A longtime drummer and hand percussionist, Scooter Vineburgh evolved into a bona fide songwriter and producer thanks to Roland’s original HandSonic, the HPD-15. After developing his songwriting chops on the HandSonic, he formed his band Minimalist Orchestra. The band’s recently-released a debut record has caught the ears of music industry execs including Microsoft’s Crossfader division, who named Scooter the “Next Top Artist.” Self-described as “dream dub-hop,” Minimalist Orchestra’s funky mix of laid-back electronic grooves, hand percussion and heady vocals also just secured them a deal with U.K.-based record label, BeatPick. As both a musician and an educator, Scooter uses the HandSonic regularly in his classroom as well as in the band. We caught up with him recently, and here’s what he had to say about how the HandSonic literally transformed his life as a musician and songwriter.

Congratulations on your Microsoft Crossfader award. Has winning the award changed anything for the band?

On one hand, it gave me a lot of nice prizes in terms of audio and visual equipment. And we just signed a deal with BeatPick records out of the U.K. So it was really nice to get the publicity and exposure.

The members of Minimalist Orchestra are spread out across the U.S. How does that work?

Kerry Schneider, Ed Guild, and I formed Minimalist Orchestra while living in Boston, but after a few years there, I moved to Iowa where I am now. Since the internet has opened up doors, I now do a lot of collaborations with people strictly online in various locations. The record that I just put out was basically cobbled together online. I would lay down my tracks here in Iowa, and then Misha Rutman, Dr Nigel, and Brian Knoth in Boston and Kerry Schneider in Chicago would lay down their tracks, and we would trade files over email and put it all together in a non-live way. So the internet has opened up incredible avenues for collaborating with anybody that you want to.

I think that’s getting more and more common, and it’s exciting. Although record sales are down, I think there are a lot of new opportunities for musicians.

Yes, there’s definitely a whole new room for an ‘artistic middle class’ that didn’t used to exist. It used to be that if you didn’t have a major label deal, you didn’t have anything. But now there’s a lot of room for people who have day jobs or families to be involved in the arts, and it is changing the landscape and affording people with different lifestyles the opportunity to make music.

Can you talk about how the HandSonic helped you go from being a percussionist to a full-blown songwriter?

I was a percussionist for quite a while. When I was playing in bands, I would start to write lyrics and melodies in my head, but I don’t have a music theory background academically, so I didn’t know how to articulate my ideas on paper.

When the HandSonic came out, I was originally attracted to it largely because I could access a bunch of different sounds in a small space, and I didn’t want to have to continue to carry a lot of gear around to gigs. Also, until the HandSonic came around, I really didn’t like most of the electronic sounds that were out there, or how they are triggered. So many of those triggers are kind of static and don’t have a lot of sensitivity attached to them. And the HandSonic really changed all that by allowing a hand drummer to apply different techniques and create something new in the electronic world.

Then, it’s got a built-in sequencer and melodic instruments like basses and keys. So I really started to turn the dial and play with the bass and keyboard sounds to articulate the ideas I was hearing in my head. I would turn the knobs until I found the right note. I started playing parts in a percussive way, but all of a sudden, because I had a range of notes and different sounds, I could compose. With the built-in sequencer, I was able to start arranging songs. I could get an 8-measure verse and a four-measure chorus, et cetera.

So it immediately took me from being this guy who had ideas in my head, to really being able to create. Within a few months I just kind of exploded with writing. The HandSonic was really the first tool that allowed me to express my full range of musicianship.

And the HandSonic is still your main songwriting instrument?

Yes. To this day, while there are a lot of tools and samplers, the HandSonic has such sensitivity and nuance that I still use it, and I haven’t seen anything that can really match it. Without it, I really don’t know where I would be in terms of songwriting.

I saw you using the D Beam on the Crossfader video. Do you use it both for recording and live performance?

I do—it’s funny, the D Beam is a pretty wild device. Between the Ribbon Controller, the D Beam, and the pads—it has so many interesting ways to make sound that all fit really well together. For me, it just immediately clicked right from the get-go.

You mentioned you also use the SPD-S. How do you incorporate it?

In live situations, if I wanted to be running more than one loop at a time, I would dump loops from the HandSonic onto the SPD-S. Then I could use the HandSonic more for live improvisation. So the SPD-S improved my flexibility.

How do you use the HandSonic in educational settings?

I was a music therapist for a while, and now I teach courses at a university to gifted elementary-school kids. I teach digital music production. So I brought the HandSonic in to give the kids experience with using different types of digital instruments, and it’s gone over really well.

I’ve also been a school teacher, and I’ve taught lessons in English and Social Studies. And because the HandSonic has a lot of ethnic patches, I brought it in on several days to play tabla, and listen to loops from African, Latin, and Asian styles. So I’ve used it as an introduction to Social Studies units.

It’s really the best investment I’ve ever made in a single instrument, for sure. I’ve gotten tons of use out of it, and it’s been incredibly reliable—I’ve never had a problem with it—and it’s a joy to use.

Visit Minimalist Orchestra online at www.beatpick.com/Minimalist-Orchestra and click here to see Scooter on the Microsoft Crossfader website.

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Scooter is grateful to his family for their love and support. He also thanks the following musicians for their friendship, collaboration, and inspiration: Kerry Schneider, Ed Guild, Misha Rutman, Dr Nigel, Brian Knoth, Seth Lamoreaux, John Reasoner, John Hall, Peter Hart, Al Fear, Josh Phillips, Jordan Newman, John Duran, Dustin Ross, Beau Sasser, Ingrid Bollman, Chris Golden, Joe Giglio, Steve Asaro, Rags Tuttle,and Barbara Herson.