Log Opened: Thu Feb 09 20:21:47 2006 What was your favourite toy when you were a child? The things that I probably spent the most time with were videogames but also LEGOs. In a way, the early consoles with their blocky, pixelated graphics almost mirrored the look of the LEGOs. The videogames were what I went to when I wanted to explore strange new places that came from someone else's mind, the LEGOs were what I used to build and create things from my own imagination. Do you remember which LEGO building made you the happiest in those days? I would build a lot of spaceships. Starfighters bristling with laser cannons and big rocket engines, things like that. I wouldn't follow instructions from kits, we just had a big box full of pieces that we used to build from. Ehehe, I would built buses and robots.. but robots started to fly after a while. :) Let's jump a bit.. You built all these when you were a child? When did you build your first track? Do you remember the whole process? I actually didn't write my first song until my first year at university. I don't remember the entire process, but I do remember that it was one of the most exciting feelings I've ever had. Of course the song sounded awful, but at the time it was really thrilling to be creating in this new way. I think the first time I really felt the desire to make music was after seeing a movie called Electric Dreams. It was about a guy and his computer Hmm... And what did you use at that time? I was playing around with different sequencers, softsynths and trackers on my PC initially. Then I am sure you remember when was that moment in your life when you decided to start making music on videogame hardware... Why were you not satisfied with trackers and stuff? Many people stay at their software or hardware for years Yeah, I found that the music I was writing on the PC was heavily influenced by videogame sounds. I was incorporating limitations into my songs, setting only a certain number of channels that I could use, and using square wave generators and things like that to emulate that purity of sound that videogame consoles had. Then you decided to hack those consoles didnt you? :) I wanted to stop "faking" the sound and take it to the real hardware that it should be coming from. And around this time I heard about Nanoloop and LSDJ. I started playing with them immediately, and quickly found a home in LSDJ. Since that time all that music that I've written has been purely based on videogame hardware. Haha, well it was a little while later that I followed up on the Game Boy stuff and began writing for the Nintendo Entertainment System also. That required a bit of hacking and lots of trial and error before I got a good grasp on it. I was using this japanese utility called MCK, which was a sound driver for the NES that let you write music in Music Macro Language and then compile it into a format that the Nintendo could play. It was difficult because when I started the only documentation for it was in Japanese, and you were writing the music in a text editor Finishing my first song for the NES felt great. The idea of programming my music on the same hardware that I grew up with was amazing. Eheh, it could be really-really great :) Hmm.. Could you tell me naturally what is the main difference between nes and gameboy if any, regarding musicmaking? They're pretty similar actually. The Game Boy has 4-channels of audio: 2 pulse wave channels, 1 wave channel, and 1 white noise channel. The NES essentially has the same setup, with the addition of a triangle wave channel. In terms of the differences when writing music for each, I'd have to say I prefer writing music on the Game Boy. And why is that so? LSDJ is a really mature and well thought out tracker that allows you to have a lot of control over the sound, and work quickly. Using MCK and MML allows you very fine-grained control over the NES as well, but the difference is writing the music can be a much slower process. Okay... Let's talk about 8bitpeoples. how did this whole thing start? It started around the same time I was just starting out with music in 1999. My friend Mike Hanlon (Mesu Kasumai / Tangible) talked to me one day about starting up a collective together, and calling it 8bitpeoples. We had similar leanings musically and were definitely influenced by the videogames of our youth, so this sounded like a great idea. We both really put a lot of love into building up the collective. I think our passion was real. How bout distribution? was it or is it an endless fight to sell all those releases? To be honest we've never really made a push to sell our releases. The emphasis for us has really been on providing our music for free and getting it out there for as many people to listen to as possible. The physical releases are mostly there for people with a collector's impulse or a desire to have something tangible that they can hold in their hands and feel has intrinsic value. I don't want to put my nose in too much but how many copies do you manufacture? it seems to me then you always have invest some money in the project.. is that so? Yes, the CD releases are put together as orders come in for them. That is to say, we don't press any set number for any one release, letting the demand dictate the supply. The prices that we set for the CDs are intended to cover the cost of materials and allow us to put anything extra towards the costs of the next release or the web hosting fees. Well, sounds really fair i think! :) Let's talk about one of your MAJOR hits :) The Depeche Mode megamix! Actually, in my first 8bit article @ cloneshit it wasn't linked, but a guy in one comment has already mentioned that it is there and he's really amazed! Was it the same case with other DM fans? Were there anyone who thought that you're only making of the band? Haha, yeah the DM Megamix was something that was really fun to do. I'm a big fan of them and I thought their music translated really well to the Game Boy. I learned a lot in the course of working on the megamix, both about Depeche Mode's compositional style and about technical aspects of LSDJ. One of the more unpleasant things that I discovered was a memory handling problem which caused earlier patterns to become corrupted So the DM megamix didn't receive any bad comments as i see... I am asking that cause many people cannot regard gameboy and nes music seriously. Well, the feedback I've received has been very positive towards it. I'm sure there is someone other there that thinks its blasphemy that I "reduced" Depeche Mode down to this music coming from a cheap electronic device, but you can't please everyone. The megamix came out of my admiration and respect for the band and I think that shows through to most people. Do you like their new album? :) Yeah, I think to me it sounded a bit like a return to their roots. There are some really great songs on it and I think they're still going strong. And that's what i feel as well! :) What are you working on now? i havent seen any new tourdays on your site.. Why is that so? I've been working on some new material for my next 8bitpeoples release, as well as some single releases that will just go up directly on my site. The end of January was busy with a few really great shows that I was fortunate enough to be a part of here in New York. There is some big stuff in the works for this summer and later in the year, but things are still not completely nailed down for a lot of it, so I can't talk too much about it Would you like to come to play in europe? I would love to, I've had a great time over there on previous trips. Well, I hope you can make it somehow! We are looking forward to hearing your new stuff and many thanks for this interview! Thanks a lot, it was my pleasure!