So who are you?
The name's Tony Reinhold, and I was born and raised in South Bend, Indiana. I've never explicitly been involved in music until I was in a band class in 5th grade, and I've never shared an affinity for creating music until 2004. Four years later, after a few songs and a crippling sense of self-consciousness, I've opened up a website to publically release my music and blog musical aspirations.
What's with "The Penultimate Nobody"?
It means I'm not quite a nobody. People have listened to my music, and they like it. This isn't 2004, and I'm not so self-conscious of my talents, or lack thereof, anymore. In that sense, I'm not that person who'll never be heard anymore, instead, I'm just that guy who's only heard by the few people who appreciate his music. I'll never be the greatest musician ever, but by the same token, I'll never be the worst. I may be on the worst side of the spectrum, but at least I'm not THE worst guy on that side of the spectrum. I make music the way I like it, for my own enjoyment, so love it or hate it, no one can take that away from me. I've tried the MySpace game, and not a whole lot came of that, so why be one face in a sea of millions on some blogging network, as long as I give a constant stream of updates (of which I admit I have done a terrible job doing), a website alone should work quite well. So yeah, if you do find the music here enjoyable and interesting, please spread that word of mouth around, and let others know there's some really obscure guy out there who makes electronic music (or good electronic music, if you're feeling generous) that they might kind of like.
What are your influences?
My earliest influence, and I say this without a trace of self-centeredness, is myself. Every weekend, I would visit my grandmother's house, and the first thing I would do is hole myself up in the back room, where the organ was. Flipping any combination of switches led to an otherworldly sound, and the melodies that I found by accident, or could play by ear, made the experience so much greater.
But I've always listened to a lot of music growing up, so before I get into my inspirations, here's a list of my favorite bands and musicians in general, just to get an idea on the background of my musical tastes in the big picture:
AC/DC, Aerosmith, Alanis Morisette, Andre 3000, Andrew W.K., Audioslave, Bill Eager, Boyz II Men, Buddy Holly, Collective Soul, Creed, Dave Matthews Band, David Bowie, Five Iron Frenzy, Foo Fighters, Genesis, Huey Lewis and the News, Journey, LCD Soundsystem, Led Zeppelin, Michael Jackson, Newsboys, Peter Gabriel, Prince, Queens of the Stone Age, Rush, Steve Miller Band, Terry Riley, The Beatles, The Who, Tubeway Army, and "Weird Al" Yankovic
Now my inspirations, on the other hand, there's really only two big inspirations to speak of, but they share the stage with any band or musician that can be labelled "electronic". The first inspiration is Moby. Up until the summer of 2001, I never really paid attention to any electronic music, but that was until I heard "Porcelain" from his 1999 album "Play". I quickly procured a copy of that album, and listened to it every afternoon when I walked around the neighborhood. I have since become a big fan of his music, and it laid the groundwork for my interest in electronic music as a whole, which led me into discovering the one person who's my biggest inspiration.
Even though he's part of the same decade that other favorite bands of mine, like Animotion, The Human League, Thomas Dolby, Peter Gabriel, and many others have helped dominate, he's more to me than "that guy who made 'Cars'". I talk of course, about Gary Numan. Obviously, I'd always heard Cars growing up, but I never really thought much of Numan after the song, Cars was just one of those songs I'd hear, get really into it, then hope that the next time I hear it on the radio comes quickly. In 1999, I finally got my second experience of his music, through an acquaintance of mine in the form of a MIDI titled "Down in the Park", though the MIDI was modelled after the Foo Fighters cover of it. I loved Cars, and I ended up loving Down in the Park, moreso when I got the actual song. A couple more years later, I decided to find some other music he'd done, and came up with "Are 'Friends' Electric?". From the first few seconds, I was already mesmerized, and I had begun to collect more and more of his songs until I had practically all of them. I envied Gary Numan's library of music, because he wrote the kind of music I was trying to make back when I was a 6 year old scamp toying around on my grandmother's organ. Moreso, Numan wouldn't have been the respected electronic musician he is today if, during the sessions for his post-punk debut album, he hadn't asked someone in the studio if he could toy with another band's synth before they picked it up, immensely enjoying what he had heard the second he played it, much in the same way I toyed around on that organ and enjoying the sounds I'd heard. So it all actually comes very, very full circle for me.
