Null Device - Band History

Band History

Null Device is an electronic band formed in 1995 by Eric Oehler, William Annis, and Tom Lawrence at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. After the amicable departures of Annis and Lawrence, Dr. Eric Goedken joined as a full-time lyricist and producer. Named after /dev/null, the group was originally an informal project for members of the university's Undergraduate Projects Lab interested in the techno music of the burgeoning rave scene. Through connections to Stromkern's Ned Kirby and a variety of DJ's from local clubs, the project slowly became more focused on vocal-oriented industrial dance music, driven by Lawrence's experimental audio software. It was at this point that Goedken joined the band full-time and Null Device became a more melodic electronic pop act in the mold of Depeche Mode and New Order. After some local and underground success, they were signed to Nilaihah Records in 2002.

While their label debut and early works are straightforward synthpop, their more recent works have seen a broadening of influences, taking cues from breakbeat, trip-hop, house music and drum and bass and incorporating a wide range of ethnic influences and instruments. Subsequent releases have seen the use of dumbek, dholak, duduk, cumbus, sitar, dilruba and violin, as well as guest vocals by Arabic and Carnatic classical singers. Null Device has also contributed to various projects with a number of other industrial, synthpop and electronic artists, including Armageddon Dildos, B! Machine, Blind Faith and Envy, Caustic, The Dark Clan, Distorted Reality, The Gothsicles, Epsilon Minus, Hungry Lucy, Stochastic Theory and Stromkern.