But I can’t say that there was any great master plan involved, it was just a sort of a natural evolution.ĭescribe the evolution of Information Society over the years and how the band has withstood the test of time almost 40 years later. For most, you try to imitate your idols and then eventually-when you get good enough or lucky enough-craft your own thing. And it’s funny because if you listen carefully to that first Wide Angle Records album, which really was an EP, and if you were familiar with what was on the air in 1984, you can totally pick off the artists that we were emulating for each one of those songs. Every artist makes their own synthesis-no pun intended-of their influences. What made your sound standout from others during that period? Information Society’s sound seemed so uniquely different from many of the ’80s New Wave artists. Ultimately, we combined the song craft and the romantic overtones that we were picking up from the British bands along with the beats coming out of New York, and that was the two-cent formula that we ended up eventually co-opting as the Information Society sound. After that, we started hearing “electro” bands in NYC and that really turned us on. And then the whole new romantic thing kicked in with a lot of British and German bands. We were all influenced by what was around us, but when new wave music started to trickle into Minneapolis, which is where we grew up, it really opened our eyes to what was truly possible.īands like Kraftwerk, Gary Numan, and a German band called D.A.F., were incredibly influential on us in the early days even though we didn’t really end up sounding much like that kind of proto-industrial music. James Cassidy was in a band playing Black Sabbath covers. Kurt Larson was listening to Styx, The Beatles, and all things progressive. New wave was so important to us, yet we all came at it from different musical points of view. It is so hard to get across the idea to the younger generation how open it felt in the early ’80s.
INFORMATION SOCIETY SOMETHING IN THE AIR LICENSE
Fast forward a year and a half later, and that single ended up causing a major stir in New York, ultimately inspiring Tommy Boy Records to license that song and eventually sign us to a first major record deal. It was on that album that our song “Running” first appeared. Ultimately, they gave us some money and helped us distribute our next album. And like a lot of fledgling record labels, they started out by owning a record shop. About a year later, we regrouped and tried again with the support of a local DJ along with a small indie label in Minneapolis called Wide Angle Records. Finally, someone pulled us aside and said, “If you want to be discovered, you’ll need to make some recordings in order to put out records.” Sounded fairly easy (laughs), so we eventually scraped up some money-I believe the whole recording budget was $600-went into a studio, and recorded our first self-released EP.įunny thing about that EP, it just wouldn’t sell and most of the vinyl ended up being thrown away. As a matter of fact, for the first year or two, we kept having discussions about why we weren’t being discovered and were very frustrated. In the early days of the band, we really didn’t understand much about the music industry. Share with our readers how you got your start in the music industry? We recently spoke with Information Society founding member Paul Robb to discuss all-things INSOC including their challenging start in the music industry, a storied 40-year career, as well as their upcoming release, ODDfellows. Future singles such as “Walking Away” and “Peace and Love, Inc.,” cemented their place as one of the quintessential synth-pop bands of all time. Their 1985 classic “Running” became an instant classic in NYC and helped catapult the band from obscurity to stardom. Paul, Minnesota, three friends-Kurt Larson, James Cassidy, and Paul Robb-came together to form a band known simply as Information Society. Artists like Kraftwerk, Gary Numan, and OMD were coming on strong and opened doors for other artists looking for the freedom to express themselves in new and untraditional ways.īorn in a dorm room in 1982 in St. The early 1980s was a magical time for electronic music.
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