TW #60 — Interview with Rage (Kal Zakath and Kleitus)
Kal Zakath (jtown) and Kleitus interview rage of Jade and Night55, the Finn who took 2nd place in the Assembly '95 multichannel music competition with "Guild of Sounds" — an IRC capture "with a bit of editing for the sake of clarity". The preface, written weeks after the log, adds that he had since entered several Trackering compos and released "Superpop" on the Night 55 musicdisk Grandeur.
Key claims#
- Harri Blom, 18, from Kankaanpää, Finland, just out of school. In Jade "for the longest time" ("we haven't released lots of stuff, but I'm really happy with the group"); joined Night55, "an international group of very talented musicians", shortly before the interview. Jade's musicdisk Gems was about to appear and Jade was planning a demo; Fobia Design and other groups had asked him for demo music.
- History: "some stuff with my amiga500 and protracker few years ago", nothing special; "started tracking seriously after going to asm94". Got into tracking because purple-motion's and Lizardking's music "sounded so damn cool", but "I've always tried to create and develop my own style". Guitar lessons "for a long time"; no other musical background.
- Assembly '95: "I wasn't expecting it! I was happy when they even played the tune!"; beating Lizardking, "my hero", was "like a dream come true... and it has helped me break into the scene".
- Own favourites: "Green" (from Jade's Hope disk), "Guild of Sounds", "Under Pressure". Other releases listed by the interviewers on ftp.cdrom.com: "Shred With Me" (MOD), "Space and Time", "Errorzone Zero", "Mystique", "No Truth" (XM files, see xm-format). Older tunes bore him — "why did I release this?".
- Favourites among others: Dune ("his own unique style"; the demos Caero and X14), Zodiak and Radix ("great songwriters... the music is just so well constructed"), Cybelius ("Sunjammer"; "always does only quality music... as it should be done"), Jogeir's "Attributed Horror" ("a big influence to me"), Purple Motion's "Exploration", Lizardking's "Desert Dawn", skaven's "Rama Gardens"; had not researched necros beyond "Eden" nor heard the Amiga composer Dizzy. Hates "HC BOOMBOOM stuff".
- Ripping: "I personally never rip anything... not from modules at least"; nothing against others ripping — "it's nice if somebody uses my samples".
- Names his friend Elwood, then unreleased on the Internet, "the most underrated composer" — "one of the best (I dare to say that)"; the preface says Rage had since uploaded several Elwood tunes to ftp.cdrom.com.
- On the Finnish scene: "people are more aware of the scene... everyone tries to make the big breakthrough".
- Timed compos: did not know the 20-minute chip compo or the Trackering and dislikes the kind — "I can't do anything good in twenty minutes, and don't like to use someone else's samples". The interviewers define both: in the 20mc "you get a set of chipsamples and have 20 minutes to write a tune", in the Trackering "a set of normal samples and ... one week"; Kal Zakath prefers the Trackering, which "always has many nice tunes from skilled composers".
- Homepage
http://lokki.edutec.pori.fi/~hablom/; Hornet's Music Contest 4 mentioned as upcoming.
Practical takeaways#
- A demoparty placing — even 2nd, against your own hero — was the fastest way into the 1995–96 scene.
- Rage's rule (never rip from modules, but let others use your samples) is one of the milder positions in sample-ripping.
- A sourced list of 1996 reference tunes for the "well constructed" Nordic style: Zodiak, Radix, Dune, Jogeir, Cybelius.
- The Trackering — normal samples, one week — was the "long form" sibling of the 20-minute-chip-compo (compos).
Notable quotes#
- "I got into tracking because I thought Purple Motion's and Lizardking's music sounded so damn cool! I wanted to try it.. but I've always tried to create and develop my own style..." — Rage.
Relevance#
A Finnish demoscene musician's view in 1996: Assembly as the entry ticket, XM releases, distaste for timed sample-pack compos, and the Trackering and 20mc each defined in a sentence.
Pages touched#
rage, compos, 20-minute-chip-compo, sample-ripping, purple-motion, skaven, necros, protracker, xm-format, traxweekly.