"Breakup will always mean the most to me, no matter how many albums I make because I truly invested everything I had into it." Producing the first album wasn't an easy task for Gerler, who writes the lyrics and arranges the material. "Know the term starving artist? I was three months behind on rent. Popcorn for dinner. Bad stuff."

As the innovator of livetronica, Gerler hopes to introduce something new to the techno realm and bring sanity to the industry. "The radio these days is so bland, so same-same. I want to create a whole new sound. Genrefication is sort of negative but people need an identifying term." Over genrefication can become ludicrous and end up losing meaning. Gerler puts it into perspective. "My problem is that within certain genres, there are so many smaller variations; like in jungle, drum & bass, hardstep, techstep, darkstep and my favorite, ragga jungle. But some of them are so closely related it's almost pointless to try to differentiate and people, especially DJ's, will get very defensive when you say that. No offense to them, certainly."

Listening to Breakup, it's apparent Gerler knows his stuff. With a background in piano, trumpet, electric and bass guitar and later cutting demos on a four-track, when he was younger, his invention the FM Initiative were a menagerie waiting to be released.

The song Baranquilla was discovered soon after its exposure by MTV's the Real World and featured on their Hawaii edition. Gerler decided to send in his demo to Braden Merrick, the Vice President of www.redbutton.com, an MP3 website based in San Francisco. "I figured I get my stuff to this guy and I can't go wrong. I'm pretty sure that's how (MTV) found me because the Real World headquarters, Bunim-Murray Productions, is based in Van Nuys."

Modestly, he doesn't attribute it to his immense talent. "Crazy twist of fate. It really is all about luck and who you know." Having received MTV's attention, Gerler doesn't find it difficult to remain humble. "I think it would be for most people but I think I could handle it. I've got my priorities in order and I know what it's like to be broke and make it."

Baranquilla, which was translated from English to Spanish, brings an ardent seriousness to Breakup. "Baranquilla is the name of a city off the coast of Colombia, South America. In high school I dated an exchange student from there." The song describes the trip Gerler took to visit her during his freshman year in college. "Best time of my life and also one of the hardest times because I loved her so much."

With the release of their new album early next year, the FM Initiative hope to tour their local area of North Carolina and surrounding regions, until promoters are interested in bringing them to other places, like Seattle. "If I can find promoters who are interested in bringing us, I'll go anywhere."

NOTE from Mr. FM: First, I'd like to thank Michelle Scaman for her fantastic job with this article! Second, just for clarification, BAD DOG Productions is entirely the brainchild of my producer Tom Mohbat, and was in existence long before The FM Initiative was even a gleam in my eye.