Since forming in 1996, Martyn Leaper and the Minders have morphed from Elephant 6 darlings to twee-pop anarchists, throwing love bombs and denouncing nothing. Most non-fans remember the Minders’ auspicious 1998 debut, Hooray For Tuesday, and its unfairly derided follow-up, 2001’s Golden Street, but the band was active until 2006’s slight-but-lovely It’s A Bright Guilty World. The Minders’ only interim release has been the second web-only iteration of their odds-and-sods Cul-De-Sacs And Dead Ends. In the gap, Leaper wrote and demoed new songs when he could crowbar it into his 40-hour work week. Along with renowned producer Larry Crane (Elliott Smith, Sleater-Kinney), Leaper began finding the thread of Into The River, the first actual Minders studio work in a decade. Leaper will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our Minders feature.
Leaper: The process of recording music on a budget is nothing new today. Most independent bands release their own music after having produced it in a home studio, and with the advent of digital recording and streaming, the transition from recording to broadcasting music can be achieved with little to almost no budget. The idea of developing equipment for home recording was born in Japan, and made possible by a team of engineers from the TASC group (Teac Audio Systems Corporation). In the early 1970s, The TASCAM (Teac Audio Systems Corporation of America was established, and began distributing its products in the U.S. The first multitrack recording unit to be sold in the States was the A3340, which was a quadraphonic unit, however what made the tape deck an overnight success was the Simul-sync technology that made it possible to record on one track, while listening to another. The affordability of the unit was also key making it possible for struggling artists to record their demos and then shop them to labels. The advent of the independent DIY music world would most certainly never have occurred without the savvy technological marketing ability of the T.A.S.C.A.M corporation.
Here is a picture of my TEAC A3440: I have owned this machine for more than 20 years, and have recorded several albums on it. Needless to say, I love this deck!
