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?

I think I got a ZX Spectrum back in around 1984, and that certainly got me
interested in computers, and peripherally in making music (though tape loading
and saving made it a bit tricky!) I upgraded to an Amiga in about 1989 or so,
and then started actually making tunes, firstly in Aegis Sonix (!), and then
finally in Soundtracker/Protracker -

I started getting involved in the demo-scene itself in 1990/91, firstly in a
VERY small local group in South London called Xtasy (not the famous one ALSO
in South London around at the time, crazy coincidences abound!), and
then in End Of Century 1999.

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

See above!

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

I used to play quite a few musical instruments, thanks to my parents,
including the piano, cello, and double bass, so I already had a little musical
knowledge. And, since a little knowledge is a bad thing, I decided to try to
leverage that knowledge into making tunes. I also did a little bit of
graphics using Deluxe Paint, but to be honest, stick figures were about as
good as I got :)

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

As mentioned, I actually used Aegis Sonix for a while when I started with
the Amiga, and I believe I also dallied a tiny bit in Future COmposer (classic
REAL chip-music composing software!) and Med/OctaMED, but most of the time
I was kickin' it with Noisetracker, Protracker, or Melontracker (mm,
Melontracker!) And, once or twice, even Startrekker :P

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

That's a tricky question, since there's probably multiple phases to my
composing on Amiga - but to give multiple answers, I think I started getting
somewhere with tunes like "Jarresque", did my best chip work with tracks like
"Fear Of The Dark", and did the smoothest, synth-related stuff with tracks
like "Wisped". With lots of complete dross inbetween, of course :P Probably
my own favorite track is the weird ambient chiptune "Space Hulk", which was in
the The Party 5 intro which Stelios coded, but I'm not sure why - a little
atmosphere goes a long way, and one of the Sonik guys said he dug it, I guess?

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

Plenty of the raucous chiptunes are a bit much for me, especially my cover
of "Popcorn" - was that really necessary? I think not!

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

Music in demos and games are VITAL - they set the mood, and it's a whole
sense that's otherwise neglected :)

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

Actually, I completely stopped composing in about 1996. Which is a shame,
but with my work and running the net.music.label (formerly .MOD label!)
Monotonik/Mono, that's plenty to be doing without trying to get all creative
and composer-y, too. But I may pick up a Gameboy and LittleSoundDJ and have
a hack at some tracks, one of these days.. maybe.. :)

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

The advent of the mp3 has been a blessing for free music online, but a curse
for the poor old .MOD. it's still been worth it, though, to see better
reproduction of ALL kinds of music, not just computer-driven tunes - organic
sounds can come back again :)

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

Well, as far as .MODs go, there's so many! "Banana Split" by Dizzy,
"Florence" by Audiomonster, "Tubular Vectors" by Delorean, "BST" by Bruno,
anything by Heatbeat - and that's just a fraction of them. my 'MODs In Memoriam'
site at http://www.mono211.com/st-00 has plenty more.

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

I'm afraid not - my stuff worked as it was at the time, and it's archived on
the 'MODs In Memoriam' site, but.. onwards and upward, people! how many remakes of
things have actually been any good? if the original was any good, it was good AS
the original!

12-What bands are you currently listenning to?

All sorts of rubbish, I'm afraid. Anything from Idlewild, through Gorillaz,
Ulrich Schnauss, Coldplay, DJ Rupture, and so on to infinity.

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

Lots of pleasure in nostalgia and 'wow, that was AMAZING given the
restrictions' action. And lots of creative people who blossomed out of the
scene to make careers out of being good at.. hacking up stuff :P

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

Kinda, in that I run Monotonik, the net.music.label which has a lot of links
to the scene, since it releases a lot of ex or current-sceners (Lackluster aka
Distance, Vim!, Mosaik aka Radix, Aleksi Eeben aka Heatbeat, and LOTS more..)
Otherwise, I still check out demos - they're not as relevant as they used to
be with the advent of FMV, amazing game-based 3D engines, and all that jazz,
but.. they're still cool :)

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

Hey to everyone who knew me on the Amiga scene and knows me now. You ALL
rock.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
please note: this interview is ©opyrighted in 2002 by crown of cryptoburners
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Quick Search

Random link

Database Stats

Interview