I was born in December of 1954. When I was going to college the first time (in the mid seventies) I worked in a record store. This store sold 33 1/3 rpm albums, 45 rpm singles, 8-track and cassette tapes, but no CD’s. (they hadn’t been invented yet) The Sony WALKMAN was still about six years away. Nobody anywhere had a personal computer (for those of you who want to talk about home brew tty’s and the IMSAI, just drop it.) The college I went to had one (1) computer and 25,000 students.  What I was totally geeking out over in 1975 was an analog synthesizer. (I was a teaching assistant in an electronic music class as my other job) I would spend long hours in the electronics music lab programming an ARP 2600 synth and other exotic gear, and recording my efforts on a TEAC A-3340 four track reel to reel recorder. At the store I would listen to any kind of electronic music I could get my hands on and there were plenty to choose from.  There were classical synthesists like Isao Tomita, keyboard wizards like Keith Emerson, eclectic genii like Brian Eno, and there were these crazy new wave rockers from Akron Ohio who talked about the theory of DEVOLUTION.

I remember first hearing about DEVO from my friend Wayne Bernhard. Wayne also worked at the record store. (Music Plus number five in Westminster, California)  who had seen their short film (the truth about De Evolution) seen HERE:

This totally caught my attention. This was a band that were really outside of the entire idea of rock and roll. They were nerds with electronic toys, much like a guy I saw each day in the mirror. I became a HUGE fan, and actually attended their very first performance in Los Angeles, at the Starwood club.  This was right before they signed with Warner Brothers. My name, as you might have noticed, is David. Pretty soon my friends in the record store started calling me D-A-V-O and the name stuck.

It got the second A for a number of different reasons, but these days daav0 is a good way to find me on everything from my California license plate to an internet search. There is a catch. You will have to figure it out for yourself, and it’s not hard.

The rest is history.  Lots more to say but for tonight we are done.