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LEN DELESSIO

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 This interview was excerpted from the June 1979 issue of Contem-
porary Keyboard. Visit keyboardmag.com to read the full Interview.

z
he’s one of the top studio synthesists in
New York, and while you’ve more than
likely never heard her name before, it
would have been hard for you to have had a large Moog there and an o–žG ‹‹G  –œG ŽŒ›G ™–”G ž–™’•ŽG –™G iœŠ“ˆG ›–G
incredible array of junk from —“ˆ •ŽGšŒšš–•šfG
avoided hearing her work. Take this, for example:
surplus. You could spend all the I had hoped that from working for Buchla I
Remember that Coca-Cola commercial where time you wanted soldering and would learn how to build a synthesizer, because I
someone pops open a bottle of Coke and pours it reorganizing old junk into new had to have one. The Mills College situation was
junk. So, I went to work for Don impossible, but there weren’t many synthesizers
into a glass? Guess what. That wasn’t the sound of Buchla, who was the local man- available at the time. There was one at the gradu-
a bottle of Coke being opened. It wasn’t the sound ufacturer of synthesizers. He ate school, but it wasn’t allowed to be touched. It
also happened to be one of the was still in boxes. They didn’t know how to set it
of Coke being poured out, either. It was the sound most sophisticated. So, I was in up. There was a lot of egotism centered around
of a Buchla synthesizer being manipulated by Su- the right place at the right time. electronic music at that time. People had a lot of
insecurities about not knowing what they were
zanne Ciani to sound like Coke.
~ˆ›G’•‹G–Gž–™’G‹‹G –œG doing so they hid behind egotism.
It’s typical for Suzanne to do 50 or so sessions ‹–G–™GiœŠ“ˆfG Anyway, I announced—that’s usually the way I
a week, so you can imagine just how many com- I started out soldering and do things, I make a decision and then that’s it—that
I was fired after the first day. I was going to get a synthesizer. Everybody thought
mercials she’s done. She can’t even begin to re- I’ve always held that against that was very piggish of me. Here I was making $3
member all of the people she’s worked for, but off him, but I refused to leave. I an hour and within a year I had an $8,500 Buchla.
called him a chauvinist, which That was the beginning. But it did necessitate find-
the top of her head, she recalls having done things
he was. It was quite a situa- ing a commercial outlet to pay for my habit. So that
for Lincoln/Mercury, American Express, NBC, tion he had going. We were was when I started doing commercials.
ABC, General Electric, Atari, General Motors, all lined up at a bench. He al-
ways liked to surround him- ~ˆšG›Gˆ™‹G›–G‰™Œˆ’G•fG
Time Magazine, and Sperry/Rand, not to mention self with people. I don’t know Very, very hard. It really takes years and a lot of
Meco’s disco version of the theme from Star Wars. how you’d characterize them, persistence. It’s a very closed business. It takes a long
but it wasn’t strictly business. time to build up your credibility and reputation.
Suzanne’s massive Buchla synthesizer sports The people who worked there
no keyboard at all. It was designed by Don Buchla, were all his friends. They were o–žG‹‹G –œG‹–G›fG
philosophers, poets, dancers, The first thing I did was to try to become a
who feels that keyboards have no business being
and Sanskrit specialists! They recording engineer. I looked in the yellow pages
interfaced with synthesizers. all learned how to solder, and and went to every recording studio in the San
we would sit at the bench. But Francisco Bay Area. There was no receptivity at
no one was allowed to talk. I all for women engineers. I had no doubt that I
~Œ•G‹‹G›ŒGš •›Œš¡Œ™GŠ–”ŒG•›–G›ŒG—Š›œ™ŒfG don’t even know if I should be saying all of this... could do it, but it’s a typical problem for women. I
After college, I went off to graduate school in think they fester in the wings too long and become
California. I went to U.C. Berkeley. Of course, I was p›˅šG –’ˆ SG žŒ˅ŒG Œˆ™‹G ›ˆ›G iœŠ“ˆG ‹–Œš•˅›G overqualified. Anyway, the recording studio situ-
seeking the antidote for the East Coast and all of their “’ŒG j–•›Œ”—–™ˆ™ G rŒ ‰–ˆ™‹G ‰ŒŠˆœšŒG ›˅šG ation didn’t work. I ended up getting my first job
academic things. While I was there I found that grad ’Œ ‰–ˆ™‹TG–™Œ•›Œ‹G ˆ•‹G ŒG ‹–Œš•˅›G ›•’G ›ŒG from a friend of a friend. I was in Chicago visiting
school is even more irrelevant than I had ever hoped! š •›Œš¡Œ™Gš–œ“‹GˆŒGˆG’Œ ‰–ˆ™‹G–•G›UG and a film producer there needed some music for
I continued my studies right through in a kind of I know. There’s a certain philosophy which Don- Macy’s commercials for Christmas. They were to
automatic way, but I discovered an electronic music ald has and which I adopted just by being in that situ- be all-electronic, and I took the scripts back with
center—it was one of the first ones in the country—out ation. It is very anti-keyboard. Although I had been a me and hid in the Mills College studio. Technically
at Mills College. You could rent studio time for $5 an pianist, I found that when I seriously got involved in you aren’t allowed to do commercial music there.
