The origin of Glow being Glow dates back to about 2001. At 20 years old, I was the night manager of a Texaco gas station across the street from the State School I had recently dropped out of due to financial hardship mostly caused by dental bills.
I found a barely affordable apartment with a guy I barely knew across a parking lot from work. I made ~600$ a month and scraped by.
At the time I was sleeping on my clothes because I couldn’t afford a mattress or bed, and I mostly ate anything I could sneak for free from work or bagels from a nearby dumpster – until they caught me, then they left a small bag by the door at night.
I played a great deal of Diable II as it was free to play.
So one day the surly head mechanic at the station comes to me and tells me he has a broken piece of diagnostic equipment that is worth 10K and I can have it, and if I can fix it, I can sell it. (he also gave me a small futon bed, which was a tear-worthy gift)
I tried to fix it, I really, really tried. but to no avail.
So I took it apart and discovered a bunch of circuit boards inside, all the same size and easy to see through, I thought they were really cool, so I took four of them and used simple screws to lash them together into a box shade and slipped it over a lamp and BOOM, Glowcircuit, the ideas and love affair with glowing circuitry were born.
Though the name Glowcircuit itself didn’t come along for another year or so when I was actively working to create an artistic persona that represented myself. For a time it was Glowphyre, but only because Glowcircuit – at first, felt cumbersome in my mouth.
And that is how a broken piece of car repair equipment changed the course of my life.
-glow