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..

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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?

My friend Paul got a C64 in grade 4 (we were approx 9 years old).
My elementary school also had C64s. First we played games on
them, and then he began to learn BASIC. He helped me learn. As
I had no computer of my own, I used the C64s at school. He and
I both took an interest in assembly language on C64 as well.
Then another friend's older brother got an Amiga; we also played
some games on this, and we noticed cracktros and thought they
were often cooler than the game itself. Friend's older brother
started to get some early "demos", like the famous red/blue 3D
stars. Eventually, I saw early classic demos from Andromeda,
Phenomena, Kefrens, etc. Finally saw Nine Fingers, and was
totally amazed.

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

My parents bought a PC for the business. I was a bit disappointed,
but I couldn't afford my own computer yet, so I began to try to
imitate Amiga-like effects on the PC. I found that this did not
work very well.. especially with 10 Mhz XT compatible with

16-colour *slow* EGA graphics.

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

PC sucked for graphic effects. I saw the legendary Mahoney&Kaktus
music disks on the aforementioned Amiga, and wished to create a
similar thing for PC, but knew there was no possibility of duplicating
the crazy and cool graphic effects, but I saw that there were M.K. module
format players and trackers starting to come out, so I built a DAC
(had no sound card) from some scrap parts, and made some crappy-
sounding modules (partly because the DAC was so crappy. :-)

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

I used ProTracker on Amiga, and tried Octamed as well, but when
FastTracker (PT for PC, basically) came out, I was very excited.
I then started more seriously composing. Finally FastTracker II (FT2) was
born and I *really* got into it.

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

I don't think I've reached my goal yet. My goal is to create music
of a quality that could be put on a compilation of similar styled
music, and then have someone listen to it, but not be able to pick
out mine from the rest by its crappiness. ;-)

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

Umm.. there was once a tune I composed by request for an intro, and
the intro was ummm.. *ahem*.. not that great, and I of course wished
that my music would not have been used for it. Heh. *eeeeergh*
(Apologies to the coder of this intro, but it really was not polished).

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

demo: essential (especially if it's synchronized)
game: makes gameplay more enjoyable, but some games are okay without it,
but early Psygnosis games ('SOTB', 'SOTB2', and especially 'Awesome')
would have been not quite so good without the excellent music!

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

I'm still composing when I have a bit of spare time, for leisure purposes,
but hoping I can make more 'professional' stuff eventually.

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

Well, to be honest, I think MP3 is a great idea, but it's primary function
(not intent, but function) seems to be to allow copying of existing
(commercial) music, which sucks for the industry, and if I were a
professional artist, I would not appreciate it. I don't use it much myself,
anyway, as I prefer to buy CDs which I can listen to while travelling, or
vinyl (yes, I aspire to be a DJ as well :-).

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

"band" (real? :-) music:
- Caffeine, Midlife Crisis, Everything's Ruined (Faith No More)
- Definition, Vitamin, New Skin, Anti-Gravity Love Song (Incubus)
- much, much psychedelic and goa trance, as well as acid trance,
and other kinds of techno (U.X., the Delta, Koxbox, etc)

modules:
- Space Love, Full Moon theme (Heatbeat)
- testlast [Nine Fingers theme] (Travolta)
- moumounette (DJ Teknostep)
- Celtic Waves (Jogeir L)

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

Definitely! Might be a while though, since free time is a
precious commodity these days.

12-What bands are you currently listenning to?

- Faith No More, Incubus, Skyscraper, God Lives Underwater,
Sister Machine Gun
- U.X., Man With No Name, Koxbox, x-dream, House Junkies, Fluke,
Mighty Dub Katz, Larry Lush and Mr. Oz

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

The C64 scene really me started on computers, and though I saw
some early intros/cracktros, it was the Amiga scene that really
got me hooked. I think it gives me a piece of European-based
culture that I can really appreciate (I'm 1st-gen Canadian,
with German and Austrian roots, but I've never been to Europe).
It also gives me a lot of new friends around the world.

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

I guess I would say not really. I would like to be, but I find
I don't have much free time, and so I would not consider myself
active.

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

Well, thanks for selecting me for an interview. Greets go to
Guffaw/Giants^T13N for his continuing coolness and support,
as well as Optic and gainx. Props to Argus and all the Theralite
dudes and guest stars; it's a label with which I'm proud to be
associated. Greets also to Karsten Obarski, M&K, the Amiga
Freelancers, Cryptoburners and everyone else who helped develop
mods. And finally, all-encompassing greets to all old-skool
sceners who are still around and/or have returned, even if
just to check in on the scene and see how much it has changed,
especially Jason (Kim J), ex-Dascon (Bernd H), and others who
treat the "younger" or not-so-famous sceners with respect.

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