in occasionally and say, “Oh, I think I can get it working,” and then they realize how much of a challenge that would be and kind of back away from it, but it’s --

BILL HOLLAND: So, is it all internal stuff? Is it all internal wiring or is it all patch bay?

JOHN ENROTH: Oh, it’s all tubes and stuff. [LAUGHING]

BILL HOLLAND: Oh [EXPLETIVE].

JOHN ENROTH: Yeah. It’s all, oh, this is the first. I think it’s the first sequencer. I don't know. And apparently, there’s a doo wop button on it.

BILL HOLLAND: [LAUGHING] There’s a doo wop button on this thing?

JOHN ENROTH: Yeah. Who knows what it actually does.

BILL HOLLAND: Check this out.

JOHN ENROTH: Because they’re controllers for something. Ah, what is this? The green color. These are all switches and swatch.

GRETCHEN HASSE: Doo wop.

JOHN ENROTH: There it is. Yeah, because you got the doo wah but I think it’s per -- I don't know what it does a bit.

BILL HOLLAND: One doo wah per side?

JOHN ENROTH: Or something.

BILL HOLLAND: I guess so.

JOHN ENROTH: I think it was 12 steps and then you could get the tone what you wanted per step, and then add the amount of doo wah you want it, [LAUGHING] whatever that does.

BILL HOLLAND: It looks like a tape deck over here too for something.

JOHN ENROTH: Maybe, and then different mic things and echoes and tremolos and --

BILL HOLLAND: Wow. There’s an EMS Polysynthi. We should take a look at that.

JOHN ENROTH: Mark has about 900 of those instructional keyboards. He was going to do something with it.

BILL HOLLAND: With 900 of them?

JOHN ENROTH: He’s got a lot. I moved about five or six of them myself, so [LAUGHING] again that’s what’s in the storage space, but yeah, the EMS Polysynthi.

BILL HOLLAND: What are these bellows with horns back here? What’s the [OVERLAPPING]?

JOHN ENROTH: Again, stuff. He likes to collect. EBay at some point was the worst in Mark’s life but he’s learned to control it. They -- Miner’ used to carry them down. When stuff would collapse on them they can -- they can [HONK!] and...

BILL HOLLAND: Make a huge [OVERLAPPING]

JOHN ENROTH: ...make a really loud noise. I don’t want to do it for you because it’s stupid loud.

BILL HOLLAND: Stupid loud?

JOHN ENROTH: Stupid loud.

BILL HOLLAND: Okay.

JOHN ENROTH: It is really an annoying sound, and if I was trapped somewhere, I would want that because people could hear that over just about anything.

And you got this little box here, the Acoustic Reverbrato for you Devo fans. This is how they get the piano sound for “Gut Feeling”.

BILL HOLLAND: Oh really? [IMITATES “GUT FEELING” PIANO SOUND]

JOHN ENROTH: That’s what it does. That’s the keyboard/piano thing that they routed to that stuff and dialed in some knobs, and that’s the box.

BILL HOLLAND: The Acoustic Reverbrato, awesome.

JOHN ENROTH: I know they don’t make those anymore and that’s I think their last one because Mark at some point had shipped one to Europe and the oil can inside leaked on the way to Europe.

BILL HOLLAND: So they were using that live?

JOHN ENROTH: Yeah. At some point they were. I think they stopped.

BILL HOLLAND: There’s a ring mod -- Check out this ring modulator. This is a just basic Maestro ring modulator. Pretty old unit but pretty awesome and what looks to be an electronic kazoo. Did they rig that up themselves?

JOHN ENROTH: Probably. I have never seen anyone use that, so I don't know.

BILL HOLLAND: Okay. Let’s look at the Cat Synth by Octave, EML 500 ElectroComp Synthesizer, and a Wurlitzer, back wall here, Roland Space Echo, Echoplex.

JOHN ENROTH: And even like old rack-mounted gear from days past. Without this gear, there would be no Royal Tenebaums. [LAUGHING]

BILL HOLLAND: So, it was what you were using during that period? You were using a lot of rack gear.

JOHN ENROTH: That’s what he was using. That was before my time. Even when I got here, they were using Studio Vision 760’s, Studio 5’s. We had one go out, and when we couldn’t find one on eBay or The Recycler or any other web site, Mark was thinking, “Maybe I should start updating,” so because that was almost really bad because that shut down the whole operation.

BILL HOLLAND: That was in the middle of scoring a film?

