Still, he admitted, the loss was “bound up in the melancholy of youth.”This multivalence seemed to follow Hecker.
He would spend his collegiate summers in the British Columbia wilderness, planting as many as 4,000 trees each day in clear-cut forests.
Later, frustrated by the exigencies of starting a band, like remembering what they’d played the day before, Hecker began experimenting with drum machines and samplers.
“The original impulse was this awe-struck excitement,” Hecker said, recalling his titanic computer tower, gargantuan monitor and pirated software.
“There are different feelings in those different moments, and they each have their own ecosystem,” he said.