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 was fashinated by computers since I was a child. I was used to buy
videogames-related magazines even before I had one (And that didn't happened
for a long time) and so I started learning about computers and the digital
world in the first half of the '80. The first computer I ever saw was from
Texas Instruments and it was standing on a table in a big store like an alien
god into his temple. I still remember I felt completely hypnotized looking at
it... and when I had the chance to approach its keyboard and tried typing
something... all it was replying back to me was an obscure "Syntax error".
I was too young to speak or understand english correctly... so all I was
able to write in the command-line was something like "Please, don't speak
english". Later on, during one summer, in a place where I was having sailing
lessons, I had the chance of being instructed on the "basic" language and,
once home, I practiced a bit with my girlfriend's c64.

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

I had a friend using Amiga... and all the company gathered for months around
him to witness with eyes the power of this new device. It was amazing what
that computer seemed capable of. When I first had a look to the intro of
"Blood Money" I just didn't believed my ears and eyes. It was the sign I was
waiting for. I finally found something able to translate my ideas into real
images and real sounds. I just had to buy myself one. We have to step to 1990
to find me involved with my first computer, an Amiga500 I was able to buy
myself by working during the night in postal services. I had some videogames,
a copy of Aegis Sonix, and a copy of Deluxe Paint. Then I found a copy of
Protracker on a magazine's bonus-floppy and that was the beginning of a long
time I spent locked in my room, experimenting with sounds and composing. Later
on, I was able to get myself even a copy of Real3d... and started xperimenting
with synth gfx. Years after I ended up on the great Amiga 1200.. and with a
modem, the work was complete. I started spreading my mods to all the bbs and
in no-time I gathered respect, friendship, Parsec-dedicated download zones
and found myself rated in the "best 3 musicians" in the Italian Amiga Scene.

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

Since I was a child, I grew up surrounded by artistical suggestions. My father
was used to oil-paint, that means I remember oil-smelling brushes and cleaning
liquids seeded everywhere in my house. It's him who, in my first childhood,
made me listen to 1 hr (at least) a day of classical music... and compelled
my mother to the same thing before I was born. With such a massive stimulation
I had no chance but loving every form of art, including writing and sculpting.
My "official" job, actually, is as webdesigner. But, In the end, I must admit
that with my Amiga I definitely put more efforts in composing than everything
else, this happened because of my "need" for communication. Gfx, even at its
best, it's however still freezed on the screen. Music instead just can't be
framed... and flow in all directions, reaching everyone regardeless of his-her
will of listening to it. In poor words: it's a better tool for expressing
outward and contacting other beings.

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

Protracker 2.3d
Of course :-)

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

That's a tricky question!
It all comes down to "what's my goal".
In some way I'd say "no mod made me reach my goal" but more than a "goal"
I'd better speak about "milestones" along a path that's still far from its
end. Every mod I composed trying to go past the edge of trend and technology
gave me good feelings and was recognized as "excellent music" by people around
me, and that's one good milestone. When I published my first EP, "Open your
eyes" and "1090 - I Feel it's good", I thought that was a milestone. When I
won the 3th place at the Mekka Symposium with "Get High Toghether" that was a
milestone. When "Pro-1" was used to open a big concert of Italian pop-stars
in front of a peoplefull square, I felt that was a milestone. When I realized
one tv show opening theme and pre/post spot... and I heard them coming from my
tv, that was another milestone.

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

All of my old tunes! :D
Everytime I'm done composing music I start finding it obsolete.
It's past already... so it's old: It can be made in a better way.

