Amiga Music Preservation -

Interview

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`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?

It started in the early 80's when some of my parents friends came at our place
once with a Sinclair ZX-81. I was about 12, and I went woow, that rules man !
A few months later, my father bought our first computer, an ORIC-1. I spent
some wonderful time toying with it, playing games, coding stupid things in
BASIC, and eventually started to "program" some music on it...

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

As stated above, I first had an ORIC-1, and later an ORIC ATMOS. Did nothing
interesting on it apart from a bit of BASIC and ASM coding, and bits of sound.

Then I bought a C64 and a floppy drive. Did a lot of swapping, playing games,
listening to cool C64 music. This is on this machine that I discovered demos.
Woow man...

Then I bought an Amiga 500, started music on this machine using Aegis Sonix.
Then I discovered Soundtracker and I started to do mods. And I joined my first
demo group (Impact Inc).

Then I bought another A500 cos my previous one didn't have the possibility to
remove the filter (you remember, how the sound becomes crisp when you light
off the power led... :)

Then I bought an A4000/030. Did the same thing, demos, games, music...

Then I bought an A1200. Did the same thing, demos, games, music...

Then I bought a few PCs (and the audience goes booooh). A new one every 2 years,
when technology reminds you your machine is now obsolete...

Today I got 4 PCs (2 Desktops, 2 laptops), 2 A1200, 1 A4000, 1 A500, 2 C64,
and about 10 old consoles...

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

Just because this is what I liked most... This is THE thing I wanted to do on
my machines. Coding rapidly became too complicated for my small brain, and I
can barely draw a cow, so ...

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

All the tracker series (Sound-, noise-, pro-tracker), Aegis Sonix, Bars and
Pipes (still the best MIDI sequencer around...), Delta Music, Octamed, Buzz,
Renoise...

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

I think the whole Arte soundtrack is exactly where I wanted to go. No wonder why
I stopped making mods shortly after. I'm not saying they're the best mods in the
world, I'm just saying that I felt like it was time for me to move on to
something else, that it was probably the best I could do on an amiga...

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

There are more than one :) I wish the whole Dragons Megademo never saw the
light of the day :P The mods in this demos are some of the worst I've done...

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

In both case, music is vital to set the mood, give power, or whatever you can't
render with only gfx or code... How many times a client asked me "the music
should suggest this or that, because we can't show it on screen..."

I'd say the best music for a game would be the one you don't notice it's here,
but you notice it's missing when you turn it off... This is what a lot of
people say I achieved with the Nightmare Creatures game series. (cool ;)

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

I'm still composing, mostly for games, but also for movies, and for my band.
This is my job actually, I've been making a living on music since 1991.

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

I don't think it changes anything... A good tune is a good tune, whatever the
format... mp3 is convenient for file transfer or archiving, but that doesn't
make a tune good or bad.

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

Too many to mention (and to remember them all...) A few which spring to my
mind now : "Klisje paa Klisje" by Walkman, "Banana Split" by Dizzy,
"BST" by Bruno, the whole Alpha and Omega 2 soundtrack by Peter Salomonsen,
"Tja" by Walkman... erhhh... "W.A.R." by Rob Hubbard (c64)... too many really...

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

This has been a though for quite a while, but I'm not convinced it's a good
idea. I think by rearranging the songs for a CD release, they would lose
something. I've heard so many CD versions of mods which just don't deliver...
One good exception though would be Space Deliria by Dr Awesome. The same goes
for C64 remixes. 49 out 50 really suck... But there are a few gems, like
Reyn Ouwehand's version of Aztec Challenge, or some titles of the Back in Time3
compilation, or the guys from Machinae Supremacy. These guys obviously focused
on the music itself, without thinking if it has to stay close to the original
or not.

12-What bands are you currently listenning to?

I'm into metal, I've always been. My fave bands include Meshuggah, Scarve,
Soilwork, Devin Townsend, Bumblefoot, Freak Kitchen, Porcupine Tree, Opeth,
Dimmu Borgir, Bloodbath...

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

It brought me where I am today ! Today, I have a band called Plug-in, we're
gonna release an album next year. Last year my guitarist and I have been
hired by Ron Thal (guitar god from New York) to be his musicians during his
french tour. Now I produce and mix metal bands. I mean, I would probably not
be doing all this if I hadn't started training my musical skill on my amiga
some 17 years ago...

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

Nope... no time...

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

Well feel free to visit my band's website. We're gonna release a kick ass
guitar album next year, with many incredible guitarists as guests (people
like Ron Thal (Bumblefoot), Andy Timmons, Patrick Rondat (Elegy, Jean Michel
Jarre), MAttias IA Eklundh (Freak Kitchen), Sylvain Coudret (Scarve), Chris
Godin (Gno)... And there might be a C64 cover on it if you're all nice... :)
Thank you to everybody who supported me until now...

Hi to the Nightmare Creatures-aholics (they know who they are ;).

Visit my website from time to time, some great news might come ;)

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please note: this interview is ©opyrighted in 2003 by crown of cryptoburners
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