Amiga Music Preservation -

Interview

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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.

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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?

Maybe about 1981 a friend of the family introduced me to the his computer.
I think it was an Apple II, but I'm not sure since I was still quite young
and had never seen one. Kick me if the Apple II hadn't even been built at
that time... :-) He showed me a small game and then a disk and bravely
insisted that everything I just saw on the screen actually came from this
piece of plastic. I couldn't comprehend any of it...

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

Around 1984 I started getting really interested in home computers. Since I
couldn't afford one, I went downtown every day after school to fool around
with the ones at the local stores and got to know some of the people that
later got me into the scene. Thank you, Gerd Bötcher, for that. Probably a
year later I bought my first computer, the Commodore VIC20. No music on that
one, just programming basic and machine code and, of course, games.
A while later I finally got my C64 and started doing music using the first
wide-spread tracker called Sound Monitor by none other than Chris Huelsbeck
himself. Around 1989 I bought my first Amiga 500. I continued to program on
it and finally got my hands on the ProTracker. Getting samples was tricky
and I had to rely on my connections to at least get the ST-xx disks with
the standard samples used everywhere.

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

Music was what I really liked doing. Other than a few small pixel graphics on
the C64, I never did gfx. Even though I did program on my computers, it was
never near demo coding. One day my old friend Gerd Bötcher, whome I hadn't
seen in years, asked me if I wanted to do some music for a couple of other
friends of his. They were doing demos and needed a musician for the german
division of CULT. I did a track and they liked it, saw potential but said
that the samples were hopelessly old... ;-) Finally I got a sampler so I
could sample my own sounds off records and my Roland Jupiter 6.

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

Fast Tracker and ProTracker. Never went over to really using anything over
4 channels on the Amiga.

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

As far as MODs went, it was KEFMANIA, which was actually called KEFDAYS, but
the original title was lost along with the comments during the compression
for the Kefmania Demo in 1992 released at The Party II in Aars Denmark. We
won 7th place with that 2 disk demo.

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

Just old test MODs I did. Since I never released them, no big deal. Maybe
I should release them to AMP just to get them archived...

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

I think the music is very important and, of course, I always pay most
attention to it. But graphics, code and music go hand in hand in hand in a
demo. If one of the three suck then the demo as a whole won't make it far.
Old-School demos hardly paid attention to it, but there is a fourth topic
that has finally jumped into demos: Style. Everything has to fit together.
Things should happen to the beat of the music and the demo should tell a story.

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

I'm still composing for leisure purposes, playing in a band or remixing songs
of friends. I'm not touching that tracker again as long as I can help it... :-)

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

Todays Scene music is great, no matter what format it's in. MP3 seems to be
the choice at the moment if you've got the space, which you do since you're
not limited to a crappy disk anymore. But if you are pressed for size, even
that is possible using special routines. Look at a 64KB (!!!) demo FR-08 by
Farbrausch on the PC for instance!

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

Doc Holiday And Twilight - Clairvoyance
Heatbeat - Street Jungle
Lluvia And Radix - Tournesol
Mco - Dream Off
Necros - Revelation
Nuke - Seeing Is Believing End
Purple Motion - World Of Plastic
Sire - Spring Air
Wave - Strangle Hold
Kb - Fr08
Paul Van Der Valk - Imploder 4 Main
Audiomonster - Sonic
Captain - Space Debris
Travolta - Condom Corruption

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

No. Who do think I am? Rob Hubbard?! ;-)

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

The fantasy of wanting to be part of it. I read names like Irata and
Audiomonster and later got to meet them. I am very proud to have been a
part of the Scene and always will be.

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

I got interested in the Scene again after finding Nectarine Radio, an online
streaming radio dedicated to demoscene music (check it out at scenemusic.net)!
It brought back all the old songs for me and, in my opinion, did alot in
keeping the Scene alive. Hell, it reincarnated the Scene for *me*! I'm not
currently doing music for the Scene, so my official status is "retired".
But if writing this is being active, then yes. If being interested in the
Scene is being active, then yes. If listening to Scene music and watching
demos, current and old (even C64), is being active, then YES! I'm still a
tiny part of the Scene.

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

I'd like to say hi to Ray, Predator, Synth O'Nick, Chromag & Virgill.
Against all odds, the Scene is still alive. It's about sharing art and
about friendship. Keep it that way.

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