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Text File | 1996-01-21 | 35KB | 657 lines

This text comes from IMPHOBIA Issue XI - December 1995 ======================================================== Here we go for an interview with the almighty Necros of Legend Design & FM. Necros is surely one of the most hyped musician at the moment and in addition he's a really cool guy. This interview has been made on a long night thru IRC and one can say I had quite a lot of fun doing that one (guess you can see this judging by the size of it). Well, let's better stop that introduction now and let's take a look at that interview. ====================================== <Darkness_> Darkness/Imphobia [Necros_] Necros/Legend Design/FM ====================================== <darkness_> Hi Necros, well.. shall we begin now? [necros_] hi there :) sure i'm ready.. <darkness_> ok. :).. well, for the one who haven't heard of you yet.. could you introduce yourself to the readers.. what's your age, skills, occupations, how do you look like etc... whatever people should know about Necros. [necros_] hmm.. ok. umm my real name is Andy, i'm 20 years old.. i'm a professional tracker (hehe).. right now i'm working for Origin Systems... i look like a weirdo, just as any demo freak does ;) (well maybe not so, but...)... I mostly do music, but i do code a bit also... hmm and what else? i also like to waste my life away on IRC a lot... <darkness_> How did you started your "carreer" as a musician? For how many time have you been tracking now?... have you been active on any other computer scene 'fore? [necros_] well i've been playing piano/keyboards for about hmm 14 or so years now.. i didn't get into the scene though until early 1993, that's when i first picked up a copy of FastTracker 1.0 and started playing with it.... I was never in the 'scene' really until then... i was just a C=64 lamer :) <darkness_> You're a member of Legend Design for not a so long time.. How did you happened to join LD.. Did you had any contacts with members of the group 'fore? [necros_] well i got into LD about hmm maybe a year or so ago... i was looking for a demo group to join, and i was talking to pit bull and he said that they needed another music person, so i figured that it would be cool to join... I know it's weird to be the only American in a german demo group, but i don't care :) they are all really cool guys.... <darkness_> What do you think would be the average prize of one kilo of peanuts? [necros_] hehe. peanuts? I don't like peanuts that much really... however i do like chocolate covered raisins, they are great to eat when it's 5 in the morning and the sun is rising and you've been tracking for 20 hours straight....;) <darkness_> hehe.. talking about tracking, what tracker do you use to compose your songs.. and why this one? [necros_] well i use screamtracker3, and i like it a lot.. everyone says 'yeah yeah ft2 is better' but i don't really care.. st3 has wonderful keyboard macros, and that lets me track _really_ fast... i don't like the ft2 mouse interface.... but really it doesn't matter much at all which tracker you use as long as you can write good songs with it.. i've seen people do amazing things even with horrible trackers like mmedit ;) <darkness_> Right.. still about trackers, what do you think are the most important ingredients in order to make a good tracker program? [necros_] well, personally, the best things that could be in a tracker are.. 1) really good keyboard commands.. mouse stuff is too slow, get rid of the buttons. 2) 16-bit support. 3) envelopes. 4) good replay routines, no bugs. 5) internal sample editor .. <darkness_> You're also part (and founder) of FM.. Could you explain us what does it stands for, how does it all started .. and what is the aim of creating a "group" like that? [necros_] FM was founded by me and Mellow-D to try to create a true music group, where the members would work together to help each other improve their styles and do joint/cooperative tunes... it's also kinda intended to counter the current trend of music groups with 25-30+ members.. we like to keep it small and good... that's why we called it Five Musicians, that way we aren't tempted to invite more people in :) Currently we are working on a bunch of musicdisks, one from me (which was already released, Progression), and ones also from Basehead, Stalker, and Mellow-D... and hopefully almost all of us will be present at The Party 5, so we'll try to invade Denmark and win all the music compoes hehe :) <darkness_> A year ago you weren't very famous, now a lot of people know