Amiga Music Preservation -

Interview

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`n. .rP'

`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?

Woosh! That was a looooong time ago... it all started somewhere (cue wavy
effects and picture turning black and white, the music 'Memories' starts
playing) when I was a wee lad only 7 years old. I had gotten an Atari 2600
or something (with the flat keys) from Sinterklaas (which is the Dutch
Santa Claus but they named it Sinterklaas because of copyright violations).
We had absolutely no programs for it and had to type in everything from

3-page listings in books. And then we couldn't save it either. Ahh,

wonderful days those were. Then, two years later, I got a C64 with a
datasette and all those wonderful wAREZ you could exchange with your
friends. Well, I kept it for a long time (changing into a C128 along the
way somewhere and getting a diskdrive which was almost more expensive than
the c64 itself) until 1990 when I got an Amiga 500, the Bat-Pack to be
exact. The rest is history, as they say. I had been composing a little
during those years, and in 1996 or somewhere I picked up THX and joined
Jolly.

Okay, so this was a long boring story, and half of the readers have dozed
off by now or committed seppuku with a rusty potato-peeler. It's just that
when I start talking about those 'good old days' it takes a train hitting
me at full speed to stop me. But only just.

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

Dang! I just said all that stuff in the previous question! :) Well I played
games mostly until I got bored with that and started composing. Well,
'throwing a few notes together and hoping it won't sound too crap' is maybe
a better word for it.

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

Er, because I'm absolutely crap at all those things ;) It seemed I was the
least crap at composing so I ended up doing that. Besides, when I had a C64
(here we go again) I always dreamed of making cool music demos and being
named alongside MON and Martin Galway and such. Okay, so that didn't
happen, but I managed to get an interview here anyway ;)

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

Well, I had been using ProTracker mostly, but lately I only use THX because
it's so easy to get up and going and I don't have that many samples anyway
(and I'm too lazy to sample them from my keyboard ;). For oncoming Seasons
productions however, I will probably use FloydMon2, which is also a
synthtracker but with samples and a more C64 like editing interface. And
no, I'm one of the few persons allowed to use it, so you can't have it ;)

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

Whoa. Well, it's hard for me to say that. Often people tell me they like a
song which I threw together in like 5 mins or something. I'm rather pleased
with the Captain Bubba THX songs however.

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

All of them! ;) Haha... well, I made a PT module for a demo once, which was
pretty awful. I couldn't hear for shit (can I say shit? :) what I was
doing (we were on a party when I made it, and some asshole (can I say
asshole? ;) thought it was fun to bring some behemoths of boxes with him
and play awful music through them), and we were pressed for time. Believe
me, it was horrible. No melody, horrible basslines, in fact, it sounded
much like my other songs ;)

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

Well, music, when used to good effect can greatly enhance the experience of
watching a demo or playing a game. Sadly it is still an underestimated
factor in game-development where these days games have some horrible music
thrown in with them. Now, I'm not saying I'm an expert on this field or
that I know all about composing good music (lord knows I don't have a clue)
but the fact that all my memorable gamemusic experiences hail from the C64
days should mean something. Who can forget the haunting loading music from
Green Beret? (or it's fab title music) Or the wonderful music from Wizball?
I left my C64 running at the highscore screen for hours just to listen to
that tune! Well, anyway, I'm a sidfreak so this shouldn't be surprising
really. :)
Anyway, I do remember some musics now that I think of it. :) The music from
the Budbrain demos was pretty good, I like mod.coloris but I'll be damned
if I know how made it (I don't have it anymore at present), and some other
old demo tunes. Nowadays everything is just techno stuff. Tsk, youth of
today eh? ;)

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

Much to the annoyance of other people, yes. There's a new THXpack coming
out soon I hope, and the new thx-pack from Abyss will probably feature some
new old tunes by me as I've sent some new stuff to Dexter and threatened
him I would take away and burn his cuddly bears if he didn't release it.
That did the trick.

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

Well, I like MP3 music if that's what you mean, but that hardly has
anything to do with computer music anymore. Same with wavefiles (they're
just samples) and Midi files always sound awful. Those buggers always start
off good but then they throw in one of those Harmonica or other awful
sounds for a lead. It's like having a .mod with a brass-lead (those awful
ones everybody used in the early 90's), god I can't stand those things.
They make me smash up furniture and dropkick small furry animals into
orbit. Then again, I just steal all my instruments from other people ;)

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

Well, I like Sids as you might have gathered, basically anything from
Martin Galway who is my alltime favourite composer, to Maniacs of Noise
(especially their earlier (more innovative) stuff), to Rob Hubbard
(although I like Martin better ;), to Jori Olkkonen (Yip - some of his
tunes are wonderfully weird), to, well, you get the message.
On Amiga... hmmm... I like some of audiomonster's stuff (like the tunes
from the Tomsoft demo.. ehh.. Virtual... World? Something like that), most
of the early synth stuff (like Fred - Trip to Mars is wonderful) and some
of the tunes I just mentioned. Also that hidden tune from Coma still
lingers in my mind as being very nice. Oooh and also all of 4-mats music.
And that tune from Nuke called... ahhh Mystical Vibes or something. Oh and
the music from Turrican II. Oh and...

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

Hahah... well... I think I want to spare the world an audio-cd with stuff
by me ;) Just think of the consequences... crops would die, the people
would be starving, evil dictators with one testicle take over the world,
and the horrible vibrations of the tunes will send the Earth into a
collision-course with the sun. And I don't have suncream. I think I'll
pass.

12-What bands are you currently listenning to?

Currently? Currently I'm listening to a Sid song you silly man ;)

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

A wonderful feeling in my nether regions. :)

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

Yeah, well, I never really was in the scene, and I don't have any
aspirations to join it. That's how I feel it anyway. I just do all this
stuff for fun, and to annoy other people. And because voices in my head
tell me to.

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

I would like to thank you for wanting to interview me (I didn't even have
to offer that much money), all the persons who greeted me in their songs
(that person knows who he is ;), the people from all the groups I'm in, all
THX users and composers worldwide, all sid-freaks and composers worldwide,
all people I met and spooked at Symmekka 98, the man running the liquor
store a few blocks away from here, the little green men in my closet that
go 'Noing noing noing', the guy who's Mercedes we rammed after Symmekka 97,
my wonderful girlfriend who's away a year to foreign lands, all the people
I meet on IRC, all the people who email me, ... well... hell, let's just
thank everyone and be done with it. :)

That's it. Really. Go home now.

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