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?

Hard to say an exact date, I've more or less always been interested
in it, all since I played Lazy Jones and Wizard of Wor on some friends'
C64s in 1984-85...

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

My first computer was actually not a C64, but a Compis!!
I got it when a school nearby threw out the old computers and
got PCs instead. Could have got an ABC80 as well, but I missed that
chance... =) Well, the Compis was a strange, swedish computer based
around the 8086/88 chips, with 256k memory and hi-res graphics
(640x400). I think that was in 1987. I played around with it
a couple of years (not that there was a lot you could do with it...)
until I got a real monster machine in 1989: A Campus 286 with EGA
and all that! Remember that this was pretty high-end at that time...
It was a cool machine, actually it was the last PC with a soul.
I used it to play Sierra games and other things until I got to know
some Amiga people. It was in 1990-91, everybody had A500, except
for me... so one day in 1991 I got rid the PC and got a new A500.
What a machine... so many games, and the sound! Gosh! Until then
I had had to listen to the beeps from internal speakers, but this
was something else. I had this computer for a long time, actually
I didn't change it until 1996, when I finally decided to get an
A1200. And I couldn't afford to upgrade it until early 1998, so I
haven't had my present setup for very long. Anyway, it is:
A1200, 030/50, 68882/50, 2+16 Mb, 2.5Gb HD and sixty million DD-disks.
I have no plans on changing back to PC, although I've heard that
they've developed it a bit since the 286 days... =)

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

I actually tried to learn assembler on my A500, but failed bigtime.
All I could do was waiting for the mouse/joystick, and place a
miscoloured copperlist on the screen... =)
I got AMOS early, in 1991, and this was a fun toy to play with.
I made hundreds of programs in it, but you can hardly call it "code".
I've never been interested in developing my graphical skills, so
I guess there's only music left... it actually started like this:
When I got the A500 in 1991 I did nothing but play games until 1992,
when I started to catch some interest in the scene. Since I was a
total lamer and didn't know any sceners, I had to order demos from
PD companies! Well, one of the disks I got home was the wrong one,
it had a strange program called "Soundtracker 2.0" on it instead of
the demo I had ordered... There were also some samples, and I began
playing with it a little bit... I had some difficulties getting the
hold of the pos/pattern concept in the beginning, but I managed it
in some way...

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

It began with Soundtracker 2.0. I used it for a while, then I heard
that Music Editor was better, so I tried it, and I liked it.
I used Music Editor 2.13 for a while, then OctaMED. But in 1994 I
realized that nobody on the scene was using it, and I wanted to
be known on the scene... so I had to move back to the MOD-format.
I began using Protracker 2.3, then 3.11, and finally 3.15 which I
still use. The newer versions are too buggy, in 3.15 I know what
causes a crash and can avoid it... I've used 3.15 since 1995,
so it's my most familiar program. I've been experimenting with
DigiBooster and THX, but I don't use them much.

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

I don't know what my goal is, so it's hard to know. Well, I wanted
to be known on the scene, and the module which partly fulfilled this
goal was the music for The Tribe (called "Saltfattig Kost").
The demo got very known and spread, and I was contacted by many
people after this. This is paradoxal since the demo version was
made during a lot of stress in 12 hours, so it's not the tune I have
worked the most with...

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

Oh, is there!! =) In august 1994, there was a party called TBP 94
(The Borlänge Party) in Borlänge, Sweden (arranged by TBL!).
It was more or less a copy-party, but they had some competitions,
and I participated in the music compo with a terrible, terrible
module called "Suck Methane" (yeah!). Hardcore-crap with overboosted
samples... it ended up 5th, and I think there was 6 tunes in the
compo. It was won by Wolf/TBL. =)

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

The value? Well, of course it's important. Specially nowadays,
when demos more and more look like music videos. Music is the part
of a demo that creates the atmosphere. If the musician gets it right,
the demo is bound to be successful, even if the code/gfx is of a
poorer quality...

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

Of course! Only for leisure, but recently I and 2 other 3LE members
have formed a synth group called Kazow. We make happy synth in the
spirit of Skogens Djur. =) I don't know if you can call it
professional, since none of us expects to make any money on it.

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

I use neither of them. The MIDI stuff in Kazow are entirely handled
by the others, which I am grateful for. =)
But MP3 is a lame toy for PC-boys who don't want to pay for CD's.
I heard that some upcoming party was only going to allow MP3 in the
module competition, and it's... it's tragic. Is that a module
compo? Is nobody interested in watching the module in Protracker?
How can we even be sure it's a "module"? Well, it obviously isn't.
If they want to have a sample compo, fine, use MP3 there.

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

I just made such a program in Hippo, so I should remember them...
The tunes that first come to mind is Dizzy's jazzy guitar-stuff.
"Just for blue" and "Alternative samba" are favourites.
And of course a lot of Heatbeat's work.
But in classic Amiga-pop I really like Firefox/Tip/Mantronix,
and of course Lizardking. The mad pole Dreamer is also very good.
I also like the aggressive style of Muffler. Well, I could name
a lot of people and tunes... mail me for that Hippo-program! =)

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

Been there, done that! =)
Well, actually it was only a MIDI version of "Skogens Djur 020",
called "Som Man Vill", released as a Kazow tune on a demo-CD made
by SAS (a swedish group of synthgroups/fans). I don't know what
the future will bring, right now we (Kazow) are trying to put
together a demo tape.

12-What bands are you currently listenning to?

In modern music: Beck, FSOL, Wannadies, Blur, Enya, Ministry (RIP),
and others. But I enjoy 80's pop music even more. Almost everything
from the 80's is good, but the best are: Howard Jones, Modern Talking,
Miko Mission, Depeche Mode, Kim Wilde, etc.

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

Many, many friends in different countries, which I never would have
got to know otherwise. And it's of course always nice with a little
fame, even if it concerns only a very limited group of people...

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

Yes! Even though it may have seemed different the last months!
I hadn't much inspiration for any tunes in the first couple of months
in 1998, and then I had a total HD crash in the end of february.
This has made me delay badly on all my contacts, but I promise you
all that you will hear from me sooner or later. If you are in contact
with me (or want to be), drop me an email with your snailmail addy,
so I can recontact you!

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

OK, greetings to all my contacts and friends, the people on
#amigascne, everybody who dares to stand up to the PC society...
Never give up!

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