Amiga Music Preservation -

Interview

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`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.

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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 got a C64 in christmas 1984 and I got my own half years
later for my 10th birthday. Me like many of my classmates played
games for the next three years. Then in summer 1988 I wrote down
a tracker program published in a Finnish computer magazine and
started doing music with it. It was Megasound by Yip/Purebyte.
I also started coding simple graphics stuff and games on basic.

In summer 1990 I got the Amiga 500 and immediately started
tracking modules and code assembler. I wanted to be a scener
and shortly after I joined my first groups and there I was ;)

Since 1995 I've been on the PC but lately come back to code
a few Amiga 500 demos for fun. I somehow regret I never coded
demos back then though I could have coded cause I knew the
machine and assembler pretty well. So I do it post-pone for
the Assembly summer parties oldskool competition ;)

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

C64, Amiga 500 and PC. I did pretty much everything you could do:
music, code, graphics, swap, BBS, net, gaming, utilities and so on.
I thought it was so special a time I had to experience it all.
The arrival of home computers and culture would happen only once.
I've spent over 20 000 hours computing...

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

I was most experienced on that and C64 game/scene musicians were
kind of heroes to me. I wanted to be like them and learn to do
good tunes. Coding was also interesting but for a teenager it
was a little too slow and complicated. Back then it was amazing
you could do music yourself, save it to a little disk and spread it.

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

Megasound 88-90, MED 90-92, Pro Tracker 92-95, Fast Tracker 2 96-97,
Cakewalk/Sonar 98- and Modplug Tracker 01-. Mostly the trackers.

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

My goal was to be a good scene-musician. If I compare my tunes
to other module musicians out there I think I succeeded enough.

Many tracks felt like landing on a new step. I did some really poor
ones too. Not that I did poor tunes, everybody does, but I spread
them aswell. But after a few years on the scene I stopped caring
so much for the fame and just kept doing tracks for musics sake.
If I did something why shouldn't the world hear it?

In 1996 a tune called Radiowaves felt so good that I thought I
couldn't exceed it with a tracker so my interest towards tracking
started to sink. My destiny was not to like MIDI/HD-recording
so my music making almost stopped there in the late 90's.

But now that we have computers ten times faster programs like
Sonar start to feel a bit better. IT-format modules made in
Modplug interest me too. I've taken composing too seriously
lately but now I'm a bit more relaxed towards doing fun stuff.

I'm a little bit scared that the net and PC computing is SO BIG
as it is. If making music has any point anymore since computing
is in a weird transition state to something like a techno-dominated
global mainstream culture. I fear people have no audience anymore
cause there's too much material. Nobody cares if there's too much.

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

Not really. There's embarrasing tunes I've made but I can always
pretend those were just a joke.

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

In a demo it's important. But I'd like some variation in today's
demos. It don't have to be just techno music. Games I don't play
anymore. Most games have had terrible or otherways annoying music
but it didn't matter if the game itself was good. Certainly you
notice a good soundtrack on a game when it happens.

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

Yes. I'm composing for my own amusement and a bit for others' too.

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

MP3 killed module music. I'm not happy about it. But the format is OK.
Or should I say the principle of lossy compressing. There's a problem
I think how MP3 and scene goes together cause MP3 makes all music equal.
There's nothing to distinquish the scene music and other music. Infact
scene music sounds worse now cause you compare it with commercial music.
You never compared real musicians and module musicians back in the days.

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

I can tell you a few great module musicians: Lizardking, Heatbeat,
Dizzy, Strobo, Jogeir, Mellow-D aka MD, Jester, Moby, Radix, Scorpik,
XTD, PRI, Rob Hubbard, Wave aka Jeroen Tel, all Vibrants, all MoN,
Tito, Bjorn Lynne, Distance... I'm not familiar with newskool guys but
they tend to make non-melodic electronica I don't find too exciting.

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

Nope. But a CD with new music perhaps.

12-What bands are you currently listenning to?

Just a few. Old names I've listened for ages like James taylor,
Joni Mitchell, Liv Taylor, Iron Maiden, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson.
Lately Armin van Buuren and other pop-trance has got my attention.

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

Basicly the Amiga scene was my life for about five years besides
going to school. PC was my life for another five years but in
a different way. Not the PC scene but the whole 90's PC/Net
phenomena. Demoscene has been very dear to me for a decade and
will continue in a way or another. It's the best hobby there is
for creative young minds. It certainly started a different youth
for me ;)

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

Now and then. I'm not into PC demos anymore cause of acceleration,
OpenGL and generally the fact that these machines have no clear
limits anymore. I mean the music can be 24bit/96khz, the graphics
hi-res truecolor and you have millions of polygons in a second.
PC computing is also too BIG and mainstream today. But I think
older machines will have a nice little scene for years to come.

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

Greets to oldskool scene. Keep on doing it. Those who left the scene
can come back today. Maybe after five years. Maybe after a decade?!
What's there to stop you? Just for fun. To have something special
in your life. You might bring Amiga 500 or some other machine to a new
blossom with your production. I understand you have a thing called life
but making one demo a year or a few tunes won't hurt. It would be cool!

Then a word of warning. I speak of my own experience ;) Computers and
media are very addicting. Take care that your hobbies won't take
control over you. It can happen easily and you won't even notice.
Every hour you spent with computers is out of everything else.
So spend it wisely making your own prods but be aware of strange
thoughts of how you have to be the best or how nothing else matters
but the scene. That's your ego speaking just about to make you a fool.

If you don't mind I might aswell give you a few addresses that will
stay correct for years to come. (This text I wrote in January 2002)

Thanks. Stay cool ;) Looking forward to get a DVD AMP collection! ;)

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