Mikael Jorgensen

Movere Workshop:

Rob DiPatri - Guitar / Bass / Ambient Percussion Drenched in Reverb
Paul Finn - Guitar / Keyboards / Systemische
Mikael Jorgensen - Keyboards / Guitar / Logistics / Wet Blanket
Greg O’Keeffe - Drums / Conga / Kalimba Smashing
Chris Girard - Guitar / Murderous Rage

In 1995, I was working at an audio rental house in New York City, appropriately named “The Rental Company.” We rented out all sorts of pro-audio gear to studios in and around Manhattan. On weekends, I would take home a few items that didn’t get rented and would record stuff. The very first time I met Greg O’Keeffe, I had a Sony-PCM800 digital 8 track machine, a mixer and some mics and we got to work right away. We were filled with ambition and a love of what we dubbed “Motion Rock” - the motoric music made popular by The Velvet Underground, Neu!, Can and our contemporaries at the time Stereolab.

I moved into a loft in New Brunswick, NJ while I was attending DeVry Tech (absolutely true) learning about electronics and computers. We had this idealistic vision of living our music, and we got pretty close. The whole idea was to eschew the traditional song form and try and make something new. Little did we realize that we were participating in an ongoing conversation that had been crystallized very well by the German group CAN. We wore our influences on our sleeves and somehow survived on ramen packets and $2 a pack cigarettes.

We hosted bands in our loft like Jonathan Fire*Eater, and Rex while throwing epic holiday parties. It was totally illegal and the cops came EVERY time. I loved living like a weirdo with my three other roommates. We recorded a lot of what we did without really understanding what we were doing and that was the fun of it. Spirited youngsters hacking away at the great unknown. We were so weary of the heavy rock music that dominated the day and offered an antidote to it.

Most of us moved to Chicago in 1997 and 1998 and we tried to make a go of it there but after a couple of shows, one at the Empty Bottle and at the legendary Lounge Ax and for one reason or another, we kind of fizzled out. But that fizzle turned into great things for all of us, so I recall this time with great fondness as it was a transition from our suburban upbringing to what we considered a more urbane and enlightened way of life.