Amiga Music Preservation -

Interview

.

`n. .rP'

`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.

,NN' `b. · i n t e r v i e w · ___________

______dP _____________ \ /

\ ,N'\____ _____________. _____ \ \_____. ____\ /

\___P___/ .\--\__ __/__ |--\____)---\ _____/__ |--\_ \ _/

| | | \ | | \__| | _ \ / | \__| | /\ |

| _| | | _l_ | | \ / _l_ | ___|

l___/=l___|====l____/===\______|==l______|\ /l___/===\______l____/

\/

•

Handle:

•

Group:

•

Date of birth:

1-How did your interest for computers start? Which year was that?

I started as a 11 year old kid getting his hands on his first computer
(16K ZX Spectrum) back in 1985? I got so into it that I used to get up at
4am in the morning go downstairs to the cold living room in my pyjama's
so that I could play/program on it before I had to go to school.

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

Only had Spectrum and Amiga (two of them a 500 and a 1200) - almost made two
horrible mistakes - I was so anxious to get hold of a new computer after
my Spectrum that I almost bought a BBC Micro and then later an Atari ST.
But in the end I waited long enough and bought the Amiga - king of all home
computers!!

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

I didn't! Actually I've always programmed my own demo's as well as doing the
music (and some of the gfx too!). I've always been into music (being
classically trained on piano) - also my mum is an artist. So it was a great way
to fuse all these aspects together.

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

I went through several - Protracker was my favourite though. It just had a nice
interface.

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

Not sure I ever did - the tunes definately improved once I got into the sampling
side of things and could make my own sounds. There was one summer when I
borrowed a load of synths and an atari from my school - which was great because
I could create more complex tunes and then sample bits of it to convert to put
on the Amiga.

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

Mmmm... probably the early ones - like on the Goldfire Megademo - some of them
weren't too hot. I was just learning at the time, Dave(Tripper)/Goldfire was
writing much better tunes at that point though I think I catched up quite
quickly.

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

Music is essential - it sets the mood of the demo. Think about some of the
great demos by guys like Razor 1911, Red Sector, Scoopex etc... what do you
remember about them? The music! You can have great visuals but it you have
some badly written little chip track it won't move the user.

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

Yes - I released an album under the name Shur-i-kan for a record label called
Freerange Records. It's a kind of mix of dance/electronica and jazz/ambient -
I think people who liked my Amiga music's will like this stuff too (the album
is called Advance). You should be able to get it in the larger or specialist
records stores (or online). Okay plug over! :-)

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

Some of its great a lot of it isn't - that's always been the case it always
will no matter what the format or the tools people use. The restrictions that
the Amiga imposed were always interesting to work within.

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

I'm not very good at remembering track names - but my favourite Amiga musician
I think was Audiomonster. He had a really great production sound and also
managed to add a touch of "exotic" to the demo's he worked on.

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

Not currently - though I may raid some of my earlier idea's for Shur-i-kan
stuff in the future!

12-What bands are you currently listenning to?

Quite a lot of left-field dance music by UK and German guys (like Jazzanova,
Jimpster etc..)

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

Very happy memories of summer vacations wasted indoors programming away on my
Amiga! Honestly I learnt a lot from the skills I developed then - which helped
me on my professional career since.

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

No - I don't really have time. When I left university I went to work for Sega
where I have been for last six years. That said actually one of my tasks at
Sega was to make demo's for Dreamcast (before it was released) so I guess
became a professional demo coder in a way! :-) I think making video games is
probably the next closest thing to being a demo coder.

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

Not really - just hi to anyone who remembers Goldfire or dealt with us. Hi to
the *core* Goldfire crew - Nick (Frantik), Dave (Tripper) and Phil (Marty).
Guys like Kreator/Anarchy, Audiomonster etc... and crytoburners of course!

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

Quick Search

Random link

Database Stats

Interview