It's a weird technique but it works. If you bake tapes at a certain temperature - I think it's 130 degrees - something happened to the magnetic particles, so you can restore them. The key is to do the transfer to digital while it's still warm. If it's done right, the new digital version will actually improve upon the quality of the original. If you do it wrong, though, the tapes will melt!
Veronica VasickaI don't really like the bands that think they're still in 1982. It's boring. When retro sounds are combined with a modern approach, it can be great.
Veronica VasickaWhen I reissue these Minimal Wave Record songs, I also re-master them. With Oppenheimer Analysis, it turned out that the band still had the master tapes. So, Martin Lloyd from the band and I baked the tapes to restore the quality.
Veronica VasickaI was really into what is called "minimal synth" - music made strictly on analog synths, and also cold wave, basically a more synth-based version of European post-punk, at that point. So, I decided my own show Minimal Wave was a good way to combine the minimal electronics aspect with the "wave," where guitars come into play.
Veronica VasickaIt's a very satisfying feeling for everyone involved into giving bands a new life - for me, the artists, and the audience.
Veronica VasickaI had been DJing a dance night in Brooklyn and witnessed the response people had to "The Devil's Dancers" - Oppenheimer's one hit song. All these young people were dancing to this amazing song, completely unaware of whether it was current or not. It was from 1982, but sounded very current. It made sense that a physical record should exist for this song again. It seemed the obvious choice to represent what Minimal Wave was going to be.
Veronica Vasicka