Rob Garza

Visible throughout the music video for “Something That’s Different” starting at 2:04.

Visible in Instagram posts dated June 20, 2014 and February 12, 2016.

Mentioned in this December 18, 2018 Oregon Music News interview and visible in this July 20, 2021 Instagram post.

What’s your favorite gear to use?

I love old synthesizers, old Rolands, Korgs, especially the Roland JP 8000, Moogs, the Korg MS2000 has also been a favorite keyboard. Sometimes it is great to pull out old drum machines and guitars as well. We have used an old Wurlitzer we got from a school auction—that one has been on many records. We sometimes just pull up a lot of random things gear-wise as well.

In a February 5, 2020, Instagram post by Rob Garza, the Roland Juno-60 synthesizer is visible, showcasing its use in his setup.

Used for Sounds from the Thievery Hi-Fi and The Mirror Conspiracy, as stated by bandmate Eric Hilton in this May 15, 2017 Music Radar interview.

Why did you adopt electronic music rather than just using acoustic instruments?

“It’s the power of the sampler … You can sample sounds like kicks and snares, chop up beats and make your own beats. That’s what gave birth to our music from the very get go. We were using an Akai MPC3000 as our main brain when we made our first two records and a couple of other workstations back then, which were keyboards that had samplers built in. Our music was heavily sample based, and that was exciting, and it’s still exciting to use snippets of things and treat them in a certain way.”

What workstation were you using?

“The Ensoniq ASR-10, which was like our tape machine because it had 270 seconds of mono sampling time. When we recorded a vocal, we would record it onto DAT and bounce pieces of it onto the keys of the ASR-10 and then the Akai would trigger the different keys in a sequence. That’s how we taped, which is kind of incredible – we’d store the vocals on floppy discs. The saddest thing is that my ASR-10 start-up disk is broken.”

(...) Did you combine gear with Rob initially?

“We did. Both of us had limited gear, but together it was enough. I think I only had the ASR-10, a turntable and a bunch of records. Rob had the Akai and I can’t remember what we used for monitors at the beginning; it wasn’t anything special. Eventually we bought a pair of the cheapest Tannoys, which we still use today as our main reference monitors because we know and trust them so well. We set up a studio in a friend’s bedroom and used that for a few weeks and made two songs. We hit it off and really liked working together, so we moved into what was, basically, the liquor room of Eighteenth Street Lounge – a club I’d started with some friends. Then we found a studio space right next to the lounge and rented that out for about ten years.”

Used for The Temple of I & I, as stated by bandmate Eric Hilton in this May 15, 2017 Music Radar interview.

“We are pretty hooked on Pro Tools these days. We used to use Logic, but we like the sound of Pro Tools because it seems a little less dark, and we’re using a lot of UA plug-ins. We have a lot of outboard gear too, a lot of vintage compressors that we use a lot. We use a lot of vintage keys, like a real Wurlitzer keyboard and an old Lowrey organ. For keys, I really like the vintage stuff – we just got a Korg Polysix synth that we’re really into. But we basically stopped engineering our own stuff after our second album, so we rely on an engineer these days.”

Visible in Instagram posts dated April 2, 2021, June 11, 2021 and June 14, 2021.

The office.

#musician #musicianlife #keyboards #roland #arturia #korg #nativeinstruments #synth #electronicmusic #triphop #thieverycorporation #garza

Mentioned in this December 18, 2018 Oregon Music News interview and visible in this April 2, 2021 Instagram post.

What’s your favorite gear to use?

I love old synthesizers, old Rolands, Korgs, especially the Roland JP 8000, Moogs, the Korg MS2000 has also been a favorite keyboard. Sometimes it is great to pull out old drum machines and guitars as well. We have used an old Wurlitzer we got from a school auction—that one has been on many records. We sometimes just pull up a lot of random things gear-wise as well.

Visible in this July 1, 2020 Instagram post.

Visible in Instagram posts dated July 1, 2020 and April 2, 2021.

Featured in this April 2, 2021 Instagram post.

The office.

#musician #musicianlife #keyboards #roland #arturia #korg #nativeinstruments #synth #electronicmusic #triphop #thieverycorporation #garza

Rob Garza used the Korg Wavestate during a performance at the Butterfly Dance in Austria on July 5, 2024. His Instagram post features a photo where the synth's brand and model are clearly visible.