MODULAR PODCAST
INTERVIEW
In this interview I talk to Girts from Erica Synths about how the company started, how they managed to create such a strong and large product line and where he sees the company heading in the future.
- So Girts, tell us how did you get into synths and electronics prior to modular. Do you have a background in similar things?
I grew up in a small village and for some reason from early childhood I had a drive for
inventing things, doing something that others don’t do, and so on. Ignoring the fact that I didn’t have any reasonable tools, advice, references or examples from others in my teenage years I built velomobile, a delta plane (which luckily didn’t fly), electrical grass trimer,
emulated space shuttle Challenger disaster with 80cm high model of it, turned accordion into aqualung, considered applying to military school in Moscow, performed crazy stunts on a bike, that I would never do today, and other totally crazy stuff.
When I was in 7th grade in primary school, I “borrowed” from school library a book about some DIY electronics and I totally fell for it. Back then Latvia was a part of Soviet Union, and we were basically isolated from information around the rest of the world, but I
subscribed to both DIY monthly magazines available in USSR. In the secondary school I
already have developed some synths and stompboxes. In beginning of 90s I moved to Riga, capital city of Latvia, studied physics and become a physics teacher. Then my skills of building stompboxes advanced to the level that I could sell them. But when Latvia gained independence, market opened, and western-produced electronics become available and I put DIY electronics hobby aside.