³½ LORD HELMET½ ² The first interview ever, with the man behind the most popular release in the scene, brought to you by Top Secret. Read about Raw and the man behind. ²When did you decide to make a diskmag ? And was it a group (PMC) decision or was it mainly you ?¹ RAW got started late 91. It was MY decision. Actually the leader of PMC was against RAW in the start, but he soon changed his mind. I think it's here RAW is different from other mags. The other mags are group productions where the coder decide most of the things. In RAW ³I decide everything.¹ And I think the others main editors should do that do! ²Right from the first issue, Raw became succesful. All other new mags, need a couple of issues to establish themselves, but Raw was different. What do you think made the first issue so popular ?¹ Only bad mags need time to settle themself. Before you start a mag you have to make a ³concept¹. Ask yourself the question: "What will I do better than the others mags", and if can't find anything don't start a mag. I think I also today could have started a new mag that should be succesfull from the start. When I started RAW I knew that I could do better than ³All¹ the other mags in certain areas, so the success wasn't that surprising for me. ²After the first issue, the standard improved until it reached an extremely hign standard with issue #3. In my opinion this standard has been kept during the two latest issues, but not improved. What's your opinion about Raw's development and do you think that you are capable of rising the standard ?¹ Of course we are capable of raising that standard, but that will mean much more work to increase little. I think RAW in the future will keep the standard that it has now. But it all depends on time and motivation. ²Are there things/articles that you have regret that you have published during the 5 released issues ? (What ? Why ?)¹ It's only one article that I regret that I published, that is the "10 reasons why Tip & Mantronix" sucks. That article was only ³shit¹ and not serious at all. Otherwise I don't regret anything. ²In issue 5 you presented a new style in Raw and perhaps in the diskmag-scene in general. Only scene-stuff. Why this change ?¹ It's not a big change at all. In RAW issue 3 and 4 there are minium of articles not involved with the scene. We published only 4-5 non scene articles in RAW 4. So for the normal reader this means nothing. ²Do you think it's possible to keep the amount of articles on the same level now, without decreasing the standard of the articles ?¹ The amount of articles is not a target in itself. It's the quality of articles. If we only have 20 good articles. I will release RAW with those 20 articles. RAW has never tried to get the most articles of the mags around. Of course there can be a danger that we don't get so much articles in future RAW issues, but we will instead use more bytes to Gfx,music etc. ²Has it been easier, during the period Raw has been released, to get the most talented people in the scene to work for Raw ?¹ RAW had good support already from it's start, so it has always been easy to get the most talented people to work for RAW. ²Making a diskmag is hard work. Have you ever thought about quitting ? (When Why ?)¹ For many persons it is either FULL ACTIVE or QUITTING. For me it's not like that. I release RAW when I feel for it. So therefore I have never thought of qutting the mag. If I have no time or inspiration for RAW I do nothing, but a month later I can work as hell. Therefore we in RAW have no deadlines or releasedates. ²What makes you keep on working so hard ? The money ? Ambition ? Fun ?¹ To be honest I don't know. I have a ³inner motive power¹ that drive me to work for RAW. Also the fact that I please many people with my work is also a great motivation. Without all the Moral support RAW wouldn't exists! The money is great, but if you work only for money you can give up! All diskmag people says that it is so hard to make a diskmag. I disagree.. Making a diskmag is not ³SOO¹ hard and time consuming. ²You are famous for your ideas. Does it get harder and harder to get those ideas ?¹ The ideas come with your inspiration. If my inspiration is great, I can create ³10 new ideas in one hour¹. But If I don't feel the inspiration for RAW, the ideas don't come that quick. So the answer to your question is NO! ²For how long time do you think Raw will stay no.1 ? And if a diskmag ever will push Raw of the first place, which mag will it be ? Zine ?¹ At the moment I don't see ³any¹ mag close to RAW. But the delays & lack of inspiration we got lately give some other mags the oppurnity to close the gap to RAW. These mags can soon start to push RAW: Top Secret, Sledge Hammer, Upstream and The Jungle. ²Before the release of Raw #5, you decided to join Spaceballs. What was the reason for leaving PMC and why did you choose Spaceballs ?¹ The reason for joining Spaceballs was that I had ³more friends¹ in Spaceballs than I had in PMC. So the joining was not that difficult! ²Raw takes money for placing advertisements and as far as I know it cannot be sold without your permission (probably without getting some money). Do you make money on publishing Raw ? How many ?¹ I don't know. But it is not that many. Nothing to get rich of. ²Try to tell us your best, your worst and your funniest experience with Raw.¹ BEST: The Best experiences is all the letters I got from the readers that praises RAW. I also liked the first time we got a first place. It was in Stolen Data March 92. At that time I knew that I had succedded. I was ³overhappy.¹ But now charts doesn't mean much. WORST: My worst experience was then we released RAW 4 and it only worked on Machines with more than 1Mb memory. But we soon fixed the bug, but many wrong copies had been spread. FUNNY: The most funny moments was then I and Tommy wrote the Funny articles for RAw issue 1 & 2. At that time we were ³TOTALLY CRAZY¹ and had a real good time. Now RAW is a bit more serious, and Tommy is not in the RAW staff anymore. That's a pitty!!! ²Tell us which magazines (also Raw of course) have the best (different catagories was mentioned):¹ At the moment I think RAW is ³ahead¹ in most areas. But Many mags are closing the gap. ²What is in your opinion the most interesting discussion that have been running in Raw (Zine, Oscar, Tip+Mant. vs. Oistein Eide, etc.) And why ?¹ I think the Tip/Mtx vs Oisten Eide was a very interesting discussion because everyone had a view in the discussion. Maybe the discussion become a bit overheated. But both parts got their view in RAW, and I don't think any parts can call himself a ³winner¹. ²What is your biggest wish concerning the scene and Raw ?¹ My biggest wish concerning the scene is that the scene continues to develop the demos,music, gfx to the better. I hope RAW will be successfull also in the future. ²Anything to add ?¹ Not really!