JOHN ENROTH: No that was -- I can’t remember what movie that was in the middle of. That was after -- I think that was even after “Life Aquatic”.

BILL HOLLAND: Oh really.

JOHN ENROTH: Yeah. It was just -- I think he just launched it to do a commercial or something, and it just stopped working.

BILL HOLLAND: Oh that’s fun.

JOHN ENROTH: Yeah.

[JOHN ENROTH PLAYING A KEYBOARD GLOCKENSPIEL]

Another celeste thing. [PH] Wes loves celestes, so celestes, harpsichords, shakers so Mark, again with the help of eBay, went and found any possible thing that might have a cool celeste-like sound

BILL HOLLAND: Yeah. The celestes have a really good sound. I noticed they keep popping up all around the office here.

JOHN ENROTH: Yeah.

BILL HOLLAND: And -- Oh here’s an interesting -- This is interesting back here. This is a --

JOHN ENROTH: Roland D-50.

BILL HOLLAND: Yeah. It’s a D-50 and it’s got labels on it for their set. If you look, it says “Jocko C15”, “Jocko Homo”, C15 is the patch, and it’s says -- They have like “Girl You Want” on tape written next to it and then “Gut Feeling C28” so I guess that must have been when they started doing the non-live “Gut Feeling” reverb although it may be, I don't know. Do they still use it?

JOHN ENROTH: No. They don’t use the Reverbrato any more, so they would find a patch that sounded good enough, but now they have no amps on stage. They’re all Line 6.

BILL HOLLAND: They’re all doing PODs?

JOHN ENROTH: They’re all doing PODs. Everything goes with the POD so that’s closer than what they originally did because they always had their amps offstage anyways...

BILL HOLLAND: Right.

JOHN ENROTH: ...and then would record this one. Now, they don’t even have amps with them, so.

BILL HOLLAND: Britton, if you’re listening to this, Devo doesn’t use amps anymore live. Just so you know.

JOHN ENROTH: And their sketches, they don’t have any amps in that room. It’s also the Line 6 stuff. I don't know if that’s what the final album will be. I imagine Bob Mothersbaugh will require some loud guitar at some point.

BILL HOLLAND: I -- Yeah, I’m pretty sure.

JOHN ENROTH: He’s good at that. But yeah, they used to use D50s. I can’t remember what keyboard they use now. Yeah, this might actually be one that was used in the last couple of years. When I first got here, I actually did the bass and drum tech for a Japanese tour and the Nike one-hit-wonder thing and some other stuff, and that was fun. Really loud but fun, and now they have somebody else doing it, and I get to stay here and save my hearing, but.

BILL HOLLAND: Awesome. Well --

JOHN ENROTH: I actually watched Devo from behind Josh Freese’s drum kit for five years before I finally got to see them live at Halloween last year, and it’s much better in front.

BILL HOLLAND: There’s a calliope back here. Evidently, Mark collects those as well. I see a lot of just stuff back there. I can’t even imagine what’s piled up.

This is where they keep all the microphones up. I see a U47.

JOHN ENROTH: Yeah.

BILL HOLLAND: You’ve got them all marked up here.

JOHN ENROTH: Daniel was nice enough to labele everything ahead of time.

BILL HOLLAND: Oh good.

JOHN ENROTH: Because he had a really good system to make sure that everything --

BILL HOLLAND: Is that a waterphone up there too?

JOHN ENROTH: Yes. That is a waterphone.

BILL HOLLAND: Do they use it to make whale noises or call whales during their mating season I believe?

JOHN ENROTH: [LAUGHING] I think Mark just uses it for cool sounds.

BILL HOLLAND: It makes really cool sounds. What are some of the other, I mean, other mics up here.

JOHN ENROTH: Well, you know, Daniel Lanois being Daniel Lanois, we’ve got some Sony microphones, Mariah Carey’s vocal mic of choice which you think why would Mark need that but it really has that modern R&B sound. You just plug the mic in and there you go, and if we need that sound, we got it, and it’s an amazing microphone. There’s some more M49s. One of these Sony C37’s Bob Dylan actually sang through for one of the albums that Daniel produced.

Yeah. At some point, he had plans to clear all this stuff out and get this all ready to have an orchestra in here because it’s a big enough space...

BILL HOLLAND: Right.

JOHN ENROTH: ...to do everything. I mean even with Live Aquatic, we had a whole string section upstairs that we tracked twice to make it sound like a full orchestra. We did all the brass in that same room, all that stuff.

BILL HOLLAND: Yeah.