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?

Heh, I think the year was something around 1982 or whenever c64 came out.
Computer is a technical toy and as a boy, every technical toy grabbed my
interest.

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

I had c64 which I sold to get money for A500. I really deeply regret that I
sold my c64 and especially that I gave all my disks with it. Those disks had
all my own programs, games etc in them so I basically sold a part of my history.
I can always buy a secondhand c64 for quite cheap but I will never have my disks
back.

Later I sold my A500 to get money for PC but at that point I was a bit wiser
and I stored my disks (with all my music). I still have those.

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

I have no idea. I had never played any real instrument and I couldn't sing so
I was not a musical person in any mean of the word. I just liked to create
music.

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

Urrrk... its over 10 years ago, I can't remember the names :) Was it...ummm...
ScreamTracker, oh yes it was. I started with SoundTracker (was it named that
way?) and later got ScreamTracker, which I used till I left scene.

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

I never released any good music. I was really crap doing it but somehow some of
my mods got out. I once wrote very short (like 25kb) mod called Somewhere
(I know, there must be hundreds of mods named similary around...). It ended up
to be in two intros and in World of Wonders' cracktro. The mod is quite simple
but easy to listen unlike my other creations... and when it ended up in WoW
cracktro I think that was the highest goal I could achieve ;)

By the way this mod is still out there, but atleast on one site they gave the
credits to other composer than me.

I made some mods after leaving the scene and in my personal opinion those were
my best. Sad thing I couldn't do them earlier...

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

There are many tunes made by me that I would not like to remember. Fortunately
most of them never got released.

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

Music is a very strong factor in games if made right and it can really boost
the overall experience just like in movies. In good demos the music can be
used quite similar way, but unfortunately in most demos music just is there
to fill the silence. It could be something more.

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

Yes I still occasionally do some composing just for leisure purposes.
Composing seems to be something that you can't get rid of, you just have to
do even some little tunes every now and then. It really gives some satisfaction
even if you don't do anything great.

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

Making music with computers has changed quite much in my opinion. In my Amiga
days we had quite limited possibilities with composing and great composers were
mostly those, who had the ability to exploit the limited resources the most.

Nowadays those limits just don't exist anymore. There is virtually no limits
on channels, sample qualities etc. This is a good thing, but I must admit that
in the earlier days it just wasn't enough that you knew something about music,
you also had to have certain mind to explore within the limitations. I had none
of these skills :)

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

No names pop into my mind right now, but there were some great tunes.

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

Funny thing that you ask this, because I have just recently started doing my
first-ever remastering. I've tried to modernize my mod from Unique's "License
to Fill" vector demo. If I ever get it sound tolerable, I might do some other
remasters too. But this is an ongoing project and to be honest Im still not
very good when it comes to creating cd-quality sound. I didn't realize that
mixing and mastering can be this hard when you really try to make something
sound good.

12-What bands are you currently listenning to?

I have very wide taste in music. I can listen anything from classic to heavy,
but hiphop and dance just are something I try to avoid. So I'm not specifically
listening to any band currently, but as a genre I would say that currently Im
listening to Finnish rock.

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

Golden memories. I haven't seen any of those crazy people in years and I highly
doubt that they'd even remember me quite well. Sad thing, I really would like
to meet some old farts and I wouldn't mind if I somehow got lightly involved
with scene again.

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

No, but as said above, I still miss it and in the most dark and rainy nights
Im thinking if there was a way I could get somehow involved.

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

There is life after you turn 30.

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