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?

I was already intrerested in computers when I was not able to buy an own
one. Around 1987 I was spending most of my freetime after school with a
friend named Oliver who owned a C64 and some funny GDR Computer, I mean a
computer built in russia for the former german democratic republic I was
citizen of. But we mostly played games or tried to get 0,5hz more power by
soldering everything inside the computer case. ;)

Then in 1991 I got an A500 for X-Mas and changed school where I learnt to
know a guy named Friedhelm who owned an A500 too doing music with it and he
introduced me to the scene. His handle was and still is Ed/Red Tiger Inc.
With him I made my first scene experiences, means he had a contact where to
get newest demos and warez from. The first scene production I have seen
was Red Sector's legendary Megademo.

Being fascinated but not good enough in anything the scene needed I stood
a user only watching every demo, intro or cracktro I could. Then I tried to
pixel graphics and compose musics until I started swapping in 1997 which
was my first real contact with the scene as I never knew anybody connected
to the scene outside my hometown before.

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

Before the A500 I had this GDR machine manufactured by Robotron I guess.
I had a little wordprocessor I used to make some homeworks from time to
time. Nothing more.

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

Hmh, I did some nice 16-color graphics between 1992 and 1997 but all were
oldskool - influenced by the lot of oldskool demos I saw before - and this
would have made everybody throw it away I had send it to. So I tried
Noisetracker and later Protracker and I had a lot of fun, even if I was not
as good as anybody else I knew.

At the end I even gave up tracking as I do not consider myself as
musician. I am a better ascii-artist and editor, I guess, so I should
continue improving these skills instead of trying to compose again. :)

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

At first I used Noistracker 2.0 and Soundtracker3. Later I felt in love
with Protracker 2.1 and then I used Protracker 2.3D (later the AGA fix of
this version on my expanded A1200) to compose everything that followed up
to today. I also tried Dibibooster and made some AHX tunes, but although I
was no musician when I used PT I was a worse one by using other trackers.

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

With none. But there was one I composed on Octamed5 - the only time I
tried this tool - called "My Way" and in my memories it was the best I had
ever written. It was 3:23 minutes long and featured own synth-strings and
a monk choir I ripped from some demo (it was one of my main actions before
1997 to watch scene productions and ripp everything out of them by using my
Freezer bettern known as MKIII). But you know the problem with the human
memory is that it always makes the past looking better than it was.

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

Hmh, nearly every one... I guess my first one really sucks. It is too
long and boring, but I had a lot of fun writing it. I remember this long
evening in my room sitting in front of my A500. The smell of fresh clothes
in the air - my room was the biggest in the apartment of my parents, so it
was used to try the clothes after washing - and dark yellow light surounded
me. Oh yes...

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

Oh, music has a high one. Of course without a coder nothing is possible,
but it would be boring to watch a demo or read a diskmag without some good
background music. But more often the music is even more than background
only and dominates the whole thing. Or the demo itself is based on a the
timing of a tune. I often wrote screenplays for demos after I received a
finished module. It was easier this way, because if the tune was good it
could give some inspiration for the ideas of effects and the storyline.

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

No! As mentioned above I think I never was a real musician. My tunes are
just to bad. But sometimes I got this feeling - especially when I hear
what is possible with the Prottracker still today - and then I load the
AGA-Fix of PT2.3D and type some notes and baselines for an hour or so, just
to recognize again that I am simply not able to take the melodies and
arrangements I have in my head and ban them to the 4 tracks... It is a
pitty and very unsatisfactory for me.

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

Hmh, I do not like them. This way it is not possible to see what the
musician has done. What is his art and what just sampling, you know?!
Also I must confess that I am addicted to oldskool and you surley agree
that everything is possible with 4channels. So why need MP3 if you are a
skilled musician?

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

"Stardust Memories" by Jester/Sanity was and still is one of the tunes I
enjoyed most on the Amiga. This one has the right drive but is also
melodic. And it reminds me on my childhood in the scene. Today I mostly
listen to X-Ceed and Dascon, who still do great modules by using
Protracker. Especially Dascon, who became a goog friend meanwhile, is more
than skilled but one of the most underestimated composer of the Amigascene!
Also the Thonk Bros. from Moods (that are Elapse & d!RT!E) got the real
funk, but remain unknown.

But you asked for my alltime favorites... Arg, I got too many holes in my
memory... "Temple of sun remix" by Yolk for Shaft7, Mobyle by Moby for
Arte, Overload by Tip & Mantronix for Voyage, Fireworks by Mantronix alone
are the only favorites I can never get enough of I can remember right now.

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

No, why should I? But I already made an audio cd including one of my
tunes with the Amiga scene music lable "Moods - Music for your instincts".
Check out www.moodymusic.de.vu to download more than 150 free tunes in
various Amiga formats and to order the mentioned CD which is a best of the
first 100 Moods releases remastered and pressed on an Audio CD.

12-What bands are you currently listenning to?

Hmh, bands... I guess Anathema is the only band I am listening to.
Mostly I listen to typical Amiga scene music & movie scores.

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

Real spirit, satisfaction and fun. I love to stay in the scene since a
long time now and I guess I will for a lot of years or even until I die.

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

Of course. I am doing asciis for 1oo% (www.1oo-percent.de) and I am main
editor for the Amiga diskmag "Jurassic Pack". I also write some
screenplays for demos or intros in Darkage and Reason, but none of the new
ones have been produced so far. Lazy coders, hehe...

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

Yes, everybody who knows me. Especially all my ex-swapping contacts.
Swappers were the best friends I found inside the scene and I owe those
friends a lot. But I do not want to name single persons as this could make
those angry I would forget (and I always forget a lot!) except Ed/RTI who
brought me to the scene. Without him I would have missed something very
special I can not imagine not to have missed today. Thank you Crown & Curt
Cool for the interview!

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