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?

It was in 1985 when my dad bought a Speccy 48k clone Timex 2048 in Poland.
Speccy was the most popular computer in this country, so there wasn't problem
to get software on tapes. I played games at first, as everyone, then started
to explore BASIC programming.

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

The first was Timex, then I met a friend on high school witch a C64 and it
fascinated me with its smooth hardware driven sprites and music. I bought it
from him in 1992. I played games on it, yeah I was total lamer! After some
time I got a disk drive and things were funnier then. But then I saw an Amiga
500 by my friend and I simply wanted it! But it was fucking expensive in those
times. After all, in february of 1993 I sold C64 and bought A500 with 1MB RAM
expansion. I played games for about year but then I got ProTracker 2.2 and
tried to make music. My friends liked it, so I didn't give up! I made also
several games in AMOS, like Shooter or Cary. In 1996 commercial situation with
Amiga was bad so I sold it and bought PC 386. I made some modules in Scream
Tracker, etc.. It was a bit parallel, but I started to be active as a scener
in 1994 on Speccy. My friend Tuleby was starting to code demos so he asked me
if I wouldn't make a music for him. I agreed and new group E.S.A. (Excellent
Spectrum Aces) was born. I got a Spectrum again and fell in love with it! I
met lotsa ZX freaks showing me cool Amiga-like effects on Speccy, so this also
contributed for my decision to sell Amiga. And I didn't know about Amiga scene,
only read some czech diskmags, but Amiga people talked about 8bits like about
some shit, and this irritated me.

Now I have at the desk A1260/50 in tower, ZX Spectrum 128k with MB02+ disk
system, C64 and C64-II with disk drive, Amstrad CPC 464 and 6128 and a PC
Celeron 766 as a coprocessor for those honeys :-)

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

I think I'm better in musicmaking than in other events. It's really easy, and
I don't know how some people (mainly coders) are not able to make a pattern in
tracker. I'm making graphics also on Speccy and coding a bit, but I'm very lame
on it. On Amiga and C64 I'm making only music.

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

Amiga: Protracker! I hate Octamed and others. And AHX, it rocks!

C64: SidWinder. It's very powerful thingie comparable to DMC. My friend
PCH/Unreal has modified it so it's not so user unfriendly now, as it was.

Speccy: SQ-Tracker. Cool czech program for making AY soundchip muzax.
I tried ProTracker, it's really better in some way, but I rather use
the old SQT.

CPC: Soundtrakker - the one and only. I plan to compose something in it.

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

I guess "Aspect of Being". It's an .XM, but I didn't release it yet.
It's only as second track on my own CD.

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

My first tunes on Amiga. They were really lame. And the first ones on Spectrum.
I din't know how to generate instruments, so I used very lame ones.

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

Can you imagine a demo without music? Me not! It's a need for demos.
In a game, there cannot be a music. Some people hate it and when there is
an option, they switch it off, but I simply need a music when I play.
I don't like games with bad music, although they have brilliant gfx etc..

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

Of course, pal! People say I'm mega active scener, mainly on Speccy.
I don't have any proffesional ambitions. Maybe after some years when
I won't be active on scene. I don't have time to devote to anything other,
than scene. And I love it. I'm active on three platforms and now starting
to explore Amstrad CPC scene. Hehe, and I don't know if I'll give up
some day.

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

I use mpegs for music storing. I don't own ANY music CD, I have only MP3!
Wave - pc sound format. What can I say? I use it when I sample on PC.
MIDI? I tried to compose in a sequencer and it's shit. It takes much
long time to produce a song than when tracking. I don't use it.

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

Well, on Ammy I love disco tunes by Jester/Sanity and Moby. Also Tip
and Mantronix/Phenomena did cool job. Yeah I love old school!!!!!!
On C64 - Laxity, Drax, MSK, Johannes Bjerregaard, Reyn Ouwehand,
... there are lot of cool composers. On Speccy - Agent X, Qjeta,
TDM, X-Agon, Imp, Siril, Bell, L.A.Esq, .. all these people made
really asskicking tunes! I like jazzy/funky styles rather than
techno or dnb, although I made lot of such tunes, mainly for Reason
because Lahve/RSN want such style.

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

I made one already. Only in about 20 copies. I gave them to my friends.
But the response wasn't good. I think it's caused because people don't
like such weird styles. It contains really strange trance and techno
mainly composed in FastTracker2 on PC. I don't plan to make another
CD now, I don't have any new PC tunes and I'm active rather on 8bits and
Amiga.

12-What bands are you currently listenning to?

Hmm, in last days a cool czech funky band called Monkey Bussines gave
me lotsa inspiration for music. It's really cool. I like many bands, many
styles, like Rammstein, The Prodigy, E!E (czech punk), Znouzectnost (czech
punk), Ohm Square (czech dnb), Rage Against The Machine, James Brown,
czech hip-hop bands like Nase Vec, Manzele, Indy&Witch... etc, etc...

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

A lot! The scene is my life, I don't have any other big hobby than
scening on computers! Perhaps I'm crazy, people say it often, but
I don't care!

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

Stupid question! Of course I am!

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

Heh, well, greetings to my groupmates in Reason, Anubis, Phantasy
and K3L. Big hello to Raver/PHT/DCS and Relict/PHT/K3L!
I'd like to say only one thing. If you think the scene
is dying, why don't you start to make something? Scene is open
for you and it's cool! Do you think 8bits, A500 or Atari ST are dead?
No way! You're wrong! There are still fans of these oldies,
some of them not right on the scene, but who cares.
Please, stop throwing filth to old computers. You wouldn't read
this without them! All this machines have a soul. PC doesn't.

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