TW #28 — Faces in the Crowd #2: Mesonyx (Kal Zakath)
The second "Faces in the Crowd" interview, conducted over two days (16–17 September 1995): kal-zakath with mesonyx, a 15-year-old from Reykjavik who had just written the music for the game Xixit. Date note: the issue header prints "28 October 1995", but #27 is dated 21 September and #29 6 October 1995, the interview was held on 16–17 September and the column calls itself the second after #27's first — the date used here is 1995-09-28.
Key claims#
- "My real name is Jon Dal Kristbjornsson (be sure to have it right)", handle Mesonyx; 15; from Reykjavik, Iceland; in Infinity Productions, Rage Technologies and The Green Grapes.
- Composing for about three years, "ever since I got my BBC Acorn Archimedes computer"; in the PC scene for about two months. "The average age in the PC scene is getting lower and lower."
- Xixit: "I only had one day to finish all three" tunes — he collected ideas and chose three. He got the job by hanging out in #coders "just BEGGING for a job as a musician" until "a guy called Stimpee--" offered him music for a game his company was releasing. "I play it about every day, just listening to the music."
- On "real music" in a tracker: welcomes the technology — his scene work is "the normal demomusic", his personal work is techno. "BUT! If people are recording the original music into ONE big sample, that's bad. Coz that's not original." Borrowing samples from other people "is not so good either", "although I do it myself" (see realism-in-tracked-music, sample-ripping).
- Favourites: C.C.Catch ("haven't heard anything from him in a LONG time") and skaven; "I have TRIED to copy Skaven's style, but no luck" — he developed his own. Kal Zakath: too many composers imitate someone else.
- Not in contact with any scene — did not know the ASM'95 winner until the week before; no releases on FTP yet; a WWW homepage planned.
- The FITC application procedure, restated: (1) e-mail with "FITC Interview Request" in the subject, something about yourself and where your tunes are; (2) a reply within 2–8 hours, a day at most; (3) agree an IRC time. Musicians should write themselves rather than through a group's coder; a fill-in application form is considered. Signed John Townsend.
Practical takeaways#
- The realism debate's rule of thumb, stated a year before the debate: one big sample of the original is not tracking.
- Game-music commissions in 1995 came from asking in #coders.
Notable quotes#
- "If people are recording the original music into ONE big sample, that's bad." — Mesonyx.
Relevance#
A game-music commission via IRC in 1995; the falling age of the scene; an early statement of the "one big sample" line for realism-in-tracked-music; the FITC procedure for traxweekly.
Pages touched#
mesonyx, kal-zakath, traxweekly, skaven, realism-in-tracked-music, sample-ripping, tracker-scene-history, commercial-tracking.