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Interview - with Ganja / Nerve Axis

This time the AmigaScene decided to invite Marcus Castren AKA Ganja/NVX to an interview, covering the future of the Amiga, the scene and other interesting facts for us Amiga-users. As you may have already noticed, this file is completely written in English and maybe one day the complete AmigaScene will be. We will see. And now enjoy the original interview...

AS: Would you like to introduce yourself first?

G: Yeah, hi y'all! In the scene people know me as Ganja and I'm a member of Nerve Axis-demo group. My main function is being a musician. People might remember me best from the demos "Pulse" and "Relic", but there are several other productions I've been involved with too.

At the moment I'm 20 years of age and waiting for the Finnish military service to begin in January (eugh!) - so yes, I live in Finland :). I don't study anything yet, but work in a new-media company in Helsinki. And that's all you are allowed to know.

AS: How and when did you enter the Amiga scene and what happened since?

G: I got my first 'miggy in 1989 which was an A500. I've always been very interested in the demoscene and what happened there. I've "followed" it since 1990 and finally entered it in 1992 when I got a modem and was able to be in contact with other people more easily. I've been composing tracker music also since 1992. I've had a rather low profile until 1995. Before joining Nerve Axis I've been in groups like Delusion and Mystic.

When asked about why I joined the demoscene I really can't tell you - I don't even know myself. Just that, the whole thing has always fascinated me a lot and I've always wanted to be a part of it.

AS: Can you tell us something about "Nerve Axis"?

G: Nerve Axis (NVX for short) is a UK-based demo group which was born in 1992, but I just found out that the old NVX was also involved in the cracking scene, but it's not been so for ages. Anyway, we also have members in other countries like Finland and Iceland. I joined NVX in 1995, but we've not been very well known until 1996 when we released a diskmag called "Pressure".

Nerve Axis is kind of going through its second era as there's only one original member left in the group (who quit for few weeks but couldn't live without being away ;) ). Also, NVX is probably the only UK scene group left at the moment - and the only quality one since Anarchy ;).

AS: "Relic" was really awesome - can we expect more from NA?

G: Most certainly. There's something planned already for the Party 8 in Denmark this Christmas. The only reason for us releasing so few productions per year is that we only have one coder and big productions like Pulse and Relic take a lot of time to finish (Relic was 8 months) and we want everything to be top notch.

AS: How many MODs have you ever composed? Which ones are your fav's?

G: Oh that's a hard one. As far as I've kept the record, I've made about 250 *finished* modules. If you'd include all the unfinished/unreleased ones it would be another 250 more.

There aren't many that I could call favourites as I'm only starting to get satisfied with the mods I made this year. Some my top picks would certainly be "My Fluffy Angel" which was 4th at the Spoletium98 party in Italy, "Coffeeshopping" which I made for our diskmag "Pressure #2" and "Sweet Things" which was made for "Scenetime #12" diskmag.

The most popular tracks have also been the modules from our demos Pulse and Relic as I've had a huge amount of requests from people wanting them. If you're after any, some of the best ones are on Aminet.

AS: What do you think of the Amiga's future?

G: Well, it's a bit confusing at the moment. It looks somewhat bright but then again even more dark. Surely it's nice to see AI actually doing something for a change, but I don't know what's gonna happen to this "Classic" Amiga platform.. If the OS5 won't run on it I think it'll die sooner or later and so will the Amiga demoscene as people stick rather strongly to the 0x0s.

I'm willing to wait for few years to see what happens as I've put quite a lot of money to upgrade my hardware and as long as there are active sceners I've no reason to leave.

AS: Which Amigas do you own and for which purpose?

G: I got an A1240T with lots of hardware, though I still need a few more things (don't you always?). I use it for making music, playing some games sometimes. It also does the 'net well enough so I don't need a PC for that either though all the plugins would be nice. Finally, I also use it for HTML & designing, but the only thing is doesn't do is image processing where I have to use a PC :( - one more reason to upgrade for me.

AS: Finally, what can be said about the Amiga scene today?

G: Not a lot good actually :(. Like the most things that become more popular, people start making money with it and the real meaning is lost sooner or later. This has happened with the demoscene as well. It's now very commercial and that shows! Party organizers are money hungry sh*theads who don't care about the "sceners" or the real feeling. This is also visible in the grouplife as most groups don't release anything outside a party except for diskmags (thank heavens for those) and it's mostly because there's a catch - money. Why release a cool demo just anyday when you can score some extra buck with it? Of course there are exceptions too.

The productions themselves have also changed a lot. Some say it's bad, cos nowadays you don't see many effects other than 3D stuff. The demos and intros have kinda lost their original meaning, but this is very much due the commercialism.

So that's how it is today - I don't want to guess how it looks tomorrow. :(

AS: Do you have a picture of yourself?

G: Yes, attached to this mail.

AS: That's it. Thank you for the interview, and may the Amiga live long and prosper! :-)

Bernhard Lukas

Ganja of Nerve Axis (JPEG; 172K)