keeps a hymnotron hand-built by "interesting odd guys in New Jersey." A giant wooden box with a series of sound cards, it looks antiquated next to the high-tech equipment. Mothersbaugh also owns Raymond Scott's electronium, which is currently "being repaired." He bought it from Scott's widow, who intended to throw it in the trash.

"I have that because I met him before he died," says Mothersbaugh when asked about the instrument. When Mothersbaugh takes us through the studio, you can tell he has an attachment to old-school instruments that's really unparalleled in a world in which the digital recording reigns supreme. "[Scott's] wife had no idea what he used to do in the '30 and '40s because she met him in the '70s and she never talked about whenhe was the Frank Zappa of Hollywood and would be in Bob Hope travel movies like The Road to Morocco. The Raymond Scott Band would be playing instruments while sitting on the floor wearing turbans. Bob Hope would go running by and they'd be playing some song. His music was appropriated by Carl Stalling to become Looney Tunes music. Stuff like 'dun, dun, dun, baba baba baba dun' — that was stuff that he wrote."

As we walk into another room filled with guitars and artwork, Mothersbaugh admits his wife will tell him she just can't take the clutter that makes the space look like "a pawn shop." He points to a synthesizer from the '70s that director Wes Anderson, with whom Mothersbaugh has collaborated since Anderson made his