Art + Music + Technology

Sometimes I just get lucky; in this case, I happened to skip over to the 'check your messages' widget in Facebook, and saw that I had a conversation I'd never checked into. It was from Benjamin Hinz of Dwarfcraft Devices, and we started talking about doing an interview. When I realized that he was in Eau Claire (about a 1 1/2 hour drive from me), I knew that we needed to do this face-to-face. And so we did! I got a chance to see the Dwaftcraft offices, say hi to some of the people working their (and see their process in action) and have a lunch at Culver's (which is something that every Midwesterner would understand). Then we holed up in Ben's office - which is filled to the brim with instruments, circuit boards and drawings - and did our interview. He's got some interesting ideas about music-making and circuit and product design, and has come to these ideas through hard work and a player's experience. I always appreciate people that balance the player and design aesthetic, and Ben does that to a T. I had a g