Prince is one of Rob’s biggest influences. Prince’s style of seamlessly blending all genres of music opened Rob up to embrace music from all different genres at a young age. While Ken grew up around funk, he didn’t know that he needed to play it until he was hit by a virtual lighting bolt while listening to the song “Slide” by “Slave” at the age of 19, after which he woke up with a blueprint for things to come.  

Ken cites the “holy trinity” of Larry Graham, Bernard Edwards, and Bootsy as major influences on bass, but notes that he’s just as much influenced by the unsung heroes of the groove from that same time like Nate Phillips from Pleasure, Regi Hickman from Brick, and Mark Adams from Slave. Bass innovators Mick Karn, Jonas Helborg, Koh Morota from the Japanese band Doom, and Darryl Jenifer from the Bad Brains were also formative influences on his playing, along with 80’s groove powerhouses John Taylor & Nick Beggs. Rob’s influences range from from Funkdelic, Earth Wind and Fire, and Outcast, to The Chilli Peppers, Rage against the Machine, Radiohead and others. 

Ken and Rob came up rehearsing at the former Mr G’s Curl World (think ‘Soul Glow’ from Eddie Murphy’s Coming to America) in the Lee/Harvard area of Cleveland, a space that was home to early underground shows by the Geto Boys and others at the same time. They met through a print ad in the Cleveland Scene magazine, and formed a heavy funk band 8-Ball. 8-Ball was ahead of it’s time for crossing over to fans of metal, alternative rock, and dance in an era when that wasn't the norm. 

Ken and Rob have adopted a complete DIY aesthetic in producing the “Electric Transmission EP”, finding like-minded musicians from around the world to channel the vibe and bring the funk. Ken honed his DIY approach working as a “recording engineer of the people” at WRUW-FM’s “Live from Cleveland” weekly live music show for over 14 years. At WRUW-FM, Ken helped record local and national bands like Guided by Voices, The Church, Eugene Chadborne. The DIY aesthetic even extends all the way down to recording gear. Ken had a hand in designing firmware for some ubiquitous & some lesser known pro audio and broadcast gear which he uses regularly in recording.