In the latest installment of Moog Music’s Category 5 interview series, Matt Sharp talks about the people and instruments (hint: they’re synthesizers) that have inspired his band, The Rentals.

Formerly the bass player for Weezer, Sharp discusses being inspired by the sound of Gary Numan and his 1979 album “The Pleasure Principle,” and bringing the synthesizer into the forefront of the Rentals’ sound, first heard in their 1995 single, “Friends of P:”

“I don’t think of us as looking for the limitless possibilities of synthesizers. We really look at it as a sort of a pure sort of sound that those sources had, and that a lot of those early Moogs have, like the Minimoog and those things…  But the Source [monophonic synthesizer, manufactured by Moog Music between 1981 – 85], in particular, has a particular sound, that sounds like The Rentals. It … sounds like who we are.”

You can hear more episodes of Moog’s Category 5 interview series on the company’s website.