about you and your music.. Your new musicdisk "Progression" has been like a "revelation" and made a wider range of people recognize your skills.. How do you feel about it? [necros_] well it is very hard to get any sort of recognition without having your music in a big demo (something which i have not done yet).. it's only been in the last year or so that i've been really happy with the stuff i've been doing, so i decided to try to do another big musicdisk with a range of styles in it, and try to get it a big distribution and hope people like it.... Another problem is that coming from the U.S., i'm kinda far from the center of the euro demo scene, so it's really hard to get my stuff distributed over there.. but hopefully now that i have a lot of good stuff out, people will spread it for me :) <darkness_> Yup that's true.. I must say i only heard of you and Basehead about a year and an half ago.. Zodiak was at my place and we leeched your first kfmf music disk (digital Psychosis). Still about "Progression"... now after a while, is there something you would have like to be different in it or is it allright like it is now? [necros_] well actually digital psychosis wasn't KFMF, it was under PM (the psychic monks, my old group)... hmm well there are a few things in progression that i would change now, mostly just to clean up some of the songs... but after 4 months of working on the songs i was so sick of them that i just couldn't stand to hear them anymore... and i would probably make the interface a little better.. but i didn't really have time... <darkness_> Yup.. now i remember about Psychic Monks.. Are you still member of this group now? [necros_] yeah i'm still in them (i founded them actually along with Likuid Krystal)... we don't do much though lately, we did a demo for NAID, and now we're working on a game... but that's why i'm in Legend Design now, to be in a _real_ demo group ;) <darkness_> Now that we're talking about "old" groups.. Why did you left KFMF? [necros_] well i left KFMF mostly because i wanted to start FM hehe ;) but i just felt that my time there was at an end.. i have no ill feelings toward Maelcum at all, i think he's a really cool guy (btw everyone should buy his CD, it's really cool)... i guess we all have to find the group that is right for us... <darkness_> Yup.. now let's imagine this situation: You find a suitcase on the street containing half a million dollars and a little paper with an adress on it. What do you do with it? [necros_] I keep $100,000 and give the rest back, and if he asks where the $100,000 went i just say someone else stole it :) <darkness_> In the last issue of Imphobia, Sam wrote an article about the US Scene and his inactivity. This article has bring quite a lot of controversy and many dudes reacted about it in this issue of the mag. What is your feeling about the situation? What does make the US scene being so inactive? [necros_] well as far as the demo scene goes, yes the US really sucks compared to euro people.... i have no idea why that is so, i just learn to accept it.. however as far as the music/art scene goes, i think the US is as good (or maybe even better) than the euros, but a lot of people over there have this 'americans suck' mentality and it's hard to get past that sometimes... <darkness_> Yup.. Well, the NAID party has been the first real demoparty held in the other side of the ocean... You've been there. What is your feeling about it? Do you think NAID is the little thing that will make the US scene to develop more into a "real demoscene land" ? [necros_] well i thought NAID was really really good, of course i haven't been to any euro parties yet so i don't have anything to compare it with... the demo compo was kinda blah (watching dope was the best part ;)) but it was really great to just meet everyone in the US scene, people like c.c.catch, daredevil, basehead, and lots of others... that's the real point of any party anyways, to meet these people who you've talked to for years on IRC ;) <darkness_> I've been asking in #trax what questions i should ask you now, here it comes: ... [necros_] haha <darkness_> Nolander wants to know what do you honestly think of "Progression".. [necros_] well considering the fact that i wrote it, i think it is pretty good :) if it was crappy i would have typed 'del progress/*.s3m' :> some parts could use some works, but so could every song.. <darkness_> ...and Kneebiter wants to know what is your favourite brand of beer. :) [necros_] either Guinness Extra Stout, or Molson XXX (but you can only get that in Canada)... perhaps i'll get to try