Amiga Music Preservation -

Interview

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,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..

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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?

I think it was through friends who already had computers. That started
it, and I recall it was somewhere around 1983-1984.

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

The first computer I had was an Amstrad CPC 6128. I was a little disappointed
as it was not Commodore as most of my friends had, but that did not
keep me from staying up all night playing with it the day I got it :)

Gaming was in for a ten year old of course, and I was into music by then
already, so I tried to compose some stuff with Amstrad - with diverse results.
Having seen some C64 demos, I tried to accomplish something alike with the
built-in basic interpreter. That was my first artistic computer related work
ever - flashing colors, some text effects and music.

After Amstrad, I had an Amiga 500, and that got boosted with extra mem,
a harddrive, sampler, midi box etc - so pretty much music related stuff.
I used this machine until 1995 and actually did all works related to my
studies with it for a couple of first years at the university. I bought
my first PC at the age of 23.

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

When I first saw SoundTracker around late 80's I was totally hooked. That
practically was the reason. I had never seen as easy and fun way to do music
with a computer, and I started composing right away. It was my thing right from
the beginning.

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

SoundTracker, ProTracker, NoiseTracker, OctaMed, Amiga Mugician, different
sequencers etc. Mostly I used ProTracker, versions through 2.3 to 3.x.

Later within the Mac/PC world I have mostly been using sequencers like
Logic Audio, VST and such.

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

Well, the goals are always relative to the material and idea that you start
with... I think there are a couple of mods that I've cherished more than others:
Mass of silence, Drowning man, The sun will warm and Ideal world to mention
some.

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

Captured in time (first version). It was released with the Wizzcat Party demo
in 1991, and it had some very out of tune samples. It was actually not my
choice for the demo, but Hazy Mind's who was the coder. Later I did a slightly
modified version of the tune with better tuning and some other changes and I
think it was way better.

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

It's very hard to think of a demo without music. It would require really some
eye-popping effects to keep the attention of a viewer. In demo, I'd say music
is invaluable. With games it's a little bit different, as the interaction is
the main driver there. It is not simply watching, but taking part of actions.
Of course good music in a game adds to the gaming experience, but it is not
a necessity. And in a game, you usually spend a lot of time playing it. The same
music over and over can start to annoy you.

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

I've worked as a freelance musician for different projects (CD-Roms, TV,
commercial video production, theatre) during my studies and a couple of years
after that. Nowadays these activities are more or less on hold, but I've
composed some songs every now and then. A couple of these songs have ended up
on CD's by other artists during past years. Maybe within some years I'll set up
my midi studio again, and revive my activites at music scene.

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

Nowadyas even standard out-of-box computers have enough processing power to
host a full studio, and that can be seen also in the amount of music supply.
There's an enormous amount of indifferent and - frankly - just intolerable
music around and sometimes you can't even help having to listen it (from radio,
at public places, in the internet). On the other hand, there's lots of
awesome stuff available as well. So I think in the end it is all for good to
have many different formats to work with.

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

Well... This is a tough one. I remember a Empire game crack that had a quite
old cracktro by TRSI if I remember right - it had a tune that kept me booting
the disk over and over again to listen to it. Very simple and beautiful tune.
Unfortunately I've lost that disk and can't find it anywhere -
maybe someone reading this could help - what was the tune and who composed it?
Can it be found from AMP? I'd be grateful to find it again.

As for other all time favourites, I have to mention Crusaders' Mic-ro Con-cept
musicdisk - it had several great tunes.

Bruno's musicboxes were quite often at the loudspeakers as well.

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

Well... I guess not :)

12-What bands are you currently listenning to?

For several years now my primary musical interest has been in jazz music. Gerry
Mulligan, Modern Jazz Quartet, Joe Henderson, Keith Jarrett, McCoy Tyner,
Miles Davis, Pat Metheny could be mentioned as some kind of favourites.

As for pop/rock, I'm somewhat more selective. A-ha, Aimee Mann, Jon Brion, Sting,
Galliano, Badly drawn boy... these have been in the player lately. And as I do
not want to forget Finnish artists, Kauko Röyhkä, Pave Maijanen and
Tulenkantajat.

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

Amiga scene gave me friends, good english language skills, musical experience,
stable interest in technology and lots of fun.

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

Not really. I check some scene related sites every now and then, and try to
keep track of what's happening to Amiga hardware, but it is all cursory. It
would be fun to participate Assembly or some other big party now that they've
grown to full-blown professional multimedia events with lots of sponsors and
such. It is so different comparing to parties 10 years ago :)

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

Greetings go to Darkie, Hazy mind, Amigaman, Voyd and all others that I was
in touch with during my scene days! I would also like to send post mortem
greetings here to Felix, as he was my best friend for a time - and after that
he was not captured in time any more.

God bless.

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please note: this interview is ©opyrighted in 2005 by crown of cryptoburners
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