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 started in the mid-80s, when I was 10 or so (around '85, I think).
A friend of mine got a C=64, and after trying it, I was immidiately
hoooked - not just on the games (which were of course a major factor
in my young days), but I was fascinated by this "magic box", and felt
like I had to know how it worked ...

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

I had the C=64 first, which I used for games and programming in BASIC
and Assembler, and then later to make music, using very early SID-chip
trackers, drum machines, and notation software. I upgraded to the C=128
to get the better programming tools - and then later to the Amiga 500,
which reeled me in with it's amazing FOUR channels of sound. For years
I then swore I would never upgrade to a PC, because they were expensive,
came with a lousy OS (DOS), and were completely useless for music - until
I discovered MT2, when I immidiately ran out and bought a PC and a Gravis
UltraSound card, which had a full SIXTEEN channels of sound! ;)

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

actually, I've always done a little bit of both - some programming, a
little graphics, and a lot of music. These days, I do mostly programming,
and have been involved in the development of music software for Synapse
Audio Software among many other things...

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

well, let's see - on the C=64, I don't really recall the names of the
apps we used back then ... Magic Drummer, I think, was one ... anyways,
on the Amiga, I was using trackers from their very early days - my first
tracker on the Amiga was Master Sound Tracker v1.0 by Karsten Obarski.
Of course later I used ProTracker like everyone else, that was probably
the tracker I used most on the Amiga, but I used various other tracker
variants too, like StarTrekker ... on the PC, I used FastTracker II,
which was probably the tracker I used altogether the most - even after
the first, much more advanced, trackers for Windows came out, I was
still rebooting out of Windows into DOS to run FT2 for many years, until
finally Buzz came out, and I played around with that, but never really
got the results I wanted for some reason. Then finally moved on to
MadTracker II, when that finally came out, and continued to use that,
and still am - the more advanced professional piano roll sequencers
just can't be used with a keyboard, and this will always, ALWAYS be
faster than any mouse operated music system, and I stuck with it,
despite the scorning and ridicule you got from studio pros ;)

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

My goal was never anything expect to make music - for no particular
reason, other than my fascination with, and love for, music ... so
I would say, already in the C=64 days, I was reaching my goal, since
I was making music. Or perhaps even before that, when I was playing
around with reel tape and a pair of scissors ;)

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

"Babylon Lovers" - it's still in the Chill archive, and it is by
far some of the most terrible music I have ever made ;)

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

Well, in both demos, games and movies, the music can support and
intensify the atmosphere created by the graphics and gameplay - but
more so, the music and the game/demo/movie TOGETHER can create a
synergetic effect, a total experience, which can not be matched by
any single piece of music or musicless demo/game/movie :)

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

Sadly, no. Not really. I still play around with trackers and other music
apps once in a while, but since about three years, I have not finished a
tune or released anything. To this date, I have no idea why not - I seem
to have simply lost interest, although controversially, I am sadly longing
to make music again ... I need therapy ;)

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

A peculiar question. Well, from a philosophical standpoint, I think
music today is not better or worse than it was back then - just different.
Of course, a lot of music from back then sounds like crap today, but it was
just remarkable at the time (if not more!), as the music of today is now.

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

The theme from Commando (a game) on the C=64 forever lingers in my mind,
both the ingame music and the highscore tune - Rob Hubbard has been one
of my great inspirations, and his music is still remarkable and amazing,
although the sound quality by todays standard is of course appalling.
Music by Kraftwerk will stay with me for the rest of my life too - they
were after all the forefathers of the electronic music I was raised with,
ever since I first heard "Autobahn" and "Kometenmelodie" when I was six.
Those are definitely my two all-time greatest influences, both because
the sound was revolutionary, but also because I was young, and first
impressions just last :)

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

Some of my Amiga music has been remastered for CD, but mostly in a fun
attempt to see if I could update it to sound the way we REMEMBERED it -
I couldn't of course, and this will never be released ... it's better
off as it were, as a memory - there's no need to dig up the past and
try to relive it, better we focus on the future :)

12-What bands are you currently listenning to?

well, to mention some very different stuff: Zero-7, Kruder & Dorfmeister,
Portishead, Dzihan & Kamien, Tom Jones (no shit), Akufen, Amon Tobin,
DJ Food, Dilated Peoples, Jaylib, Scape, Röyksopp, Mr. Lif, Vadim,
Puddu Varano, Silent Poets, St. Germain, Tom Waits, and the one and only
true hip hop band of Denmark: Malk De Koijn.

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

An experience for life.

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

still a member of Chill, but not "active" in the scene as such, no ;)

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

peace! ... it's not just a word - actually think about it for a
minute, and you'll help make the world a little less insane today!

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please note: this interview is ©opyrighted in 2005 by crown of cryptoburners
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