It’s always good to run into my friends from Howard University. It’s even better when they are alumni of the Howard University Showtime Marching Band. When you add the fact that he’s a member of Thunder Machine, the drum section of the band, that makes it just that much cooler. 

William Northern came with some fiends to see Ain’t Too Proud on Wednesday and we caught up briefly afterward. 

This man had some of the best “pause mix” tapes ever made back in the mid 80’s. He invented a method of using a dual cassette deck as an editing machine to make remixes of songs. They were inventive, creative and his technique seemed way ahead of his time.

He would play a song on one cassette deck and record with the other. When he wanted to make an edit, he’d pause the  tape at the right moment while he was recording, rewind the first cassette tape, then resume the recording process when he wanted to add more to the mix. The best part of it all was that his editing was in synch! He eventually showed me how to do it. I picked up some of the skills he mastered, but he was light years ahead of everyone.

I hope he still has those mixes. I’m positive they are worth money nowadays. 

He also had some of the hottest mix tapes too. You know, actually MIX TAPES-when mix tapes were made from mixing songs on tape.

i have a few of my own mix tapes from that era but need to find a way to convert them to digital. It was fun making them. Choosing which songs to include was part of the experience. Watching your friends react when they heard your mix of music was the real reward.

I’m glad we’ve been able to stay in touch over the years. A lot of the members of Thunder Machine have stuck together. It was always a tight knit group. It showed in our reconnection today.