Richard Barone is an example to all of us who get trapped in our daily grind. He seems to be the perpetual glass-half-full kind of guy. He admits he feels pretty much the same way he did 30 years ago when Barone on lead vocals and guitar along with bassist Rob Norris and drummer Frank Giannini gave birth to the Bongos, a wonderful, jangly power-pop combo that could light up any room with its overflowing energy. It’s difficult to believe that their new album, Phantom Train (Jem), is not really new at all. With guitarist James Mastro added to the band, it was cut in 1985 and 1986 and has languished on the shelf ever since. Barone has also kindly agreed to serve as guest editor for magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with him.
Barone: The Casio company had been making calculators and. later watches, since the 1950s, but in 1980 they entered the musical instrument world with the Casiotone line of keyboards. The influence of these instruments cannot be underestimated, as throughout the first half of the decade they were everywhere. By the mid-’80s, Casio had developed the first digital piano and the first digital guitar. But it was their 1981 pocket-sized synth, the VL-1, that grabbed my attention and is still in my arsenal of devices when I go into the studio. Sometimes lovingly referred to as the “viletone,” this mini monophonic keyboard was admittedly limited: A two-octave keyboard of raised calculator-spaced keys and sounds that were unrecognizable from their names (“Piano” especially inappropriate, but none of them sounded remotely like anything real). Nonetheless, its uses for me continue to be endless. Maybe because the sounds themselves are unique, and can be run through even the simplest effects and guitar stompboxes to make new sounds. For instance, you can create quite a nice electronic string-ensemble effect, one that is more transparent and “sweeter” than most, by multitracking the violin several times to make chords. Or you can augment a real string section in this way. The “Flute” sound stacks up nicely, too. As does the “Fantasy” setting, the most aptly named. The sequencer is cool, and the built-in beat box, though kitschy to a fault, is always good for a smile to relieve tensions in the studio. With the Bongos, I was known to use the VL-1 as a slide on my guitar onstage, plugged into an amp while the keyboard played a sequence I had programmed in the appropriate key. I was photographed and featured in Keyboard magazine doing this, much to the consternation of serious keyboard players. The VL-1 is one of those misfit instruments that is hated by some, which makes me love it even more. And the calculator totally rocks.
Video after the jump.
