Imagine making music with people from all over the world at any time, without ever leaving your bedroom. Imagine taking some of those loops you've created, but haven't been able to cut-and-paste into anything right yet, and with a click of a button making them available to a group of like-minded individuals stationed at different points on the planet, waiting to integrate your loop into a composition. Imagine having a vast resource of loops to cull in order to find just the right one to compose a song of your own. Imagine releasing a compilation CD every month that includes your work, along with the work of your fellow international loop-swappers.

This is already a reality for a revolving group of 30 people connected only by bits and bytes and their passions for music and digital communication. Most of them have never met, save for their interaction made possible by a Yahoo! group list and their FTP file swapping. Instead, they have gotten to know each other through their music, which, in this case, speaks much louder than words. They are the Tapegerm collective, and they've already released 30 compilation CDs of original compositions. Collective member Bryan Baker explains, "Tapegerm assembles its music onto CDs the group calls 'Germinations'. These are released as quickly as they are filled with the newest tracks each month."

Recently, I spoke with the collective, who allowed me to peer into their universe. They suggested we do the interview Tapegerm style, so I posted a series of questions to their Yahoo! list, waited for the answers to come in from all around the world and then "cut and pasted them" into a composition of my own. Here's what they had to say:

Junkmedia: How did Tapegerm get started and whose idea was it?

[Bryan Baker]: I had been playing around with some kind of loop-oriented, collaborative Internet structure and the domain tapegerm.com and the idea of music having viral characteristics. These initial ideas were more about taking old material and extracting pieces from it to make new material as if music was a living thing. Like recordings were germs that could spread.

Within a matter of days after opening a discussion at Homemademusic.com we (me, J Mundok, Chris Phinney and Scott Carr) had formulated a rough idea of proceeding with Tapegerm as a collective group which shared loops from each group member, with each member having a required monthly creative contribution so the group kept moving forward. I donated the domain and space on my server for the group to access by FTP for sharing loops. We set up space at Mp3.com for sharing mixes, [and] during the first month or so, in addition to the initial group of instigators, Tapegerm quickly attracted a small group of members.

From its outset, Tapegerm differed from what the founding group had been doing at Homemademusic.com in that the structure of Tapegerm is collective in nature and collaborative. It is more about how an organism evolves rather than how germs spread, seeking hosts and mutating. Although elements of this have begun formulating now that Tapegerm is becoming established.

What is the process a loop goes through on its journey from being just a loop to becoming a full-blown composition?

[Bjˆrn Eriksson]: There are 30 individual ways of approaching this.

[Kelli Wise]: I download all of the loops and start auditioning them until I find a few that really seem to resonate with me. I will pull those into Acid Pro and start an arrangement using them. I then go back and select other loops to take the song in the direction it wants to go. I pull some of the loops into Sound Forge and process them to the point where they are not really recognizable. Some songs will be complete with only Tapegerm loops, but others require that I create more new music, such as guitar, to make them complete.

Is all collaboration among members carried out via FTP, or do members meet in person to work on compositions?

[Bjˆrn Eriksson]: I think there are some meeting with members living nearby. [I] meet the other Swedish member now and then, since we live in same city. Some talk about meeting in Vegas is spinning around.

Do Tapegerm members ever meet up to perform live together?

[Bjˆrn Eriksson]: There has been talk about doing this, [but] until now there has only been single live show with artists using Tapegerm material partially in their shows.

[Kelli Wise]: Distance and money have prevented it so far. I personally would love the opportunity to do a live Tapegerm mix with one or more members. I've performed Tapegerm mixes live on a few occasions using phrase samplers and effects, and the audience reaction was quite positive. When you start with the best of what 30 different people have to offer, the resulting music can't help being good. Based on responses to my own gigs, I'm sure that there is an audience for a live Tapegerm performance.

How many members does Tapegerm have, and how many different countries are represented?

[Bryan Baker]: Membership in the Tapegerm collective is capped at 30 members. We usually have one or two openings and membership has always been dynamic while maintaining a core group of participants.

[Bjˆrn Eriksson]: Current members come from Israel, Sweden and the United States.

[Chris Phinney]: If we include past members, we have [had] members from the UK, Canada, Australia and The Netherlands.

How is Tapegerm different from other loop-sharing collectives on the Web?

[Bjˆrn Eriksson]: There are not so many around that are as well organized as Tapegerm. One thing that maybe differs from other collectives is that we come from all over the world and use the Internet to feed the organic growth. Most other collectives I have heard about are geographically based in some area and meet [in person] now and then.

Given the limited membership, how does one become a member of the collective?

Bjˆrn Eriksson]: There is now room for 30 members within the collective. When someone is leaving there is room for accepting new members directly if there isn't a waiting list. The accepting of new members is undertaken as a collective response; usually, this means listening to music this person has on the Internet. If it [gets a majority] "yes" [vote], then he or she gets accepted.