Quantam Porcupine (Joshua Shagam)
Pianist, coder and scream-tracker-3 tracker from New Mexico who started on Music Construction Set on the commodore-64, and who prefers songs "optimized for as few channels as possible". Spelled "Quantam" in traxweekly #54 (the interviewee says the alias is "Quantum Porcupine"). The single source is zinc's interview (source: s-tw054-interview-quantam-porcupine).
Facts#
- Joshua Shagam, 17 in April 1996, computer-science freshman at New Mexico State University. Eight years of piano lessons from age 5; composing for piano from age 7 (source: s-tw054-interview-quantam-porcupine).
- Path: Music Construction Set on the C64 → the MOD collection bundled with a Pro Audio Spectrum 16 and Klisje Paa Klisje → Whacker Tracker in 1992 → ScreamTracker 3.01 from AOL, ST 3.21 by 1996; rejected MODedit as "too user-friendly" (source: s-tw054-interview-quantam-porcupine).
- Channel economy: admires purple-motion's Minimum Velocity for fitting "into just 2 channels"; dislikes 16- or 32-channel songs unless every channel is used, as in Me Tarzan, You Jane by MiG / Weird Magic (source: s-tw054-interview-quantam-porcupine; see channel-interleaving).
- Songs: parodies of overplayed radio hits — On That Happy Note (Foo Fighters), High On Prozac, the unfinished Keep Refrigerated (Offspring); remixes of Live and the Offspring; a first S3M, a mellow guitar/flute piece, being reworked. Wants to write like Purple Motion's Inside Out and Sundance. Influences: the Beatles, Phish, Matthew Sweet, Mozart, Beethoven, Bach (source: s-tw054-interview-quantam-porcupine).
- Friends and favourites: MiG (sends him prototypes), necros, Mellow-D (source: s-tw054-interview-quantam-porcupine).
Related#
scream-tracker-3 · channel-interleaving · chiptune · purple-motion · commodore-64