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..

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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?

That was 1985 when I got my first computer, a Commodore 128. At that time
I started watching C64 demos and playing tons of games. Listening to what
Martin Galway, Rob Hubbard, Tim Follin, Dave Whittaker, Ben Daley, etc...
were doing doing to enhance the games with wonderful music, made me want
to do music for games. I was impressed that you could listen to this music
outside of the game. I mean, the music stands on it's own and that's something
that I have always believed good music should do, no matter what it is written
for.

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

Commodore 128
Amiga 500
Amiga 4000

The Amiga 4000 is still around here somewhere. The other computers are gone.

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

I just had a really strong reaction to hearing good music. Listening to CDs
and C64 music as loud as possible was something it enjoyed very much. I didn't
expect to get the opportunity to create music for a living. I just couldnt
stop making music, it was to much fun. I guess when you create that much music
every day for that many years, the music you create will eventually improve. For
me it improved to the point where I started finding my own music style and
people started asking me to compose more music.

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

ON C64 I used Sound Monitor and Rock Monitor.

On Amiga I used Soundtrack and Protracker.

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

That would probably be Last Roundabout and Observations for Sound of Silents2

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

There are many tracks I would like not to remember. Especially the
first Kefrens demos have some of my very early tracker tunes. These demos
featured a couple of mods that were amoung my 50 first tracker mods. It's
not until about 150 mods later that I started figuring out my music style.

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

Well, it's a tough question to answer. If music is implemented in the best
possible way and the music is good and interesting, then it is going to
make a good game great. So it's very important to the atmosphere. If a game
or demo has a good atmosphere, it will make you want to play the game
or watch the demo again and again.

So the music is really there to support what is going on. Enhance and
deepen the atmosphere. That's my opinion. But it must also be said that this
is not true for 90% of all games that are released. The actual quality of game
music is very dissapointing today. The demo scene has way better and more
interesting music. The simply fact is that demo scene music can usually
stand on it's own and game music can't.

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

I compose full time as a professional.

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

I don't really like midi files. I don't care how small these files are, I just
don't like the way they sound. I feel making your own instruments is a very
important part of music making and with midi you have to forget about that and
use what's there. As far as other file formats I have no problem with that. The
most important for me is that I get to create the music as CD quality music.
What format it gets converted to in the end doesnt matter.

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

On Amiga that would be Cream of the Earth (Romeo Knight), The Last Sun
(Fred), Dirt (Night Light), Savannah & Occ San Geen (Uncle Tom),
Echoing (?) and stuff from Bit Arts, & Walkman. Also Chris Huelsbecks
R-Type and Monsters music and the music from the Beast Series.

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

I have no plans to do this.

12-What bands are you currently listenning to?

Currently I listen to 2 Vangelis albums, Sex Power and The Dragon and the 2
SUBA albums. I listen to lots of different stuff, each week it's something
different.

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

It made me very competitive in a good way and it gave me complete creative
freedom to figure out my own music style. I only composed and experimented
for myself and not to please anyone else. This is the best thing about the
scene and that is something I took with me from the demo scene, since that
is still how I work today.

Also in the demo scene you usually don't have someone telling you what to do.
I just did lots and lots of music and we used my favorite mods in the demos.
So making music for the demo scene, while shaping my music style, made me take
a lot of risks. I mostly experimented with sound and then put melodies on top
of some of my songs. Back in those days, when I heard a mod that was better than
mine I went back to the drawing board and tried to figure out how this sound was
made and how the idea was thought up. I still think this way.

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

No, I am not active. But I enjoy writing music for demos and
would love do some more demo music.

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

Well, greetings to Silents members everywhere.

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please note: this interview is ©opyrighted in 2006 by crown of cryptoburners

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