some new euro beers when i go to tp5 :) <darkness_> You should come to Belgium and try some KRIEK :).. We got over 100 different kind of beer over here.. really cool.. Well, let's stop talking about booze now.. Can you give me your opinion about the following musicians (takes the place you want): 1) Zodiak / Cascada [necros_] zodiak is really really cool .. he's got a great style (and respi- rator was really rockin).. i just wish he'd read his email more often ;) 2) Blue Adonis / Pure [necros_] well hmm i'm not really big fan of the techno/house/rave kinda stuff that Pure/Radical Rhythms do but they are very talented at what they do... however it is a style that is considerably easier (in my opinion) than most, simply because even 'real' techno/rave stuff is already sample-based... 3) Skaven / FC >< Purple Motion / FC [necros_] well it seems that everyone and their dog was brought up on the FC musicians, and it is true that they are really good.. however i like skaven more than PM, because PM tends to umm 'borrow' his song ideas from other places a lot of the time (i have proof ;))... but his starshine song is still one of my favorites... 4) Basehead / FM / Imphobia [necros_] basehead is fucking incre- dible... he is easily the most talen- ted scene person i know... and he's been a friend of mine for a long time. his new musicdisk is going to kick some major ass when it comes out .... 5) Dune / Orange [necros_] dune is really good as well, i first heard his stuff when mellow-d called me up and played some of it over the phone. his samples are always very good, and his songs are very groovy.. i think Orange is the perfect group for him, their styles go toge- ther well... 6) Scorpik / S!P [necros_] i haven't heard much from scorpik actually, i have one of his really old tunes, and that tune he did for imp10.. he seems pretty decent but i'd need to hear more of his stuff... 7) The Rew / Nostalgia [necros_] the rew is a cool guy.. his atlantis tune was kinda nice, although i don't know if putting it into an .exe was very neccessary..;) his music is always professional-sounding... <darkness_> Well, now is there one question you really wouldn't like me to ask you.. Which one? Please answer it. [necros_] hmm let me think about that for a second ;) hmm :) I don't really have that many dark secrets... although there are a few people i really hate... The biggest idiot of the bunch is Zteel/Diffusion along with a couple other people that hang out on c.s.i.p.d thinking they are so wonderful and everyone else sucks so much... god i hate that... they exist only to rip other people up... without doing anything productive themselves. <darkness_> What is your feeling about the scene right now? Do you think everything is nice and good right now or do you think some things really have to be changed? [necros_] The scene is good right now, sometimes it is hard to find the good stuff among all the bad (have u tried to find anything in cdrom.com /incoming/songs lately? it's horrible..) .. but that's how it's always been.. i'm trying to stay optimistic as i get older, and not be like those old-timer scene guys who think everything sucks now, just because they aren't in the scene anymore ;) <darkness_> ..and what do you think about those huge music groups like Epiniction? [necros_] well i think they can be kinda pointless sometimes... epinicion has 100+ members... it's kinda crazy, you have no idea as to the quality of their releases, it's so sporadic... the KFMF is the only semi-big group that has managed to keep the quality of their releases decent... personally i like smaller and more easily managed groups.. (such as FM ;)) <darkness_> You've been involved in commercial projects like Xixit (from which you are, along with Maelcum making the CD track) and you're making music for Apogee's new game "Quake".. Could you tell us more about that. And do you have any other commercial projects going on? [necros_] umm well actually i'm not making music for Quake... that's just a false rumour... i am working now for Origin Systems, me and basehead did the music for this game called Crusader: No Remorse, which comes out i think on the 27th of September.. it's nice to finally have done stuff for a game that actually has made it to the shelves :) and hopefully companies will start to hire more people who do tracked music.. <darkness_> hope so.. still talking about commercial project. Is it a lot different to make music for games than making music for demos and such? What about retrictions etc.. In which format do you have to do your tunes? [necros_] it's nice to do