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?

My interest in computers started way back when I saw a little handheld
"computer"-game, one of my classmates had. I guess it was the early stages
of what was to become the gameboy and so on. I'm not sure what they were
called back then. Then at the age of 11, my parents gave my brother and me
a C-64 for cristmas. MAN this was awesome. There was music, graphic and even
though it took a while, it was possible to play several games. At first,
computers were merely game consoles to me, but that was soon to change. A year
later, I got this truely great game called "Defender Of The Crown". I was
amazed by the graphics, and in particular the music. Since I was just using
my computer, I found out that a new one was available. The Amiga 500. I saved
and saved for about a year and a half, and finaly I had enough money to buy
one of my own (meaning I wouldn't have to share with my brother anymore).
Games on the amiga was completely out of this world, though gameplay and
stories were often not as good as on the C-64.

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

C-64, Amiga 500, Amiga 1200 (built a HD into it myself) ;)

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

I really can't say. I guess I've just always liked music. It's not like we
had a piano at home or my parents were particularly musical, but I seem to
have been born with the gift of musical ears. When I heard a melody once, I
could often play it on the huge (and very old) yamaha organ I once bought for
200 dkk (about 25 euro) :) And as time passed, I started playing more and more.

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

The day I got ProTracker was the happiest day of my life. Well ... not exactly
that day, rather than the month after when I had finally learned the basic
functions of the tracking system. Since then, I've been tracking in
ProTracker and FastTracker on the PC. I never really used other trackers for
composing.

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

As a musician, I think most will agree, that the goal is never quite reached.
There's always something you're not sattisfied with, but due to a deadline
or pressure from others, you decide that it's "good enough" to release.
Actually, I haven't released that much of that reason. I never seem to be
content with what I've made. Always I wish it would be just a little bit
different. I guess all musicians feel that way. It's hard to know when a tune
is finished and when to leave it alone. The module I'm happiest with, must be
my entry for TRSAC Autumn 2001 called "Beating Post Mortem". It's actually
inspired by the theme of a great danish movie called "I kina spiser de hunde".
(In china they eat dogs) It has a great sound to it, and I'm very sattisfied
with the strings in particular.

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

No. Not really. Naturally the first ones I released sounds like crap to me
today, but I'm still somewhat proud of it. They're the reason I am where I am
today. Without those tiny little insecure steps at the beginning, nobody
learns. Ofcourse I'm more proud of some than others. That's only natural I
think.

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

It's hard to say exactly how much the music is in a demo or a game. I think
it's very different from demo to demo or game to game. In some demos, music
are everything. In others it doesn't mean that great a deal. If I was to
mention an example of where music is of extreme importance to the overall
impression, fr_08 (the product), Second Reality and Dessert Dream would not
have been that popular today had it not been for the wonderful musics.

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

At the moment I'm building a studio with two other friends of mine. We've all
composed music for years, and have decided to give it a shot. I believe, that
you never regret what you did, but only the things you didn't do. So we're
spending whatever money we're able to raise on the studio, and hopefully
we'll be ready with our first single within the next 6 months. We still
haven't decided a name for the group, so you'll have to wait and see. But
without doubt, tracking will always be a hobby of mine, and I have no
intentions of quitting so far. So even though Fnuque hasn't released a single
PC-production yet, and therefore doesn't need music, I still keep tracking
for music-compos at the parties, I still plan to attend.

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

Compared to tracking, Midi-controlled synthesizers offers a great deal more
both in quality and variety, but there will never be the same feeling to a
commercial piece of music as to a tracked piece of music made solely for the
fun of it. The fact that people pirate cd's and films doesn't bother me at
all. I'm not much into all that myself, since I have an old computer not
capable of running the films and my harddrive is too small for it to be
filled up with mp3's, so I'm leaving it to others. But I still use MP3
myself to compress wave-data when sending it to the two other members of
the studio. It's a great way to move data quickly I think, and it's
definatly a great tool that's here to stay.

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

Aaaw, that's hard. In time I've heard so much great music, but if I really
am to mention a few, it would definatly be the music from Second Reality
by Purple Motion. Also I'm very fond of music from these guys:

Faiser (for style), Motion (Old Balance musician - for samples),
Skaven (for inovation) Jogeir Liljedahl (for melody), Moby (for alternativity),
Chromag (for great variation) and also Laxity (for his great demo-style)
I won't mention any tunes in particular since the list would be too long for
this letter :)

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

No, I won't go commercial with my demoscene stuff. It's made for everyone
to enjoy and I think it would lack the raw sound and the unpolished quality
if it was remastered and made into commercial music. The charming thing
about tracked music, is that you can hear that it's tracked. I think people
should leave tracked music as it is, since it's great in it's very own way.

12-What bands are you currently listenning to?

Actually I'm not listening that much to music, and definatly not all these
new pop-bands that seems to be popular at the moment. When I'm at home, I
usually listen to classical music preferably from Bethoven, Strauss or Mozart.
I think the old classics is an ocean of inspiration if you take your time
to decipher the various themes and combinations of each instrument. It's
amazing that something composed more than 100 years ago, played on old wooden
instruments by 50+ people is still worth listening to. That really amazes me.

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

Close to everything I'd say. Without the scene, I wouldn't be composing music
today I guess. That's why I won't stop tracking. I owe the scene, and I think
that new musicians joining the scene should receive all the help and motivation
they desserve from those who have been part of it for years. We owe it to us
selves, the scene and to the "next generation" of sceners!

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

Yes, very I'd say. I participate in music compo's at partys whenever possible
since my group hasn't yet released any productions. So until my music is needed
for productions, I release it at parties for everyone to enjoy ... or hate :)

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

Actually I'd like to greet the entire scene. Every single person who has
ever used his or her sparetime doing something simply to show of and impress
others. A few persons do need special greetings, and that would be:

Fnuque-members, Depth-members, Iris-members, Outbreak-Members,
Wayfinder / Farb-Rausch, KB / Farb-Rausch, Reflex / Loopit, Orange / Ostebulen
and Miklos / Microsux

Last, I'd like to urge everyone to go to www.scenemusic.net. That's a place
that stream scenemusic (C-64, Amiga, PC) 24/7-365. Simply chose "play
location" in winamp, and type the address: relay1.fnuque.dk:23 or
relay2.fnuque.dk:23 (for 128 kbps relays and ports 8080 for 24 kbps and
8081 for 56 kbps)

And then I'd like all of you sceners to attend Scenemeeting and TRSAC in
Denmark. The two only real scene-parties left here in DK. The Party's days
are over I'm affraid . That's all from me this time. Keep on tracking
everyone, and enjoy the free pleasure of creativity!

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