{"id":14082,"date":"2018-02-20T05:30:01","date_gmt":"2018-02-20T10:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=14082"},"modified":"2018-02-06T06:52:22","modified_gmt":"2018-02-06T11:52:22","slug":"the-wiard-world-of-cary-grace-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2018\/02\/20\/the-wiard-world-of-cary-grace-part-two\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wiard World of Cary Grace (Part Two)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One<\/a>…<\/i><\/p>\n

Grace describes Wiard products as \u201cboutique, made-to-order units. Somebody will get in touch with me and let me know what modules they want, and put down a deposit,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd then\u2014or at the point where I clear whatever I\u2019m working on\u2014I’ll start building. Every single single solder connection is made by hand, by me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sturdy, durable modular units eschew surface mount technology, and are designed for easy repair when needed (\u201cin cases of component failure or moving parts wearing out,\u201d notes the Wiard website, also claiming that Wiard modules are \u201cmore than likely to out-live their owners\u201d). Another company (Malaka) produces Eurorack versions of Wiard technology, while Grace’s business focuses solely on 6U modules. \u201cThey’re the biggest modules I’m aware of,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Oftentimes, synth builders get a sense of market trends; thanks to their contact with end users, they are clued-in early to to incipient demand for specific features. But Grace doesn’t find herself in that position. \u201cI\u2019m probably not the person to ask about trends,\u201d she concedes. \u201cPeople who buy synthesizers are a niche market in and of themselves. Then, in that group, people who buy and play modulars are an even even smaller group. And then you get people who are into these weird, esoteric large-format modulars\u2014of which mine is one\u2014and that’s a really<\/i> small group.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grace says that many of the customers for her modules are \u201cpeople who do film scores and things like that, people who are looking for some different sounds that you can\u2019t just make with a soft synth plugin.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Along with her livelihood as a builder of modular gear, Grace is something of a collector of newer and vintage synths as well. Her studio arsenal\u2014some of which is pressed into use for live gigs, some not\u2014includes a several modulars, a ’70s era Minimoog, an ARP 2600 (serial #13), an ARP Odyssey and a VCS 3. And like most synth aficionados, she has interesting stories about how she acquired some of her gear. <\/p>\n

Around the time when she was overseeing the transition of the Wiard manufacturing operation from the U.S. to England, Grace found herself in a conversation outside a Milwaukee bar. \u201cThis guy\u2014a student\u2014said to me, ‘Hey, I’ve got this Prophet thing. I found it in a garbage heap, but I’ve never managed to get any sound out of it. Do you want it?’\u201d<\/p>\n

Grace arranged to visit the student the very next day. What she found was a rough, severely battered Pro One monosynth from the early 1980s. \u201cIt didn\u2019t have any screws in it,\u201d Grace says with a laugh. \u201cIt had beer tops inside the case, and it was really filthy.\u201d The student offered it for free, but Grace insisted on giving him $100 for his trouble. <\/p>\n

\u201cI took it back home, took the circuit parts out, took everything apart,\u201d Grace recalls. \u201cI cleaned all of it in isopropyl alcohol. It took awhile to get all the crud out of it. And then I lubed all the switches and parts back up with a little oil, and put it back together.\u201d The unit was close to fully functional. After replacing one scaling trimmer on the keyboard and calibrating it, the Pro One was perfect. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing<\/i> wrong with it,\u201d beams Grace. The Sequential Circuits keyboard is now a prominent part of Grace’s studio setup.<\/p>\n

In recent months, Grace has been focused on live performances, often at festivals in and around the UK. \u201cSo I’ve had hardly any time in the studio this year,\u201d she admits. \u201cBut now I’m going to sit down and work on the next album; I’m excited about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with making new music and playing live, Grace is current developing new products to add to the Wiard line. \u201cI\u2019ve got some new modules in the works,\u201d she says. \u201cBecause the plan was always to not let it stagnate, but to actually contribute to it and add new things to it. And I\u2019ve got loads of ideas.\u201d She frets that there \u201caren’t enough hours in the day when you\u2019re trying to do loads of gigs, and recording, and<\/i> building people\u2019s orders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through her years as a musician and synth builder, Grace has been on the receiving end of a lot of advice, \u201csome of which is ridiculous,\u201d she says. \u201cYou hear a lot of this stuff like, ‘Oh, you have to figure out what genre you are and stick to it, or you just confuse people.’ Fuck that!\u201d The variety of her music as showcased on her albums backs up her response.<\/p>\n

She has taken some advice to heart, though. \u201cThere are a couple of things that I always go back to,\u201d she says. One is: ‘If in doubt, take it out.’\u201d The other has served as a creative guide. \u201cIf you ever get to where you just don\u2019t know where to go with something, listen to the Beatles,\u201d Grace says. \u201cThat usually works.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if she has advice of her own to offer, Grace pauses a moment. \u201cI wasted a lot of time being insecure in myself,\u201d she says, \u201cthinking I had to do things the way somebody else said was the right way to do it. Because I didn\u2019t know how to do it and they did. You should always be open to learning, but I think it\u2019s very, very important to not let yourself be influenced by people who are saying, ‘This is the wrong way to do it,’ It\u2019s music, it\u2019s art, you know? It\u2019s totally subjective.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grace points out the way in which perceptions of music differ. \u201cYou can love three of the same songs that somebody else loves, and if you ever get into a conversation about why they like a song, chances are it\u2019s going to be for completely different reasons than why you like it,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd that’s wonderful. It\u2019s just about our humanity and our uniqueness, and that\u2019s the most important, special, vital thing that we have.\u201d<\/p>\n

The most recent Cary Grace musical project to find its way onto physical media is an extremely limited (35 copies) lathe-cut 12\u201d vinyl release. A reading of Pink Floyd’s Atom Heart Mother<\/i>-era tune \u201cFat Old Sun,\u201d Grace’s version takes its inspiration not from the brief, relatively simple album version, but from the band’s epic live readings. Grace and her band\u2014once again featuring Budge on bass guitar\u2014spin the David Gilmour composition out to more than 15 minutes, allowing plenty of space for sonic shade and light, and instrumental spotlights featuring organ, guitar and violin. As has become her custom, Grace hand-designed the packaging for the release, likely doing so while simultaneously soldering components for a custom Wiard module.<\/p>\n

Cary Grace is used to tackling multiple concurrent projects. \u201cI know I have undiagnosed ADHD,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m either scattered all over the place, or just hyper-focused on something. So, any given day, I might set out to do something and I\u2019ll wind up doing something completely different because I get distracted. But more than anything, life and creation inspire me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One… Grace describes Wiard products as \u201cboutique, made-to-order units. Somebody will get in touch with me and let me know what modules they want, and put down […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14084,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,56],"tags":[476,3333],"class_list":["post-14082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-prog","tag-cary-grace","tag-wiard","cat-41-id","cat-56-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14082"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14088,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14082\/revisions\/14088"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}