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I heard Dementia Precox for the first time when I bought their “Of Parts Unknown LP”. I was into a lot of punk and art-rock at the time, and I was floored. This came out of Dayton, Ohio?

I saw Dementia Precox for the first time at Canal Street Tavern, and they were different than that album. Heavier synths, more danceable tunes, but the metal percussion and raging guitars were still there. And amongst the fog machine, pin spots and strobe lights I heard these amazing (and at the same time very strange) pop tunes. Singer Gyn Cameron had evolved Dementia from a noise art-rock group to a dance art-rock group, and it was fine by me.

I heard a cassette of the more recent material at that time. Pop, synthy but then just downright strange, parts of it were similar to the first LP I heard.

Ed Lacy loaned me a copy of the “Mines/Dead on 2 Legs …” single. Crashing noise, craziness and catchy. And then an EP with a mix of everything, including a great song called “Maladie D’espirit.

So I started going to a lot of Dementia shows, and got to know the band. Bandleader Gyn Cameron was cool and aloof, but the more often I saw them the friendlier he became, maybe at first he was more cautious than other musicians dealing with some dudes always showing up at your shows asking a lot of questions.

Eric Purtle left Dementia and mentioned that Gyn had some gigs booked and might need some help. Gyn called and I ended up playing almost half a dozen very synthy, very foggy, very stroby, and very metallic-oil-barrel-banging-ly lod shows in Dayton and Cinci.

During that time Gyn gave me free reign to explore different ideas for his songs. He listened to everything, never insisted on anything, but encouraged me every time he heard somethng he thought was cool. He was reworking tunes feverishly, experimenting with new ideas, new gear, etc. etc.

Those were fun shows. Gyn put the band to bed, and except for one benefit performance he didn’t seem interested in playing anymore. The band was retired, well almost. Even if I wasn’t hearing from him anymore, he did put out a couple of 12″ singles.

He moved to Florida. He sent some emails, he made fun of me for missing the reunion show (which I totally missed, I don’t know how that happened, and that was it I never heard from him or about him again. Until Sunday October 25th when I heard from several of his friends he had passed away.

I won’t go on and on about how sad I feel about it. He was a friend, generous, and an amazing talent that influenced many people and many bands. Hi resume is out there if you’d like to see it.

Until then, listen to this: