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.

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

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

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

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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 grew from my interest in technology, electronics in
particular. I followed and completed a technical education in digital
electronics. I got my first computer quite late, at the age of 16, must have
been 1992.

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

In contrary to most sceners, I never onwned a C64 :) The first one was the
A600. It was soon replaced by my second and last Amiga: A1200/030/50Mhz which I
still own and use. Now, for musical purposes, I have added two big PC's to the
collection.

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

Actually I was into music long before I was into computers. I played the clarinet
(of all things) for 5 years, and continued with keyboards. When the Amiga arrived
into my house, it's musical possibities were therefore the first I explored.
Ofcourse I also tried my hands on graphics, coding, story-writing etc. because
the Amiga to me was a creativity-computer for sure.

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

Back in the first days it was 100% ProTracker. Released about 40 mods that way.
Then I got my first synthesizer and moved on to MIDI in Bars & Pipes. Natural
progression I guess.

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

At some point in the history of The Problem we decided to create an interactive
non-scene-related diskmagazine named Probe. It's theme-music was a module called
Global Expansion, with which I was very happy at the time. But each released mod
was actually a newly achieved goal, because really crappy mods never got released.
Although we were working very hard on the second issue of the magazine, it never
got finished. In stead we started the The Problem web-site.

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

Lot's, but none were ever released.

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

For a demo it's crusial. Watch a video-clip without sound, and the importance
of music is immediately obvious. For games it depends... they need functional
music, and sometimes can do perfectly without. Same rules as in movies I would
say.

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

At the moment I am working together with a guy named Geert Huinink on projects
called Photon Project, Dawnseekers, Headstrong and various others. We produce
several styles of dance-music (trance, groovy stuff, progressive) as well as remixes.
We work together and alone and with others. All our work is released on the
"Black Hole" label or their sublabel "In Trance We Trust", based in the Netherlands.

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

These are just file-formats. MPEG and WAVe are not compositions at all, just
recordings, so there's little to say about them. Maybe just that MP3 is killing
our record-sales - that is a fact - but it's also incredibly cool to be able
to store 9 albums on a single CD. Difficult subject, avoid discussions at all cost!
MIDI is ofcourse the coolest thing on earth, if you have a mountain of
synthesizers and soundmodules or pc-softsynths! The concept of Mods is
currently totally superseeded by the far more advanced audio-sequencers such as
Nuendo/VST on the PC. Sad but so very true.

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

Even in those days I never listened to modules much, other than the ones I was
working on myself. Two mods that stayed with me though, are "Guitarslinger" and
"Aural Exciter". Can't even remember the names of the composers right now...

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

No. It is simply not worth the effort. The only way to get a good master from
those mods, is by re-creating the tracks with modern instruments. But then the
whole charm of it all is lost. However, I do use some ideas from the mods I
made in the new productions of today. So in some way there's still life in them...

12-What bands are you currently listenning to?

Difficult question. I'm mostly into electronic dance music, and there's
new music, new styles and new artists every week. I like most of what Tiesto does
(I should, he owns the label and the studio we work in ;)). But I have a broad
taste in music: trance, goa, jungle/D&B, techno, some pop-music, some classical
and I'm also really into (orchestral) movie-soundtracks. The term 'some pop-music'
includes a lot of stuff that does not involve electrically amplified guitars or
singing cowboys ;)

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

Actually I was never really into the scene so much. I released my mods into
it, watched (in awe) the scene-demo's and that's about it.

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

No. I was out of the scene when I stopped making mods. I did release some
software after that, but that wasn't really scene-stuff.

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

Of the original The Problem crew, I'm only still in contact with Infinity,
who now lives at a safe distance in Canada. Solution, later known as Tao has
completely disappeared since he started his web-design company. Would like to
say hi to Granny, Il Sergio, Wanda, CSilla and all the other former The Problem
members though! :) Also want to mention Kefrens and Spaceballs, for they created the
first two demo's I ever saw. These demo's convinced me of the creative power
of the Amiga.

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