TW #32 — Faces in the Crowd: Interview with Zinc (DennisC)

DennisC's "Faces in the Crowd" interview with zinc, a week after he first joined #trax; printed as "Interview #10", which is the series' own (unreliable) count, not DennisC's — the same number is printed on his Luv Kohli interview in #31, and Luv Kohli's was DennisC's first FITC interview (correction of 2026-08-30; source: s-tw031-interview-luv-kohli). (The same Faces in the Crowd section carries Atlantic's "Not So Advanced Tracking Tips", summarised separately.)

Key claims#

• Justin, 18, of Radiance, a music group in British Columbia, Canada, started in June/July 1995 with Jake Blues ("the funky XM d00d"), Acidfrog (jungle, trip-hop) and a VGA artist; Dead Pool does ANSI. Releases are singles prefixed ZNC- (e.g. ZNC-N&I.ZIP, ZNC-AT.ZIP) and packs RADPACK1.ZIP, RADPACK2.ZIP on cdrom.com.
• Tracking since January 1995 ("I don't think I was any good until March"). "I love Scream Tracker.. I learned to use Fast Tracker but the editor was so much better in ST3."
• Strengths: mixing samples "most people wouldn't think of using together — like pianos and electric guitars with rave buzzes", and melody; "I find a place to work in a piano in at least half of my stuff".
• Workflow: find a short melody with a few good samples and build on it.
• Influences: Acidfrog "most definitely", then Skaven "as has everybody else".
• Sample ripping is fine "if you don't already have the equipment to make your own, cuz if you do and you still rip, you're lazy" — always credit an original sample.
• Plays guitar, never learned theory, "in no rush"; thinks theory helps those who jump straight into tracking.
• New trackers in his local BC scene get a lot of help; on #trax "you tend to get ignored a bit until people notice your work".

Practical takeaways#

• Melody-first, then a few characteristic samples, then build — Zinc's process, compared with Basehead's mood-first and Pinion's bass-first methods on tracking-workflow.

Notable quotes#

• "if you do [have the equipment] and you still rip, you're lazy" — Zinc.

Relevance#

Background for the author of "IT Percussion Tips", "Studio Tracking Tips", the Catspaw and Skaven interviews and the #trax mass interview; a compact statement of the 1995 ripping ethic.

Pages touched#

zinc, scream-tracker-3, fasttracker-2, skaven, tracking-workflow, traxweekly (FITC numbering).