TW #4 — Interview with Nemesis (Populus)

Populus interviews nemesis, one of the newest members of renaissance — "a really great composer" whose tunes are "very realistic and catchy" but who "hasn't got enough exposure and respect" — in a chat that ended on 1995-03-05.

Key claims#

• Andrew Wise, 16, student; Renaissance, kosmic (KFMF), iCE and, newly, Intrance, "mainly a VGA group" almost local to him.
• On the "realistic" label: "I like realism as much as the next guy, but I try for professional sounding more than realistic … that it sounds much more like MIDI rather than a module."
• Influences: Nine Inch Nails ("Terrible Lie taught me a lot about volume"), necros, purple-motion, basehead; listens to Metallica, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, NIN.
• About 50–60 songs written. Among his best: Split Second (on iCE's Epidemic musicdisk, on ftp.cdrom.com), Visionary (unreleased, meant for Insomnia magazine #2) and Maelstrom (unreleased, to go out through Kosmic "as soon as I can get a hold of maelcum").
• Best musicians: Purple Motion, Dizzy, Necros, C.C.Catch. Favourite tracked song: Purple Motion's Starshine, then Nuke's Seeing is Believing tunes and skaven's Ice Frontier ("a bit short").
• Workflow: "load up a few chords and play around with them" until something catchy appears, then drums, then bass; after a few patterns, the intro, then the "B" part (or the "A" part if the existing patterns fit B better).
• Training: saxophone about 6 years, piano 8–9 years (one year of lessons), guitar 2½ years.
• Time per song: Split Second about two months and 28–30 hours of writing ("I deleted sooo many patterns"); Maelstrom two weeks and 14–15 hours; Interphase 3–4 hours.
• Renaissance in March 1995: "not dead … definitely serious coma" — the coders Daredevil and Starscream had little inspiration or time; C.C.Catch was "mudding about 75 % of the time" and had been writing for Epic MegaGames (One Must Fall); the rest released songs, organised scene activities or released through Kosmic.
• Projects: music for a game called Red Sector ("a cross between Master of Orion and Star Control 2"); a joint NAID tune with leviathan ("it rox") — he could not afford to attend NAID.
• Scene: the music scene "has taken some big strides", but its output is still filed as "computer music" or "tracker music"; it will have arrived "when people start referring to the music we write as 'music'". PC demos "are still outclassed by Amiga demos", and animations in demos ruin "the entire concept" — "if I knew all a demo was, was a long string of .fli files, I wouldn't be impressed".

Practical takeaways#

• Aim for a production standard rather than realism: the yardstick is a professional MIDI production, not a recording — a distinct position in the realism-in-tracked-music debate.
• Chords first, then drums, then bass, then intro and the second section (tracking-workflow, arrangement).
• Budget: a polished song can take 28–30 hours over two months and a lot of deleted patterns; a small one 3–4 hours.
• Learn dynamics from records — a single song ("Terrible Lie") "taught me a lot about volume" (volume-slides).

Notable quotes#

• "I try for professional sounding more than realistic." — Nemesis
• "It'll be where it needs to be when people start referring to the music we write as 'music'." — Nemesis

Relevance#

A chords-first workflow with real time budgets, the "professional, not realistic" aesthetic, and a status report on Renaissance and its neighbours (iCE, Kosmic, Intrance) a month before NAID 1995.

Pages touched#

nemesis, renaissance, kosmic, leviathan, maelcum, necros, purple-motion, basehead, skaven, realism-in-tracked-music, tracking-workflow, traxweekly.