Amiga Music Preservation -

Interview

.

`n. .rP'

`qb ,dP'

TLb. ,dMP' all rite, now you get the chance to read

TML.dMMP some facts about some of the major amiga

,nmm`XXMPX musicians. read about their history in

,#MP'~~XNXYNXTb. the scene and their plans in future.yes,

,d~' dNNP `YNTb. that's meant to be read while listening to

,~ ,NN' `YNb their modules. read 'em over and over and over..

dNP `Yb.

,NN' `b. · i n t e r v i e w · ___________

______dP _____________ \ /

\ ,N'\____ _____________. _____ \ \_____. ____\ /

\___P___/ .\--\__ __/__ |--\____)---\ _____/__ |--\_ \ _/

| | | \ | | \__| | _ \ / | \__| | /\ |

| _| | | _l_ | | \ / _l_ | ___|

l___/=l___|====l____/===\______|==l______|\ /l___/===\______l____/

\/

•

Handle:

•

Group:

•

Date of birth:

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

September 1980, I was introduced to computers at age 10 as part of a test
project here in UK to see if kids could learn from computers. It obviously
failed as we still have teachers ;) Seriously - it was a great fun project
and I learnt a lot, then in 1982 I got my first home computer...

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

My first computer was a ZX spectrum. It was ordered for my birthday (October 7)
in 1982, but my first never worked, sent it back, the replacement didn't come
until December 24th.

My first WORKING computer was a Jupiter Ace, that along with a friend we won
in a competition in the UK magazine Popular Computing Weekly - competiton
was the best program written in a language other than basic. I'd written a
chemistry program (periodic table) in Prolog - not bad for a 12 year old :)
That arrived on December 23rd. It was like a ZX81 but used Forth and had a
rubber keyboard like the ZX Spectrum. It was kind of fun, but only black &
white, so when my ZX spectrum turned up the very next day I got bored of it,
and eventually we sold it.

For several years after this I used my ZX spectrum avidly - writing software
in basic and z80 assembler and building my own hardware projects. Until the
day I got the A500 - ordered as soon as they were available - I hadn't even
seen a picture of one, the first I saw of it was when I opened the box!

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

I didn't really - have I been filling in the wrong interview? :) I got bored
of coding every now and then and messed around with Protracker, but in the
end I always went back to coding.

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

I was a Protracker fan. So much so I got half way through writing my own
version from scratch - features same as protracker 1.2 except a proper
Intuition interface (worked with Kickstart 2.0) and realtime sample pitch
distortion while keeping the sample time the same - a-la TFMX. I liked poking
around with the Amiga sound registers and making them do odd things - although
I never really liked chipmusic stuff that much.

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

I never reached my goal. I was rubbish :)

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

If there is, then I've succesfully forgotten it! I do remember doing something
with an awful Heaven 17 sample in it, but thankfully I think noone else ever
heard it. (on re-reading my email before sending I've had horrible flashbacks -
didn't that song go on the SAE megademo?)

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

Between £500 to £20,000 depending on how lucky you are :)

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

No, i'm decomposing.

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

mp3 has made it all a bit easy nowdays. My kid brother is an absolutely
fantastic musician, he's knocking out dance music straight from his kit into
mp3. I showed him Protracker once. He laughed.

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

Aces High - fond memories of this one. Everyone thinks it's an SAE tune, but
we just nicked it from the Aces High group cos I liked it so much!

The original SLL tunes - very Stock Aitken & Waterman'y but had such an effect
when we first heard them.

The music from the Sanity Elysium demo.

As for SAE tunes, The Anchoret's stuff had a wicked sense of humour and a good
beat, and who could forget Rogue Male's cracking stuff like Weapon - load any
of his tunes and play the instruments on their own. You can't believe he's able
to create anything out of them, they're odd bits of loops that don't seem to
make any sense, but he put together masterpieces with them. Theme Dream was one
of his I really liked - just three instruments to create a stonking piano
piece.

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

Yeah right! Like that'd sell!

12-What bands are you currently listenning to?

Um.. (looks a bit embarassed) I'm a big Erasure fan. Actually all cheesy 80s
music is my favourite.

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

Gave me good kickstart into the IT world, gave me a dubious reputation and a
large box of 3.5" disks. My parents still have the rusted remains of two Amiga
3000s in their loft.

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

Not really - having stumbled across the New SAE by accident I've offered to
help out where I can, but I know they just think I'm some old interfering
fogey :)

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

It doesn't seem right to do a greet list that isn't slowly scrolling right to
left in a silly font, but I'd like to thank everyone who's helped me over the
years, etc, etc, etc, it's a great honour, I'm thrilled.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
please note: this interview is ©opyrighted in 2001 by crown of cryptoburners
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Quick Search

Random link

Database Stats

Interview