hour, which was very reasonable. At first there were the Buchla synthesizer it did not interest me whatso- Of course, nobody at Mills even knew what com-
a few really serious people who did as they pleased, ever to play keyboard in connection with the synthe- mercial music was. So, I did these 22 Macy’s com-
but eventually the situation changed. In order to keep sizer, because there seemed to be more to it than just mercials and they came out just perfectly. I made a
funding for the program they had to get grants, and keyboard. The keyboard is basically a one-on-one lot of money doing that. I developed a taste for it,
the grants necessitated developing academic pro- device—one action produces one response. You’re too. From then on, I had to go around San Francis-
grams. With that went the creativity. not really limited to that in the synthesizer. When co looking for work. There’s not a lot of commer-
All the Mills students used to take the class to fulfill you get into the habit of controlling any number of cial production there, and there never has been. It
their requirements. They weren’t that serious. They events, the keyboard seems too one-dimensional. was a small market so it was a good place to start.

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~Œ™ŒG –œG–•“ G‹–•ŽGšŠ–™•ŽGž–™’SG–™G‹‹G –œG is what they’re doing with spatial modulation, but When I first got involved with all this stuff,
—Œ™–™”G–•GŒ“ŒŠ›™–•ŠšG›––fG you can’t move anything except what you generate people didn’t realize that sound wasn’t important
I did both from the beginning. Because I have a digitally. That’s the thing I’m involved in—this quad to me. It was the way that I could move it that in-
background in scoring and arranging and because I thing. I’m really angry that quad is dead on the con- terested me. That’s what it’s all about. That’s why
happened to be very specialized in electronics I never sumer level. I know that quad will be the biggest I hated keyboards. Eventually timbre got more in-
wanted to get cubbyholed as an electronics person. I thing eventually. I know it: It died because there was teresting because there were more sophisticated
thought that was too limiting. It was limiting at the never any decent product. Nobody put money into control devices. If you talk about a digital Mello-
time, because people were just beginning to find out developing products, because they were all hung up tron and recording sounds, yes, having a library of
what a Moog synthesizer was. It was very frustrating. about what format it was going to be in and nobody sounds is a part of it. But the trick is knowing what
You couldn’t take out an instrument without having to could decide. I don’t think people understood it. Not to do with them. The interface between you and the
answer 1,001 questions. So, I was involved in produc- many people even know what spatial modulation is sound is important to me. The technique of playing
ing commercials and scoring films and I did some of or how great it is until they’ve experienced it. is no simple thing. If you’re playing a Lyricon you
my own projects. I had a little studio where I could set know you have to use a different technique in order
up my synthesizer and do my own work. ~ŒG ˆŒG ›–G ˆš’G  –œG ˆ‰–œ›G ›ˆ›G j–ŠˆTj–“ˆG to be expressive. You develop new patterns to get
Š–””Œ™Šˆ“UG the same things on different instruments.
~ˆ›G’•‹šG–G›•ŽšG‹–G –œGˆŒG›–G‹Œˆ“Gž›G Yes. I’m the queen of soft drinks now! I’ve done My real dream machine is to have a theater. It’s
•G›Œ™”šG–GšŠ–™•ŽfG~ˆ›G’•‹šG–G›•ŽšG‹–G sounds for Fanta and Sprite… awful to talk about technology because it sounds
—Œ–—“ŒGˆ•‹G –œG›–G™Œˆ‹fG so much like technology, but it’s not. We have this
Now that I have the opportunity, I would say that z •›Œš¡•ŽG›•ŽšG›ˆ›Gˆ™ŒG—–œ™•ŽG–œ›G”œš›G fixation that technology is something concrete. It’s
my main complaint used to be that there was a lack ŽŒG  –œG ˆG •ŠŒG –œ›“Œ›G –™G š—ˆ›ˆ“G ”–‹œ“ˆT a thing unto itself. You don’t discuss fiber content
of understanding of what the synthesizer could do. ›–•G›•ŽšSGŒŒ•GžŒ•G›G–•“ GŠ–”ŒšG–œ›G–GˆG when you’re buying a new dress. You talk about
Now my main complaint is that producers do not ”–•–Gš—Œˆ’Œ™UG the way things feel. What’s really important to me
leave room for the synthesizer. They continue to Yeah. At first, I had all kinds of ideas for that. I tried is controlling sound in space. I will never give up
treat it as an after-the-fact overdubbed instrument. to make the bubbles sing. I was going to play the jingle saying that. Nobody can ever tell me that quad is
I worked with a producer just recently and it’s a per- in the bubbles. I had all the harmonics tuned to play dead. Sound is changing now. We’re finally getting
fect example of that kind of thinking. He came to me a melody, but it didn’t work out. Again, I was given a away from a couple of mechanical axioms. When
and said, “I don’t want you to do the typical dumb hole to fill and the thing that read quickest and worked it’s really free it’ll be like a substance you could
synthesizer lines. We know what you can do and we the best was the single line up to infinity. It’s a perfect reach out and touch. That’s the kind of sound I
want you to do it.” So I thought, ‘’Terrific.” I patched pour. It’s really very easy. The harmonics are the har- want in my theater. Quad is a nice thing for that.
