Amiga Music Preservation -

Interview

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,nmm`XXMPX musicians. read about their history in

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Handle:

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Group:

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Date of birth:

1-How did your interest for computers start? Which year was that?

It must have been around 1982 when I was 7 years old and my dad brought
home the first "family computer", a Commodore 64. It was a whole
new world opening for me, although I must admit I was mostly interested
in playing games at that time. I do remember learning some very trivial
BASIC programming though. And I also remember those old COMPUTE! magazines
where they published video games in the form of printed machine code. You
actually had to retype pages and pages of hexadecimal numbers to play some
extremely trivial video game. I never really used the C64 for music although
I was surely inspired by the music from many classic games such as Commando
and The Last Ninja. It wasn't until later with the Amiga however that I
really started to compose my own music.

2-What machines did you previously have? What did you do with them?

I had the C64 between 1982 and 1987 and mainly played games on it.
In 1987 I bought an Amiga 500 after being blown away by the glorious
graphics of games like Barbarian and Defender of the Crown. It wasn't long
until I discovered music programs like Aegis Sonix and the first Soundtracker
which really was what got me started as a composer. I tried out several
trackers and ended up with Protracker which is what I used on most of the
modules that I've released through the demoscene. Around 1996 I started to
gradually shift more towards PC with FastTracker as well as MIDI programs like
CakeWalk and eventually Cubase.

3-For what specific reason did you end up making music rather than gfx, coding?

My parents have told me I was "jamming" to the radio on a toy piano when I was just
a few years old, so I guess I should thank them for stimulating my musicality
at an early age. I don't have much formal musical education apart from a period of
teenage piano lessons where I soon discovered my interest and talent was not in
reading notes but in playing by-ear. When I started composing on the Amiga I had
already been playing keyboards on my own for several years.

4-Which composing programs have you been using? Which one in particular?

Aegis Sonix
SoundTracker/Noisetracker/Protracker (Protracker in particular)
Fasttracker 2
Cakewalk Pro Audio
Sonar
Reason
Cubase (my main software today)

5-With which module did you feel you had reached your goal?

None really. I guess the beauty of composing music is that there's
always something new to learn, no matter how much experience you have.
Also, the technical limitations of 4-channel mono Amiga modules didn't really
contribute to the feeling of having reached your goals... ;-)
Compared to many other demoscene musicians, my productivity has been
somewhat limited over the years. It was really when I started using the "real"
MIDI programs that I felt I could start to make better use of my piano/keyboard
playing skills.

6-Is there a tune you would like not to remember? For what reason?

I believe there is one tune in particular I would like not to remember.
Although I was never very famous on the Amiga scene, I was actually approached
by Azatoth/Phenomena (the coder of the classic Enigma demo!) after he heard
one of my intro tunes called Intromania2. He wanted to compete at some party with
a new demo and asked me for a tune. I didn't have very much experience in composing
demo tunes on demand but I really made an effort (Mantronix&Tip are among my absolute
favourite Amiga musicians!). Unfortunately my inspiration went the wrong way (not enough
uptempo) and the tune didn't turn out as I had hoped. The story ended with Azatoth not
releasing his new demo and I learned a bitter lesson of how inspiration (and perhaps
experience) can really make a difference.

7-In your opinion, what's the value of a music in a demo, game?

To me, a demo is very much like a music video on MTV. In other words the
music is (or should be) at least as important as the graphics and effects.
I wouldn't say this is always the case on MTV though, but imagine a music video
on MTV without the music and you probably know what I mean.

Music in modern games is more and more comparable to music in movies. I think
really good games with mediocre soundtracks is a testiment of how the gaming industry
needs to take music even more seriously in the future. In my opinion, Half-Life and Half-Life 2
are examples of really great games with mediocre soundtracks, whereas for example Oblivion,
Outcast, Dreamfall (The Longest Journey) and Grand Theft Auto are examples of really great games
with really great soundtracks. Music in a game can really make a difference in how you
connect emotionally, just the same way as music in a movie does.

8-At present, are you still composing? For professional or leisure purposes?

Today in 2007 I am still composing but only for my own purposes as I try to
maintain a career as a software developer. My current plans are to try to put some
finished tunes online in the near future.

9-What do you think of today's pieces of music such as mpeg,wave,midi,etc...?

I think these are really interesting times when everyone can afford a
semi-professional recording studio on their computer and release their own music
as MP3 files online without the need for record companies. The evolution of software
instruments is also really exciting and I personally don't use any sounds on my old
synthesizer any more.

10-Could you tell us some of your all times favourite tunes?

Own music - hard to say, I guess Groove Yard is a decent one...
Other scene tunes - Overload by Mantronix&Tip, Banana Split by Dizzy
Real Music - I'm a big fan of John Williams and the soundtrack for E.T. is probably among my all-time favourites! :-)

11-Are you planning to make an audio cd with some of your music remastered?

Actually I already did that last year with my old Amiga modules, although it
was mostly for my own satisfaction and nostalgia and the lack of good software
for playing old Amiga modules.

12-What bands are you currently listenning to?

Pat Metheny Group
Esbjörn Svensson Trio
Steely Dan
Supertramp
Zero 7
Vangelis
John Williams (Hollywood composer)

13-What does/did the amiga/c64 scene give you?

Aside from a lot of great experiences with friends and various demo parties,
the Amiga scene was really what got me started as a composer. Even though
I'm not composing professionally today, I really feel I owe much of my musical
experience to the Amiga music scene in many ways.

14-Are you still active in the scene these days?

No I'm not. The last tune I released was the Amiga module 'Chinook' in 1996! :)

15-Anyone to greet? Anything left to say? Feel free...

Greetings to all fellow scene musicians out there, especially from
the classic days of Amiga around 1992-1995!

Feel free to check out some of my more recent and upcoming musical experiments
at: www.artistserver.com/ceedigh

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please note: this interview is ©opyrighted in 2007 by crown of cryptoburners

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