Dayton's own Debbie De Casio performed live on Kaleidoscope and spoke with host Juliet Fromholt about re-issuing her album MT-40 for Me.
De Casio started performing as a child with her family's traveling gospel group. By the 1980s, however, she was of Dayton's rock and roll scene. She says this is when she fell in love with the sounds of the Casio MT-40, an electronic keyboard.
"My ex-husband and I were in a band called Axtual Fax. He played drums and I played keyboard. The bass player we got to play had a Casio just like this, an MT-40, and I used that Casio. Later on I found one just like it at a pawn shop. The MT-40 has a heart and it's just very inspiring to write music with."
The recordings on MT-40 for Me were originally recorded in 1986, and were recently remixed and remastered by Cody Wopshall at Now What! Studio in Dayton. Debbie De Casio says that even though it's been decades she still relates to the lyrics.
"All the time it's like,'Well I thought I'd be past that song. No, there it is.' It's the same emotions and stresses and love. The ones I still sing they mean something to me. I have to feel the beat and I have to feel it inside and really feel like it's worth singing."
Debbie De Casio's album MT-40 for Me is available to purchase on CD now at Omega Records and Skeleton Dust Records.
