WHAT IF THINKING

WHAT IF THINKING
What: Band
Where: Detroit, Michigan
When: 1982-?
Who: Gail Baker, Howard Glazer

The Detroit group What If Thinking combines guitar synthesizers, electric percussions and other sounds for a unique blend of experimental, weird techno-pop. Initiated in 1982 as a studio recording endeavor by lead guitarist Howard Glazer and vocalist-guitarists Gail Baker, What If Thinking had its origins in a jazz-fusion group. In fact, Glazer and Baker started a band in 1980 entitled Gail Baker's Catz. The band was a jazz group, that played in the Detroit bar scene for some time. But soon Glazer and Baker wanted to play experimental or fusion jazz, while the other members wanted to continue with the mainstream sound. "We started doing Reality People in our sets and other things that were too wild for jazz clubs. We were too jazz to play in dance bars and too experimental for the traditional jazz clubs, so that lead to the breakup" Glazer said. "I had a friend who just bought a recording studio - it was pretty small, like a garage studio, but we went in there and just messed around for awhile" Glazer said. "Before we knew it, what we had was the beginnings of our first recordings." Glazer said the early stages were only an experiment, but as things became more and more advanced, four songs were recorded and became the first EP.

"It's funny, because there was actually a recording before there was a performing band. We never played anywhere until we came out with our record, then we got an actual band together. If you notice on our record, there were various amounts of people that we used in the studio, so you could say the original band was formed out of our recording project," Glazer said.
The 4-songs EP features the mutant-disco of "Action Action", the electro-extravaganza of "Dancing on Mars", the sloppy warped post-punk of "Reality People" and the slow funk of "Money and Love".
The band began to take shape several months after the release and comprised James Dragon (vocals, keyboards, flute, electronic percussion), Mike Stanton (bass, keyboards), Al Waltz (drums), Glatzer (guitar) and Baker (vocals, guitar, synthesizers). James Dragon gives the group a distinctive sound, with the use of keyboards and self-constructed electronic percussion and Al Waltz began using a combination of electronic and acoustic drums in live performance. The band started to perform live, at the TRAXX in Detroit and at Tom's Foolery, in 1984 they also opened a show for The Gun Club.

In 1985 they released their second single "I Want That Boy / Run Run Run". The main track is a dragging bizzarre technopop tune with female/male vox while the b-side got a lot of devo-esque reminiscence.
After the single they started to recording an LP for Rüde Records that never saw the light.

What If Thinking - What If Thinking ‎(7'' 1983 Dauncy)
What If Thinking ‎- I Want That Boy / Run Run Run (7'' 1985 Rüde Records)
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