Heather Perkins

Summary:
Based in Eugene, Oregon during the '80s and early '90s, Heather Perkins was a mainstay of the music scene there, playing in many bands such as the Saddle Soars, Transister, and Dangerous Household Objects. After getting a four track recorder and some synth gear, she unleashed a flurry of albums from 1987 to 1992 that spanned her musical interests, ranging from art rock and punk to electronic and ambient soundscapes. In the mid 90s she earned a masters in electronic music at Mills College in Oakland, worked as a composer and sound designer at a dotcom in San Franscsco, then moved back to Portland OR where she lives and makes music to this day.

Bio:
Born in 1957, Heather Perkins' youth was spent exploring in the woods of Portland, Oregon, catching newts and building forts. She took lessons in clarinet, piano and voice, but after she got into progressive rock in her teens she gravitated to learning guitar and then synth. Perkins went on to get a degree in communications at Evergreen State in Olympia. While there, she tried out their Buchla and Arp 2600 on campus, and spent a lot of time doing poetry, multi-media, and working at the campus radio station, KAOS FM.

After college, Perkins lived in the middle of the Oregon desert for a year, and then relocated to Eugene, joining the city's fertile music scene while working jobs at restaurants and bars. She played in an all-female funk/pop band (Transister), a reggae/punk band (None If Any), and a short-lived country band (The Saddle Soars). In 1986 she got a four track and started recording at home, a mix of experimental sounds and new wave. During this time, she took some classes at Lane Community college where she learned about Midi and sampling, which had a big effect on her music. She also attended some meetings of the Eugene Electronic Music Collective.

Perkins had discovered cassette culture in magazines like Op, so she naturally gravitated to the format for her releases, putting out two cassettes in 1987 and four in 1988, including a double album *Why I Did It/Binky's Revenge* that featured on side with vocals and one side of instrumentals. All were released on her own label, Land-o-Newts, put out in small editions of 50-100 copies and mostly traded with friends like Michael Chocolak and Don Campau. At the time she recalls some of her main influences were Vangelis, Kate Bush, Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel, and Laurie Anderson.

After that prolific two year period, Perkins returned to playing with a live band, Dangerous Household Objects for the next four years, and kept releasing cassettes until 1992. She still composed electronic music, often working with choreographers and for student productions like *Midsummers Night Dream*. Eventually, she decided she wanted to teach electronic music and went on to get a degree at Mills College, graduating in 1996.

“Living Room - 1987-1992” Is a compilation of Heather’s work during the cassette years, and is a double album available only on vinyl from BIGBANDALONE - https://www.bigbandalone.com/

In 1996, fate intervened, and instead of teaching as planned, Heather went on to work at a San Francisco Dotcom, scoring the very first wave of animated greeting cards. That led to a long freelance career creating music and sound for animations, games, theater, dance and live performance, which she still does to this day from her Portland, OR studio.

Heather recently released “TAPE,” a collaboration with long-time friend Ole Peterson, and a solo album “I Woke From A Dream,” as well as animation and video game scores and SFX and a short radio play. Most of these are available on bandcamp.

She is currently working on multiple music projects for choreographers, as well an EP entitled “Human Satellite.” Her music can currently be found on BandCamp. She's also doing drawings, cosplay, and playing a lot of video games. Heather also produces a monthly radio show “You Are Here” on KOWS FM, where, in a full circle moment, cassette legend Don Campau is Program Director.