commercial stuff because you get paid for tracking :)) but it sucks to have to write 'background' music sometimes... for the Origin game we did 8chan .MOD format... for the mission disk they will let us do full 16 channel .S3M, so it's not too bad of a working arrangement..... for Xixit i had to do everything in 5 channel <175K .S3M.. <darkness_> If you could have one wish that could become reality, what would it be? [necros_] i wish that i had a record contract that paid really well :) but hopefully that won't be just a wish for too long..... <darkness_> Now that we're talking about the future.. what about the future of Legend Design and FM ? [necros_] well the future of LD is going to be their upcoming demo which will be released at TP5.... about the future of FM, we're trying to just keep releasing music :) we have a bunch of musicdisk coming out soon as i said before... and we'll just try to do the best stuff we can.... <darkness_> From who would you like to see an interview in Imphobia ? [necros_] hmm... i'd like to see an interview from either Cybelius/Orange or maybe Basehead.. i haven't ever seen interviews of either of them.... <darkness_> Now, could you tell me what is the first things that comes to your mind when thinking about: a) elephant man [necros_] michael jackson (now there is a weird guy) b) Nooon [necros_] conditional love c) cigar [necros_] cigars are disgusting d) little green man [necros_] maelcum is a space alien e) Jmagic Domination [necros_] jmagic sold his soul to the devil and got really bad vector objects. i would ask for my money back ... f) Ms. Saigon [necros_] she rules, she is the only female tracker on the scene (hi jackie!) g) racism [necros_] sucks h) Immortal Sofware Syndicate [necros_] a bunch of 14-year old kids who have gotten more news without releasing anything than could be imagined, bunch of idiots. i) love [necros_] love is a good tracker :) j) Impact Studios [necros_] we need a Project Devil <darkness_> Do you believe God is an alien? [necros_] God is a cockroach. <darkness_> :).. Now lets go back to a more serious topic. Music Competition 3 : your impressions.. Do you think it's good to organise such "events" .. and do you think everything was allright like it was or you think some things should have been made differently? [necros_] music contest 3 was one of the best-run contests i have seen, in fact i thought the judging was more fair than most demo parties i have seen... there were a few people that should have gotten higher (stalker, hollywood), but overall it was a good and fair contest... <darkness_> Yup.. actually i think that those kind of contest are really worth it... Music competitions on parties are most of the time really irrevelant as for the judging.. One can't judge about 30 competing tunes while only listening one time to them.... btw, do you think diskmags interviews are boring? [necros_] sometimes they can be boring, this one isn't too bad though :) the only annoying part is repeating the same old answer again and again (who are you? what is your group? is God a space alien) ;)) <darkness_> hehehe.. i'm trying my best :). Another "common" question here: From where do you take your inspiration for tracking? Do you listen to a lot of tracked music? .. have any favourite musicians that inspire you in your work? [necros_] most of my actual inspiration comes from real music... i like to listen to a lot of different styles, it helps a lot to be exposed to a multitude of musical ideas to incorporate some of them into your own unique style... <darkness_> Well, we are arriving at the end of this interview.. Is there anything more you'd like to say to the scene.. well, here you got the opportunity to do so.. [necros_] hmm.. ok. i would like to say hi to everyone who has been a part of the PC music scene, especially those people who take tracking seriously, and are trying to break new ground... antigreets to comp.sys.ibm.pc.demos for being a collection of completely useless flaming noise... cheers to anyone who is trying to write good quality demos with decent design (not just crappy object shows).. and finally greets to all imphobia readers... oh i almost forgot.. i have a new ftp site where you can get almost ALL of my music... ftp axs.net /pub/demos/songs/necros/ *.*.. this site is run by me perso- nally, so i only put the good stuff in it :) i can also be contacted by e-mail at necros@axs.net... <darkness_> Ok, well thanks for answering those questions.. Hope you had a good time doing so. [necros_] yep we'll have to do it again sometime :) This is going to be a big interview :)