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?

Oh, that's hard to tell. I was 11 or 12 years old, when I first got in touch
with computers. That was in the middle of the 80s. I saw some guys in a
store doing interesting things with coding graphics. I wanted to do those
things on my own. I started coding in Basic. And of cause I gamed a lot. :-)
A friend of mine had a C64 and I played a lot on this machine. But coding
was a big hobby of mine.

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

My first computer was a Commodore C16 with a Datatape. Further on I buyed a
Atari ST. I did a lot of Basic coding on that machines. Later on I sold this
machines and buyed myself a Amiga 500. I wanted to make music and thought,
that this is the right machine for that reason. But actualy it was the great
games whith the amazing graphics and sound, that maked me buy it. :-) I tuned
my Amiga to a really strong machine with a lot of memory and a huge hard drive.
But as I sold it a couple of years later, it was nearly worth nothing. I was
really fucked up with that. I turned to the PC world that has grown to a bigger
one, than the Amiga world. But I still love the Amiga.

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

I never was very talented in drawing pictures and my coding was not good at
all. But the main reason, why I ended up making music was, that I always loved
music. I did 7 years with drum lessons. Yes, I am a real drummer. :-) Even, if
my first songs did not show this. :-) I saw some cool performances of keybords
on a exhibition and was really impressed by that. I wanted to do this. So I
decided to learn to play keyboards. I never had lessons on that. I learned a
lot on my own and from a friend of mine, who plays piano. The composing stuff,
I learned by trial and error. I had a lot of idols in this time. My biggest
were Chris Huelsbeck, Jean Michel Jarre, Vangelis and Kitaro and some from the
scene like Dr. Awesome, Fleshbrain, Jesper Kyd and a couple more. I copied
from them and added my own ideas. But I searched for my own style. I think,
that most of my old Amiga songs where not fitting in the taste of music from
these days. I always wanted to do something different then the others. But
that didn't fit into Intros or Demos. Except two or three of them. :-)

After Dytec had quit the scene, me and some guys from Dytec wanted to do
computer games. But that failed. So I did music only for my own pleasure. I
quit doing music with trackers and used real keyboards with Midi. That's what
I'm doing today. I write my songs, burn them on CD or put them into the
Internet, so that every can listen to it, who's interestet in that.

When I look back on the Amiga-days, I would say, that this was my rehearsal
time. It was a funny and very productive time and I did grow on that. Now I'm
going back to my roots and restart playing drums. But I always will play
keyboards and write my own songs as well. And, who knows? Maybe, I will be a
successful musician in the future. :-)

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

On the Amiga-days I used Soundtracker, Protracker and TFMX to compose my songs.
Now I use Cubase and sometimes the amazing Buzz-Tracker.

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

I will be honest! None of my old Amiga-Songs did reach my goals. But I was
pleased with my Chiptune called "Introzack-2". It didn't take long to compose
and the others of Dytec liked it. That was not really a normal thing because
the Dytec guys where not easy to please. :-)

Some of my new songs, that will be released on my new CD (and in the Net)
soon, are nearly about to reach my goals. But I think that my songs never
will reach my goals at all. I always have new goals. This is what writing
music is about, I think. And this keeps me and my music and my development
as a musician alive. My motto: Always try new things and always try to do
better!

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

Oh yes! My very first tunes where so awfull. But I needed the money! I had
to do this! :-) No, just kidding! I never got money for my Amiga-Songs.

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

The main thing is to build and underscore the right atmosphere for the demo or
game environment. This is the thing, I missed on many demos I saw in the past.
Many of them seemed to be puzzled together by using several existing graphics
and music that do not really fit together. Not all but most of them.

But todays demos are pretty cool. The producers are getting better and better.
I still enjoy to lean back and watch the demos.

Intros are a bit different. There the music has to catch the ear of the
listener very quickly. It surely has to fit into the atmosphere of the
Intro but it's not of that importance as in demos or games. You have to
impress the listener. It's a bit like a commercial, I think.

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

As I told above, I still compose. I would say that I do it in a semi
professional way. For my own pleasure and for those, who want to listen to my
music. I know, that musicbusiness is one of the hardest. So I think, that I
never would earn enough money to live from making musik. But it's so much fun,
that I keep on doing music. And it improves my skills as well. And this is
pleasing me enough. I can't imagine to be a popstar or something like that.
There are enough others to do that. :-) All I want is, that the listener
enjoys my music. And if he or she likes it, i'm pleased. That's all.

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

When a song touches me and I like it, it doesn't matter in what format it is.

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

Oh, thats too much to mention here! Let me pick out some artists I like best:

Chris Huelsbeck, Jochen Hippel, Dr. Awesome, Fleshbrain, Jesper Kyd, Romeo
Knight, Bit Arts, Mantronix and Tip, Diablo, S.L.L, the musicians from
Silents, the artists who did the amazing "Odyssey" Demo, Jester and of
cause Purple Motion and Skaven from the Future Crew.

I'm sure, that I forgot one. There are a lot of cool musicians out there.

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

Planning? I already did a CD on which a couple of my best Amiga-Songs are
remastered. You can listen to it at www.kspmusic.de or on www.mp3.com/vince.
Or ask me for sending you a copy of it. Surely not for free. :-) You have to
take the costs of material and shipping. And I'm not afraid of getting a
little credit for my work. :-) And of cause you have to tell me how you
like my CD. :-)

On my next CD will be only one old song. The others are all new. 18 Tracks
and nearly 80 minutes of (fine?) music. Stay tuned on that. News are posted
on www.kspmusic.de soon.

Now enough of commercials... :-)

12-What bands are you currently listenning to?

Oh shit! Thats hard! I listen to so many groups. But at this time I'm very
into "Creed" and "Metallica". but I listen to electronic musik as well. I
like mostly every type of musik. Except german folk. That's crab!

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

A lot of friends, fun and experience. No more, no less. :-)

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

No, I'm not. But why not doing it again? Who knows? :-)

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

Yes! To all the artists out there: keep on doing your arts! Keep on making
demos, games or intros.

That's a cool type of art, that has to be kept alive!

I greet all the guys from Dytec (especially Viper, Paso, Hosot, Data) and all
the other guys, who made or still make the scene so interesting and possible.
And of cause I will greet all musicians out there!

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