a few things and he said, “Great! Let’s do that.” Then monics of a sub-audio fundamental. You sweep up the It lets you bounce sound here and there. The thing
he puts the track on that I’m supposed to do this harmonics, and then the noise part of course is FMing that people thought it would do was create “con-
great stuff to and there’s no room. You can’t come in the filter. That’s how you get that fuzzy sound. cert hall realism.” We all know that’s bullshit. Who
when they’ve done strings, horns, vocals, and bass needs concert hall reality? It doesn’t relate to any-
lines that move too much. It’s so busy that you can’t jˆ•G –œGŒ•š–•GˆG‹™Œˆ”G”ˆŠ•ŒG›ˆ›Gž–œ“‹G thing we’re doing. Even smart people in the indus-
do anything but the typical synthesizer line! Œ“”•ˆ›ŒG ˆ•ŽG ›–G ‰™•ŽG ˆ““G ›–šŒG ‹Œ™Œ•›G try think that that’s what quad was about. So right
I would say that if you’re a producer, you’re ’Œ ‰–ˆ™‹šfG now, it’s not the time for my theater.
better off starting from the very beginning with Well, my studio dream machine of course is the
the person that’s going to do your electronics for digital Mellotron. It would obviate the need for k–ŒšG ›ŒG ‹Œ–G ‹šŠG •›Œ™Œš›G  –œG ž›G ™ŒŽˆ™‹G
you. It’s an opportunity at least to get something anything else, because you would have access to ›–G œš•ŽG ›G ›–G Š™Œˆ›ŒG ˜œˆ‹G ›•ŽšG ˆ“–•ŽG ž›G
that works. Because what happens if you want the all the parameters of any sound, and the ability to ‹Œ–GŒŒŠ›šfG
electronics to be doing a sequencer-type thing? manipulate them in any way you wanted to. I think only in a consumer market. My dream
If the music is laid down beforehand, you can’t thing has to do with a performance space and the-
get the sequencer to follow the musicians—only iœ›G‹–Œš•˅›G›ˆ›G”Œˆ•G –œGž–œ“‹G“›Œ™ˆ““ GˆŒG ater. I might mention that disco interests me in
the musicians can follow the sequencer. Ideally it ›–G™ŒŠ–™‹GŒŒ™ Gš–œ•‹G•GŒŸš›Œ•ŠŒG‹Ž›ˆ““ fG that respect. I think that disco is the grass roots
should all be integrated from the beginning. Yes, and you could decide what it is you want growth of the theatre of the future.
to manipulate and feed immediately. You want to
~ˆ›G‹–G –œG›•’G–Gš›™ˆŽ›G‹Ž›ˆ“Gš •›ŒššfG play a bass line that sounds like a basketball, you iŒŠˆœšŒG ›G ŽŒ›šG —Œ–—“ŒG •–“Œ‹G •G žˆ›˅šG
Digitally generated sounds just haven’t made it just feed it in. The machine would interpolate the ˆ——Œ••ŽfG
yet in terms of sound. They can make it eventually, sound up and down. There are obvious problems Yes. The emphasis is on the environment and
but in digital things you’re required to describe ev- in doing this. An Eventide Harmonizer can take the experience. You know, the senses, the emotion,
erything you want to hear, unless you have short cuts things up and down a little bit now, but the sound, the volume, the visuals. It’s
like FM [frequency modulation]. FM is perfect be- lots of changes occur in the sounds. a very intense theater and the people
cause it’s easy and it gives you nice rich waveforms, are the performers. The sound comes
but it’s still not the answer. I studied computer music p›GšŒŒ”šG“’ŒG –œGŠ–œ“‹G‹–Gžˆ›G –œG at you from all different directions.
at Stanford with John Chowning. It was really terrif- žˆ•›G›–G‹–Gž›G –œ™G‹Ž›ˆ“GtŒ““–T The visuals are coordinated with the
ic. The computer world is another world altogether. ›™–•Gž›G›ˆ—ŒG“––—šGˆ•‹GˆG–Š–‹Œ™UG sound. Some of it’s tasteful and some
It allows you to look at things that you could never pšG›Œ™ŒGˆ• ›•ŽG›ˆ›GšGˆ““G›ˆ›G‹T of it isn’t, but basically, I think that’s
get your hands on in an analog situation. Œ™Œ•›Gˆ‰–œ›G‹–•ŽG›Gž›G –œ™G‹ŽT where it’s going to grow out of. Discos
One of the things that’s really great at Stanford ›ˆ“GtŒ““–›™–•fG are a very convenient coincidence. Q

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