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?

Waaay back in the 80's when my friends bought a c64. I was glued to it from
that point on.

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

I had a vic20 to code and make some noise on, and also a weird MSX / Yamaha
music computer to compose some stuff with. After getting my first PC in 1989
I started exploring trackers (Whacker Tracker! Whoo!) and after Fasttracker
1.01 arrived I was hooked on tracking.

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

Music has always been the focus of my life, it felt like the obvious thing
to do.

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

C64:
various =)

Amiga:
Protracker
Soundtracker
Octamed

PC:
Whacker Tracker
Fastracker 1
Scream Tracker
Impulse Tracker
Fasttracker II
Buzz Tracker

Fasttracker II is still the only program worthy of being called a usable
tracker, though. The rest of them fail in one aspect or another.

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

"The Great Zoo Riot" that won Remedy -96. It's the song that I felt best
about, and that I finally had gotten around to being "famous" for music that
I liked making.

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

Haha =) Well, that would be "men at work", a really crappy 4chn techno tune
I made for the first party I attended, Virtual Conspiracy -95. It was the
same party that I won the multichannel with "I Can Fly", the tune that most
people seems to recognize for some strange reason. Lucky thing they don't
remember the other one =) Oh, and there's another song aswell, the remix of
Zodiak's "dark days". I released it long before I should have, and that
still bothers me. Just a few more nights and it would have been the ultimate
remix =)

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

It's totally up to what you're trying to do. Of course, as a musician, I
think the music should play a major part and accentuate everything that
happens on-screen. The best demo is where everything visual has a
counterpart in the music, so that nothing feels out of place. One of my
favourite groups in that respect are the swedish techno act Lucky People
Center. You might have seen some of their work when Sweden hosted the
Eurovision Song Contest in 2000, one of the LPC guys did the intermission
music video / dance act. Their idea of blending audio and video is
incredible, and when the demo scene has reached THAT, we will have a true
renaissance =)

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

I started O3 Games along with some mates in 1997, and I've been doing music
ever since. I also do some freelance composing, a lot of backing tracks for
shockwave and flash productions. On top of that I play live music with my
band every two weeks or so.

But there is more to game design than just the music, so I feel that keeping
the music more as a hobby works fine for me. I don't have quite enough time
or energy for music making these days, and I might as well accept that.
There are times when I listen through some of my old material and find it
incredible that i put that much detail into the songs, especially with drum
fills and stuff. I just don't do that anymore, and that's kinda sad.

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

Uh, that's quite a bizarre question =) I work almost 100% with sequencers
and softsynths today, and that's more or less similar to tracking. I really
enjoy being able to mix and master the songs correctly, though. Buzztracker
and building my own studio really helped me there. It should open quite a
few opportunities for the demo scene to move up to sounding almost
professional.

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

Oh geez. I've forgotten them all, it would seem... But I'll punch up a few
just from memory...

Dizzy - "Just for blue". I just love it. Dizzy is perhaps one of the world's
greatest trackers, and a true source of inspiration for me. I even made a
remix of JFB, adding a bass and a drummer, but never got around to asking
him for permission to release it. It was mostly for my own sake anyway.

Hunz - "Way one son". Holy crap, this guy can SING =) Hunz is a great pal of
mine, we've been sortof keeping track on each other through the later years
of the scene. We never got around to releasing any of our co-ops as far as I
can remember, but that doesn't matter much. He's great, anyway.

Radix - "Tillbury Fair". *drool*! Radix is one of Sweden's absolutely best
musician, all-time. I've heard a few of his later tunes, too, and he keeps
getting better and better. "Tillbury Fair" is one of the absolutely most
original MOD's I've ever heard.

Of course there are more songs I really like and admire, like the Arte
soundtrack by Moby (I remixed that one too, it makes for a quite cool club
song =)

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

Yep. I think I'll do it together with one or several other old scene
musician, though. Maybe people like Radix, Zodiak, Zalt, Balrog, Lizardking
and the other Swedish oldtimers. We could remix each other's material, make
co-ops or something. I don't really feel it necessary to "dig up the stiff"
just for boosting my ego, it would be much more fun to have a purpose for
the CD.

12-What bands are you currently listenning to?

Everyone! I still listen a lot to Dave Weckl, who inspired me a lot back in
the tracking days. I also like Mark Knopfler, Tool, Infinite Mass,
everything by Eric Serra and a whole crapload of weird techno guys. And the
soundtrack to Fallout 2.

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

Uhm, to be honest, not that much. I've always been a PC guy, and haven't
really kept much track of the "oldtimers".

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

Not really. I'm still a member of Cryonics and try to help out as much as I
can, but it's been ages since I released a song.

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

Hmm... Well, not really, except that I'd like to say hi and thanks to
everyone who actually know who I am, and who still keep my songs on their
harddrives =) Oh, and hello to the good old Stockholmers too, like Axl,
Thor, Insider, Zaico, Dexter (or whatever his nick is nowadays), Radix and
all those guys.

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please note: this interview is ©opyrighted in 2002 by crown of cryptoburners
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