Popcorn (Chris Campbell)

Canadian high-school tracker who edited traxweekly through most of 1995 — between its founder populus, who handed him the job, and psibelius, who succeeded him — conducted six of its early interviews, and was a member of hornet and of the Music Contest 3 staff. The sources are his own column "How to enhance your music collection" (#11) and the interviews he signed (sources: s-tw011-how-to-enhance-your-music-collection, s-tw005-interview-thehacker, s-tw007-interview-ryan-cramer, s-tw011-interview-perisoft, s-tw011-interview-beaner, s-tw013-interview-big-jim, s-tw016-interview-populus, s-tw017-interview-amusic, s-tw032-20-minute-chip-compo).

Facts#

• Chris Campbell; the #11 author line reads "TraxWeekly editor / Hornet / Epinicion" (source: s-tw011-how-to-enhance-your-music-collection); in Canada, finishing Grade 10 in June 1995 (sources: s-tw013-interview-big-jim, s-tw017-interview-amusic).
• Path into the scene: .MOD files from a Night Owl 4 shareware CD-ROM played through the PC speaker of a 286 (about 1992); a modem and a gravis-ultrasound on his 15th birthday; the musicdisks Chaotic Mind and Nothing On on a local BBS got him "really interested in the PC Music Scene"; on the Internet from 15 December 1994, with "over 200 MB of tracker music" by 22 May 1995 (source: s-tw011-how-to-enhance-your-music-collection). His first sound card was an AdLib and his first module was made in scream-tracker-3 — "I still suck!" (source: s-tw013-interview-big-jim); "I don't make mods, I make .s3m's" — one finished and one in progress in July 1995; kept a 15 MB log of #trax (source: s-tw017-interview-amusic).
• Editor's timeline: "with TraxWeekly since the first issue", but first in print with the thehacker interview in #5 (13 April 1995) (source: s-tw005-interview-thehacker); "TraxWeekly Co-Editor" in #7 (27 April 1995) (source: s-tw007-interview-ryan-cramer); releasing the issue himself by #11 (25 May 1995) — "no time to write a long intro, must release TraxWeekly" (source: s-tw011-interview-perisoft); "TraxWeekly Editor and … in Hornet" in #13 (11 June 1995) (source: s-tw013-interview-big-jim); "TraxWeekly Editor . [Hornet.TraxWeekly.MC3]" in #17 (6 July 1995) (source: s-tw017-interview-amusic). Populus, short of time, "put popcorn in charge (which he wanted to do)" (source: s-tw016-interview-populus). The TOC lists "Why Popcorn is Gone" by Psibelius in #29 (October 1995), not yet ingested.
• Interviews: thehacker (#5), ryan-cramer (#7, "one of my favorite composers"), perisoft and beaner (#11), big-jim (#13 — "just had to interview the next Purple Motion" after Foreign Skys) and amusic (#17) (sources: s-tw005-interview-thehacker, s-tw007-interview-ryan-cramer, s-tw011-interview-perisoft, s-tw011-interview-beaner, s-tw013-interview-big-jim, s-tw017-interview-amusic).
• "How to enhance your music collection" (#11, May 1995): where to get tracked music — ftp.mpoli.fi (Audio Monster, Heatbeat, Jogeir Liljedahl), kosmic.wit.com ("download everything if you can"), the Aminet mirror sorted by style, and ftp.cdrom.com's "classic" disks and Hornet-rated songs (source: s-tw011-how-to-enhance-your-music-collection; see kosmic, hornet).
• As editor he offered the 20-minute-chip-compo a weekly column, making TraxWeekly its "official sponsor"; the compo's sponsor list reads "TraxWeekly (Popcorn / Gene Wie)" (source: s-tw032-20-minute-chip-compo).
• Opinions: the GUS is "the soundcard to have if you are involved in the PC demo / music scene. At least for the moment" (April 1995) (source: s-tw005-interview-thehacker); "ASM 95 is a total farce with all the SB support crap … like 2 steps back for the demoscene" (source: s-tw013-interview-big-jim; see compos); suggested AmusiC join Kosmic because "I don't think they have anyone from Greece"; owned 50 of Jogeir Liljedahl's tunes (source: s-tw017-interview-amusic).

Related#

traxweekly · populus · psibelius · hornet · gravis-ultrasound · scream-tracker-3 · 20-minute-chip-compo · tracker-scene-history

Sources#

s-tw011-how-to-enhance-your-music-collection · s-tw005-interview-thehacker · s-tw007-interview-ryan-cramer · s-tw011-interview-perisoft · s-tw011-interview-beaner · s-tw013-interview-big-jim · s-tw016-interview-populus · s-tw017-interview-amusic · s-tw032-20-minute-chip-compo