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?

Hmm, don't remember when it was exactly, but it was when I pushed the soft
rubber button of a Sinclair ZX Spectrum for the first time at my uncle's place
and saw a letter appear on a screen. I leave the year to those who remember
when that version was released. My first own computer was the Commodore 64.

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

Commodore 64, Amiga 500, PCs. With C64 I played games, learned some Basic and
actually tried to code a demo with it for my one man group "The Zone".
My friend Devil cracked and spread games and I found the whole early scene
activity very exciting. I never got too far doing my own thing with C64 'coz
I soon got the Amiga 500 and started to get more focused on the demoscene.
Axa of X-men was on the same school as me and my friends, so all the early
Amiga prods came to our hands quite quickly (thru a big brother or two).
I soon founded my first group Twilight with Mr.T (code) and Black Sky (gfx) and
started to release own stuff and get some contacts. Later on I used a borrowed
Amiga 2000 to do some video editing with morph effects :) and my first PC
(Pentium 90) I used mainly for tracking music besides all the non-scene
activities.

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

I tried to learn programming, but c64 Basic got too complex when too many
numbers came in, so I figured out that it is not my thing :). I did like
doing gfx and most of Twilight demos have something done by me. I was never too
good using a pencil for drawing, so messing with the pixels was something that
helped me to fix the mistakes and try to capture something. Anyway, music was
a natural choice for me. I founded out early that I can come up with melodies
and the magic of pressing a button and hearing a sound was something that
allowed me to express myself easily. That was something that c64 didn't allow
you to do (at least not that easily). I tried to play piano, but tracking
allowed you to skip all the boring "learning how to play" stuff and start to
compose and hear the recorded results immediately. In the early days it was
magic that you actually could play the bass, drums, synth etc. by yourself
without ever trying to play the actual thing. And with Amiga and trackers
using samples the instruments sounded very close to real.

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

I started out with the Soundtracker. I'm not sure about the version, but it
was the one where you saved the songs as a Song, not as a Module and you had
to load the instruments separately everytime you wanted to work or hear the
song. ST-01 and ST-02 sample disks ruled the earth. Later on I used multiple
trackers, whenever new one was released. Protracker was a big thing for me.
None of the multi channel trackers (4++) worked for me. I used Fastracker on
PC to remix my old modules and have fun. I also tried Madtracker. Nowadays
I'm trying to find a program that has some of that good old tracker magic
plus all the modern features, but I don't have time to compose anymore.
Maybe I finally have to give up using qwerty and buy a synth and start to
use Cubase.

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

Hmm, maybe never :) I think that as a scene musician I reached my peak right
before I quit the scene, so most of my final tunes never got finalized or
released in a demo. I later multitracked and re-sampled some of them with
the Fastracker. I loved untuned and twisted harmon/synth samples and melodies
and never wanted to spend that much time with building complex drum/beat
tracks, using high quality samples or mixing a song. In the old days sounds
had to work best with monitor speakers. I also grew up with Jarre not Aphex
Twin ;). Check these to get the picture:

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

All those with the "I've got the power" sample from Snap.

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

It surrounds us and binds the galaxy together.

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

unfortunately not. If somebody would release a tracker style chip/sid
composing tool for PC, I would probably force myself to use it. I never had
time to build prober tunes with that technique, but I love those tunes. I
borrowed a synth from my good friend Yolk recently, but have been too lazy
to get rest of the gear in place.

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

We'll it is music (the stuff in new demos). There is bad music and there is
good music. It's not real-time anymore, so it is a very different thing.
If you're not doing it real-time or using trackers anymore, I think people
should take it as far as it goes and start to use more real instruments and
vocals in demos. Trying to do old mod style or instrumental stuff with
zillion tracks starts to sound boring already. Nuskool demoscene is nuskool,
and I like it too, but composers should take it as far as it goes. Do a
brilliant rap (track) demo for example. Reinvent the scene, take it a little
higher, that's what it is all about.

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

"Dear Rob" by Fred (the best ever, from D.O.C. dayz), "Impact22" tune by Moby
(absolutely brilliant) and his many other newer tracks, All Romeo Knight tunes
from Red Sector Megademo II and his other superb early tracks, he was always
ahead of all the others. DNA dream by 4-mat and some of his other stuff. Then
there should be tons of crack intro tunes and tracks from gurus like SLL(!),
Bit Arts, Rhesus Minus, Jesper Kyd, Audiomonster and c64 game composers.

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

Yes, but I'm too lazy to remaster anything :)

12-What bands are you currently listenning to?

Many. I listen to the kohina demoscene radio and Bruce Springsteen :).

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

I probably haven't figured out everything yet. A lot! Friends, a global
community before Internet. ALL the main skills that I now use to kick some
coder and artist ass in work as a producer, I learned while trying to kick
their younger butts in 1980/90s to finish a demo in time.

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

Well, in a twisted way. Not as an artist or a coder, but more like an old fart
who's trying to get his youth back by documenting the scene. I curated the
demoscene.katastro.fi exhibition and released a book about the demoscene.
I'm a member of the art organisation called katastro.fi, that tries to build
a bridge between the 'real' art world and the demoscene.

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

The old Twilight gang: Devil, Mr.T, Black Sky, Jaffo, Daddy Freddy, James Dean,
Exterminator, Phantom, Eliminator, katastro.fi posse and other drunken lamers
in Finland, all my old contacts from the good old disk swapping dayz and all
the sceners still doin' it all for the fun, friendship, new challenges and
various distilled spirits.

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