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

There is one basic point called "interaction" that makes a valuable
difference between games and demo, but I'd say that the value of music in
both is enormous, however. We're all used to perceive reality by looking and
listening. We all know that a glass bottle that falls on the ground will
break into a hundreds pieces with a loud glassy "crash". When we see a bottle
falling we do -expect- the bottle to do noise... and we would be disappointed
of seeing a bottle who does no sound or crashes making a tiny piano chord.
That's why we need the audio part. Some cases are even evidently audio-based.
If you look to "Toys" by Gods, you can quickly understand that big part of
the "magic" is done by the music. They based the whole "emotive" part on a
music that they ripped from the movie "Anastasia" by Don Bluth. If you try
and run the demo turning your monitor off... it still will make you feel
emotively "touched". If you turn on the monitor but run the demo with no
sound... it kinda sux.

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

In my position I have to say that the two options match perfectly.
In some way I can't help but composing. Just like a tree that grows fruits.
All I have to do is to see if I can do something Pro with them.
Right now I'm working in studio on a project for a new-age magazine. If this
song will be accepted I'll publish one or two pieces at month on their
compilation :-)

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

Well... mp3 offers a great chance of compressing audio data with little quality
loss... of course this is not tied in any way to the quality of what we compose
or do. It's just a tool to store and trasnfer music. Further thinking lead me to
consider an error the actual tendence in the scene to have generic "mp3" compos
instead of "mod-xm" compos. We're scenicly speaking ) involuted at a point where
"the one with the better sound quality wins"... that means "the one with more
money wins" that means again "the one who have a father who has a lot of money,
wins". This makes life difficult to certain musicians ( like me ) who try to
survive on their own or to those who are basing their music on their musical
ideas and skills instead of pure "audio-quality" coming from big and xpensive
hi-tech instrumentation. Not only, all in all it's a thing that's distant from
the very spirit of the scene itself.

An "mp3" compo can be held at The Party, where, as far as I know, the spirit
of the scene died some years ago... but I don't understand why they made this
choice at the Mekka Symposium, i.e. I wonder what would happen if pro musicians
with no knowledge of scenish matters like trackers and synths would bring to
the party their excellent musics... made in pro studios paying tons of money...
Are the Music Compos just "music festivals"?

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

"Scenicly" speaking?
I can't forget to mention Jogeir with "Guitarslinger" and "suspiria", later
on. Moby was another good musician that gave me good vibes.

Talking about the italian scene, Case and Filippetto were composing great
stuff, along with FBY. And of course... the soundtrack from Desert Dream,
by Laxity.

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

I did already! It's the demo CD that I always bring with me.

12-What bands are you currently listenning to?

I like MOBY, FATBOY SLIM, CHEMICAL BROTHERS, RAHZEL, LIMP BIZKIT... and many
other single productions around.

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

Litterally everything. The first computer I ever used was a c64 and that made
me understand that the computer was a tool to export my ideas to a "perceivable"
and more "universal" filetype. Amiga opened my mind to the universe of
multimedia by giving me the idea of having an entire orchestra or band at my
commands. A lot of other tools, such 3d editors and even txt editors where the
gate to "transform" any idea into "accepted" media with a commonly used
audio-visual code.

The scene was my first "field of action" and it gave me the chance to
professionally practice many of the things I was doomed to do in my future.

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

There was this "Warp Engine Team" with Pitagora that seemed to have some
future... but it never went further than a 3d model rotating with some
textures on it because of the coder being to lazy :( I was recently contacted
by italian guys that decided to gather old sceners to build one new group.
Now he's a bit too lazy to keep it active so we decided I'll be leading it.
The name's Night-stars and we already have an homepage :) that's
www.night-stars.it .. Many members are not actually active, so I'm recently
asking new people to join this group and try following some design ideas I
have. With modern equipment many of my old ideas are an easy task.

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

Not much left to say. If anyone's interested in working seriously for the
demoscene and join Night-stars... I can be reached at [email protected]
or [email protected]. My greetings are for Macno and Tatlin of the
Abnormalia staff, other mags editors like the great Mop, Ghandy, Rokdazone...
the sceners I have been dealing with like Bannasoft and Walt of Melon Design,
TTS of Oxyron, Radix, MetalDesigner, Hedgehog, Oriens... and all the other
people I have made team with.

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