TW #52 — Interview with Daedalus (Neophyte / Epinicion)
zinc interviews daedalus, a 28-year-old theatre student and Tangerine Dream devotee who came to tracking through ModEdit and scream-tracker-3 after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; conducted "very very late at night" in a week in which Zinc had "done about 3 interviews".
Key claims#
- Brian Bennetts, 28 — "one of the oldest people in the scene i guess"; groups: Neophyte, epinicion, and a new one "about to be introduced".
- Origins: after the Northridge earthquake of 1994 he was introduced to ModEdit 1.0; a friend introduced him to Malakai, "and he got me into st3". No musical background; he "emulated some music that i like" until a style of his own emerged. Had just moved from an Apple //e to a PC and knew no other trackers.
- Influences: Tangerine Dream ("an all electronic band out of Germany"), Jean-Michel Jarre, Amin Bhatia, The Tubes. His first attempts at TD-style sequences "sounded like a drunk monkey pounding on the keyboards"; later he could "use somewhat of their technique, and mold it into something a little different"; listeners "either really like, or really despise my music".
- Theatre major at California State University Northridge: acting, lighting and sound design; screen credits Child's Play 3, Shout, Grand Canyon and the series The Flash. Wants to do game music (negotiations under way), score a film, study music formally and learn programming.
- Groups: the upside is a team that combines talents into "a well oiled machine"; the downside is arguments over what is good and what should be done.
- FT vs ST: "beyond silly … people should just accept it, and let that stupid old argument DIE!" — his own choice is "screamtracker 3.21".
- Attitudes: in a little over a year in the scene he has seen newcomers care more about feeling "Elite" and fitting in than about quality material; he still says "werd" and "w00p".
- Favourites: "Global Motion" by purple-motion; his own "Rainfall". His S3Ms are on ftp.cdrom.com, with an FTP site to come. Fantasy group name "A Million and One" — a pun on Epinicion's membership.
- Thanks the old Neophyte members, basehead, necros, maelcum, Purple Motion, skaven "and other old schoolers".
Practical takeaways#
- Learning by emulation of a chosen model (TD sequences) until it turns into a style — the same advice Jugi and Pariah give.
- Pick a tracker and stop arguing.
Notable quotes#
- "Let that stupid old argument DIE!" — Daedalus on FT2 vs ST3.
Relevance#
A late-starting adult tracker's path (ModEdit → ST3 3.21), another voice on the 1996 tracker wars and on newcomer attitudes, and two group affiliations (epinicion, Neophyte) that date the end of Epinicion to before spring 1996 when read with s-tw055-interview-clef.
Pages touched#
daedalus, epinicion, scream-tracker-3, fasttracker-2, tracking-workflow, tracker-scene-history, purple-motion, zinc, traxweekly.