The makers of the film I Dream of Wires have memorialized Mike McGrath, the legendary forum hosted and modular community builder whom we lost this week, releasing their full interview with him.
In the interview, Mike talks about his early inspiration (Pink Floyd and their Synthi) and the genesis of the Muffwiggler forum, which would become the go-to for synth nerds and modular in particular. Brian from Zerosum and Eric from Metasonix were among the first to sign up, Mike recounts. (Eric was certainly one of the first I got to know starting CDM.)
He also makes a compelling argument for why time with synths can be about more than producing tracks. (And, really, given the number of tracks out there, why should that necessarily be the objective? Isn’t the sound just as real? I happened to be having this conversation with Andreas Schneider this afternoon, that synths are not necessarily about production.)
“It’s all very fleeting – a lot of the precious things in life are fleeting.”
He also touches some of the gender balance issue, which had been a source of controversy on Muffwiggler, specifically. But most of the content here is about his own personal draw to modular – putting a human face on the man who built a community for so many people.
The synth world will miss Mike. If there is a place with an endless rack and never-ending modules, I hope he’s found it.