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The oft-quoted Moore’s law is basically the notion that the quantity of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on a circuit board has doubled every two years. Following this theory to its inevitable conclusion, this has allowed for increasingly powerful, increasingly miniature, and most importantly, increasingly inexpensive electronic music devices. While nowadays, this might mean a bedroom MacBook setup and a MIDI controller, in the early 1980s, this meant a cheap synthesizer, drum machine, a tape deck, and some wild experiments. Musicians like Thomas Dolby, Gary Numan, and Front 242 were basically rewriting the template for a new style of pop music (or anti-pop music as is the case with groups like Throbbing Gristle or Esplendor Geometrico). Combining these newfound sounds and structures with the strange 80s paradox of technological optimism and subversive social commentary, you get some interesting results. Most notable? The new wave and industrial genres.

Veronica Vasicka knows a thing or two about the influence of the genre. Her label Minimal Wave is famed for uncovering lost, drum machine-heavy gems from that era – often music that was only originally issued on cassette. And, of course, in true DIY fashion, she re-releases these artists strictly on vinyl. Most recently, she collaborated with Stones Throw on the 2010 compilation, The Minimal Wave Tapes Vol 1. Here's what she had to say...

Tell us a bit about your background. Were you raised in NYC?

Yes, I was born and raised in NYC. My parents, both immigrants (father originally from the Czech Republic and mother from Uruguay) met here in 1968.

What are some of your first musical memories?

I remember listening to Madonna's first cassette on my white boombox when I was 9, getting a Casio SK-1 for Christmas when I was 11, hearing New Order's 'Substance' for the first time when I was 12, making monthly mix tapes for friends from a radio station called WLIR, biking around the city with my boombox strapped to my bike blasting the Dead Kennedys when I was 13, getting into graffiti and the music scenes surrounding that when I was 14, sneaking out of the house to go to clubs downtown when I was 15, and hearing Throbbing Gristle for the first time while working at a record store when I was 16.

Wow. Impressive history... I hear you got into the minimal wave style, and the idea for the label while working at East Village Radio. What were you playing before that? Were you DJing out a lot?

I was always into new wave but hadn't dug that deeply until I started doing my show at EVR, along with directing-programming there. It was at that point around 2003, that I was inspired to delve deeper into early synthesizer DIY pop music so that I could teach people about this overlooked, partially undiscovered genre. I was listening to cold wave and minimal synth music and DJing it out. I was very much interested in the roots of new wave music and the people who chose to create music despite their limitations in terms of equipment, facilities, and prior musical training.

The label happened quite spontaneously. Originally, my plan was to solely create an online resource for minimal wave music which featured cassette scans, song samples, flyers, memorabilia, band biographies and videos. That changed one night whilst DJing out, I played Oppenheimer Analysis "The Devil's Dancers" and witnessed the crowd's response to this long lost gem. People were coming up asking what it was, and where they could buy it. Seeing that the music held the same potential it did 30 years ago was a huge turning point for me. It was still waiting to be discovered.

I assume in the early days of your label, there was not a bunch of resources on the music on the Internet and whatnot. How did you discover a lot of these artists?

Most of them I discovered by looking at the detailed info on records and tapes I had. Finding names on small-run cassettes and trying to locate where these people had ended up is a fascinating feat. It always started with a name and then a search via Google or the white pages would lead to further info. Later on, artists began contacting me after searching themselves on the Internet and seeing their names come up on my radio show playlists.

Where were you buying the records at the time? Was there a lot of this stuff floating around the city?

There were still some great shops left in the city while I was in high school. Later on, I would take trips outside of the city to places like Long Island, New Jersey or upstate NY to go record shopping. I found a load of copies of (legendary Dutch music mag) Vinyl Magazine, each accompanied by a flexi-disc in a record shop in upstate NY for $1 each. I stumbled upon some rare records, which I picked up mostly because they just looked so good, and ended up discovering music that way. As I became more serious about the music, I started taking trips to record fairs and even went to a great one in the Netherlands. Eventually, I felt turned off by the whole collecting mentality, so I took a break from buying more records and tapes for a while.

OK, record collecting aside, I hear you have quite a few synths and drum machines. Do you record personally?

I'm totally fascinated by old drum machines and synthesizers. If I could have a museum of these things I would, each with a small card with info on the year they were manufactured and the quantity made. At the moment, I've got an assortment of drum machines - my favorites are the 808, the CR8000, and the MFB-501 - and quite a few vintage synths like the Pro 1, the SH-101, a Juno 60, and the Mono/Poly. I was trained classically in piano, so playing synthesizers comes easily to me. I love to play in my spare time, trigger out via the 808, turn them on and hit 'record'. I've got many hours of recordings of my own stuff. Eventually, that music will be released but not by me, by someone else.

Hours of recordings, you say... Now we're really curious. So, what does the future hold for the Minimal Wave label?

The label is branching out now. In April, we'll be releasing an EP of remixes featuring contemporary artists: Chris and Cosey, Tom Furse, Prince Language, and Complexxion. One of the bands we released, Futurisk, a South Florida electro-punk band from the 80s had incredible studio recordings which we ended up restoring through the baking process (i.e. baking the tapes). The results were stunning so we decided to transfer the stems and offer them to artists we admire who are active these days. I like the idea of bridging the old and new and hearing a current reinterpretation of a song from 1982. We also have another compilation coming out with bands spanning the world, in the style of The 'Lost Tapes' and 'The Found Tapes'.

Any good releases from other labels in the past year that you have enjoyed?

Yes definitely. These three were on heavy rotation this past year: Innergaze - 'We Are Strange Loops', White Car - 'White Car EP', and Entro Senestre - 'La Caccia'.

Finally, aside from all this music stuff, what do you do in your off time?

I take my beagle Hicks for long walks around the city, and just hang out with him. I also like to spend time cooking and baking wonderful, tasty things. Lately, I've been DJing overseas so when I have time off there, it's all about exploring these new cities and capturing moments with my film camera.