James Husted recalls the heyday of synth music

Synthesizer artist and singer James Husted has called several Seattle neighborhoods home since arriving in 1975, including Wallingford, Green Lake, and his current home in Ballard. But it’s a warehouse in Belltown, on Battery between First and Second avenues that gives Husted his most vivid memories.

He first began fooling around with synths as a student at Western Washington University in Bellingham (back when it was still Western Washington State College), where the art department gave him access to an Arp 2500. He studied the early Krautrock synth masters, including Klaus Schulze, Kraftwerk, and Cluster. Playing with a jazz band allowed him to make what he called “Raygun-from-Mars abstract sounds.”