Amiga Music Preservation -

Interview

.

`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.

,NN' `b. · i n t e r v i e w · ___________

______dP _____________ \ /

\ ,N'\____ _____________. _____ \ \_____. ____\ /

\___P___/ .\--\__ __/__ |--\____)---\ _____/__ |--\_ \ _/

| | | \ | | \__| | _ \ / | \__| | /\ |

| _| | | _l_ | | \ / _l_ | ___|

l___/=l___|====l____/===\______|==l______|\ /l___/===\______l____/

\/

•

Handle:

•

Group:

•

Date of birth:

1-How did your interest for computers start? Which year was that?

The ZX81 I got for christmas in 1982 when I was 10 :)

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

Ooo, back in about 1982 I was bought a ZX81 for christmas, learnt to do a
bit of basic programming, the usual. Then a ZX Spectrum 48 about 2 years
later. I bought my amiga in about 1988 and at the shop the man gave me a
couple of disks, one was the classic Wild Copper demo and the other was from
Red Sector. It was looking at these demos I suddenly thought, hey cool I
could write music like that (well sort of). It took me a few weeks to find a
way of doing it though.

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

I had been learning piano for years and was getting bored with classical
music. I wanted to write music of my own. To buy something that had the
audio capabilities of the amiga from the keyboard market would have cost a
mint so it was an easy choice to stick with the amiga.

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

The first one I tried was in 1988 and was called Brian Postmas SoundMon
which was an excellent program and it got me started. Then a year or so
later a friend sent me Noisetracker. I got some samples and started to write
a couple of tracks. A mate of mine a school knew Birdy from Ipec Elite, and
that was my entry in the demo scene in around late 1988 early 1989. I wrote
quite a few naff banal tracks for them for a while. I wish I still had them
:) We released a demo (I wish I remembered the name of it!) which was
probably my first main entry on the scene.

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

I had an unreleased music disk that was to be called Neuronium that was to
be the best stuff I wrote around 1992-93 but we never got around to it. My
fave track is called A-Rooty-Tooty and took me 30 minutes to write and it
sounds like a weird 20s Umpah mix.

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

Not much of my music ended up on demos, I had a really naff music disk
called Sonic something or other where the noisetracker player was out of
date and played some of the music out of tune ... oh well. I also wrote a
piece of music for a Aliens slideshow for Destiny I think, it was reviewed
by a magazine where they absolutely slated the music. They were right of
course, somehow it was all out of tune, but it was a naff track anyway :)

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

It brings a mood to the action, brings the viewer/listener along with whats
happening on the screen.

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

Nope, like many people now its just a hobby.

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

The ability to have streamed media has got to be the most interesting. As
technology improves anybody will be able to have their own 'radiostation'
and broadcast high quality specialist music anywhere in the world. Cant be a
bad thing.

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

The early 90s really took off when people could afford to buy samplers for
their amigas which basically revolutionised the amiga music scene. I like so
much of the music from the early 90s and beyond. We all appreciate those
with the creativity and ear for a good tune and production. I always like
music from Tip/Mantronix, Jester, Dr Awesome, Nuke, Heatbeat and so on.

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

I doubt it. I would rather start writing again from scratch may be using a
few ideas from my original tunes but I have spent a lot more time playing
rather than composing recently.

12-What bands are you currently listenning to?

Bit of a mix really, recently I bought Royksopp's Melody AM, a few
compilations of UK indie/rock bands, I managed to find a CD of The Art of
Noise, Who's affraid of and a rather folky group Capercaillie album
Beautiful Wasteland.

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

A means and excuse to write and distribute my musical ideas. I met loads of
interesting people, swapped some inspiring stuff, became part of a scene,
not many people can say that.

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

No, from time to time I feel nostalgic and browse one or two of the amiga
scene sites to see if there is anything I wrote thats been kept that I have
managed to lose over the years.

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

Yeah, throughout my short like on the scene between 1989-1993 I was in about

4-5 groups. The like of Birdy, Lord Flight, Assassin, Berny Sumner, Yaz, and

oh so many other people I have almost forgot (it was a long time ago!).

Its nice to ÿåe þèe öòacårs&óloÿìy öecoïéng2ãomøletg`st÷äioî Ihav÷ haöàa ®ñuióë lok ÿô toés Óõzz÷òacïår wîd ÿô lïksþöerÿ interesting that you can
make use of VST plugins, certainly puts an interesting slide to the sampled
and chip modules that have been produced up to now. Every now and then the
tracker scene jumps to another level, such as when it went from 4 channels
to meltichanfel music with sgme playback effects.

-------!------- ------- -------$------- ------- -------!---------------%----
pdease no`e: this intervidw is ©o`yrighted in 2002 by crown of criptoburners
---!--- ---%---(---,---,--- ---)---$---!---$--------------------------------

Quick Search

Random link

Database Stats

Interview