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?

I started when I was 10-11. So its around 1982

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

Dragon 32 (my dad's)
Spectrum 48K (my brothers)
Oric Atmos (mine!..crap..sold it)
Commodore 64 (mine! through it away around 1995 - still regret that..)
Amiga (mine!..through it away around 1996 - regret that too..)

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

I started off as a coder. I wrote games and did the music for a company
called Graftgold when I was 16. As time moved on, I spent more time
writing music than coding, so it was a natural progression really. I
still code now though - sound utilities and stuff like that. (along
with a few PC graphic demos...)

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

SoundMonitor,Rockmonitor (c64)
SoundTracker,NoiseTracker, my own routine (JasonPage format...who named
it that anyway?!)

I still use:

Cubase VST (for the CD type music)
Fast Tracker (have written a Playstation XM player..)

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

Fire&Ice - I wrote it on NoiseTracker and then rewrote it with my own editor.
It was just a nice tune that worked well.

Uridium2 - All written with my own editor - but people seemed to like it.

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

Ahh - too many! I can't tell you which ones - as they were the games that I
didn't even want a credit on! They sounded bad mainly due to the amount
of memory of processing time that was spare. It was always the same -
Chris Huelsbeck would get 200K+ for a title tune, and I got 20K and 2
scan lines for the whole game!

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

Well, try watching Second Reality with no sound. It just loses so much.
Its the same with a game. Adding the sound just makes everything come
to life. You can build up tension to a point with sound, which you
just can't do with graphics.

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

I work for Sony, having written music for Gran Turismo, Coolboarders2, Porsche
Challenge, This Is Football...etc..etc... I don't get much time spare to
write tunes for leisure. I prefere to spend that with my wife - not to
mention that I use all my good ideas during work time! I don't know how
people like Jeroen "WAVE" Tel do both! Bloody showoff...hehe...

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

mpeg is fine - its just audio so the actual music is all down to the composer.
midi has always sounded dated to me. wave (I guess you mean tracker?) is
still amazing. People are really pushing those things hard, although a lot
of them sound similar. I guess thats the difference between now and 10 years
ago - it used to be the actual sound player that gave a composer a
personality. You can always tell a Rob Hubbard tune from a Martin Galway
or MON, just by the way they use different music players.

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

c64
Thats The Way It Is / Scoop.
Storm Lord /MON
Sanxion / RobH
Ocean Loader / Martin Galway

amiga
R-Type / Chris H
Turrican / Chris H
Chaos Engine / Richard Joseph (I did the megadrive conversion by the way...)

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

I would love to - if I had the time.
I did the Fire&Ice music on CD for the CD32 version. Shame no one bought it!
I also did the Uridium2 music for CD32, but it was never released. I still
have the DAT for that one somewhere....

12-What bands are you currently listenning to?

The Prodigy - the dirtchamber sessions volume 1.
Run Lola Run soundtrack.

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

The ability to code and write music! Really! It was easier to hack away at a
demo to find out how to do something that it was to hack through a whole game.
It was nice to be able to load up someone elses music and see how they created
it too. I wasn't part of a big demo group, and never really had anyone else to
bounce ideas off, so it was the only way for me to learn at the time.
Basically, I wouldn't be doing this professionally without it.

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

nope.

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

Emma (my wife), everyone on the VGM list. Richard Joseph...

Can't think of anything else to say, except thanks to everyone who mails me
saying nice things about my old music. All that Amiga stuff didn't seem to
matter at the time, but obviously it had an effect on someone - which is nice.

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