¼³INTERVIEW WITH¼³ ³¼JESTER OF SANITY¼³ ¹ Another issue, another interview..Well, normally you can say that about every issue of every diskmag. But interviews can be interesting. If it's actual, and the questions and answers are honest. A new interview style, perhaps. Read this exciting interview with one of the best musicians in the scene. Read what Jester of Sanity thinks about Virgill, about the fact that he was disqualified at the Gathering '93, about his new tape and a lot more. ³We will skip the introduction, since we assume that everybody knows you. What are you doing at the moment for a living ?¹ I'm in the social service which is somewhat like the peaceful variant of the tour of duty. The payment is a lot better than in the army, actually. Poor fellas, there (Hi Boomi !). Moreover, I do a gametrack now and then which at times is quite a convenient way of increasing my income. ³You have a band. How serious do you take it ? Hoping to get a contract ? What instrument do you play ?¹ It's more of ²a hobby¹, really. Still, I find it really interesting to have a break from doing Amiga music only sometimes and become creative in other fields, as well. For the band I have to ²write lyrics¹ along with the tune and also do far more complex arrangements than for the computer. At the moment we're not actively hoping for a contract simply because we're a bit of a pessimistic bunch, you know. Yet, we might send in ²a demotape¹ to a record company once in a while. Time will tell. I have to shamefully admit that ²I'm not capable of playing any instrument at all¹. Each song is programmed into the computer and then played by synthes via a ²midi¹ interface so playing manually is superflous, anyway. I fuzzily recall some flute lessons in the very remote past but I guess that is not relevant in any way. ³Have you ever played live at some kind of parties ?¹ No, not yet. But we've been playing with the thought of arranging a ²live concert¹ if we manage to make all of our ideas work. We wouldn't like to hold an ordinary rock show because that's not in line with our overall style. If we ever do a concert it's supposed to be some kind of a theatrical experience with mainly midi sequenced music, live vocals and ³a lot of strange actions taking place on the stage.¹ Unfortunately, arranging an event like that is ²extremely expensive¹ and ²time-demanding¹. Perhaps someone out there would like to sponsor us ?! ³Try to describe the style of music that the band plays. Are you inspired by any musicians/bands in particular ?¹ Rather melancholic synth pop, I would say. A lot of people have drawn comparisons to the ²Pet Shop Boys¹ which is a big compliment to us for they're our biggest idols (definitely !). Other influences might originate from ²New Order, The Smiths, Erasure and bits of modern dance music¹. You'd best find out yourself. ³Please introduce the songs on the tape (Who has composed it, where, how long time ago, etc).¹ The tape contains ²7 tracks¹ which have all been ²written and arranged by me¹. The other guy in the band has done some very small touches to some of the arrangements, too, but all lyrics, melodies and chords are pure "Jester" stuff. Most of the songs have been written some time ago, even my first ever song for vocals is featured on this production. In spite of the age of the songs, they were all arranged with our latest (and greatest) synthesizer and recording equipment, which guarantees a ²massive and professional sound¹. The styles and moods vary quite a lot, from very emotional ballads to extremely fast rap/rave songs (yeah, ²I actually did rap¹ on one track !). ³Have you got a lot of orders on the tape ?¹ Oh yes, up 'til now we're very satisfied. Orders still keep coming in and I must say that we were quite ²surprised¹ by the overwhelmingly positive reactions this tape has gotten already. I will definitely do my best to produce a worthy sequel. ³Let's talk about computer-music. Which musicians do you admire most and why ?¹ I've said this so often. My faves include ²Moby¹ because of his ability to combine catchy melodies with incredible solos. His strong funk basses and percussion make his tunes very pleasant to listen to, so he's definitely among my all-time-greatest. ²Mantronix/Tip/Firefox¹ have provided a number of harmonically astounding pieces that still have to be beaten and finally ²Bruno¹ whom we all have to thank for the humorous and extremely varied stuff that he's put down on the Amiga over the years. Some new interesting names are for sure ²Julius¹ and ²Lizardking¹. I just love the energy that goes into their tunes. ³Is there any old musicians that you are missing on todays scene (whom, why) ?¹ Oh, well, there were some "legends" that ave now more or less disappeared. I used to love ²Titan/Uncle Tom's¹ stuff a lot and even if I listen to it today it still amazes me completely. The same about ²Nightlight¹, "Chant" was a real killer, I think. Finally, there's ²Romeo Knight¹ who surprised us all with his return to the demo-scene but I somehow feel that his new compositions are quite crappy. His old stuff, though, like "Cream Of The Earth" etc. will probably stay on my mind forever. Another sad thing certainly is the fact that the god of computer music "²Rob Hubbard¹" has never really "made it" on the Amiga but I'm still a worshipper of his revolutionary C64 work. ³Optium Fuckup and Terminal Fuckup are two of the latest productions from Sanity. Why the Fuckup ?¹ "Optimum FuckUp" is now almost one year old so I wouldn't say it's one of our latest productions. You're right about "TF", though. Both of the titles were taken from the book/roleplaying-game ²Illuminati¹, describing various states of confusion amongst secret services. That's the reason why it's called the «int» "confusion trilogy". The third part is going to be entitled "²SNAFU - Situation Normal, All Fucked Up¹", thus closing down the series. ³Sanity has been critizied for not having a 'good-enough' design. What do you think about this critic ?¹ People are ²probably right¹. Mostly it's just due to a ²lazy¹ and ²designwise not too ambitious coder¹ (well, who could that be ?!). Still, I believe, we were always able to balance the crap design with really good routines, graphics and (as I hope) music. ³Do you think the design has been better in the latest production ?¹ Definitely. In the ²future¹ our projects will be far more ²design-orientated¹ than they have been up to this point in time. "Terminal FuckUp" was only the beginning, that's for sure. There will soon be some more dentros/intros by the trio behind "TF" and what I've seen so far is very smart in terms of design (nice work, Steve). Chaos has finally agreed to let graphics artists do the design,too, and so I suppose his demos are going to become slightly more viewer-friendly in the future, as well. ³At the gathering'93 you competed with a module called 'Molecule's Revenge'. How did you come up with a name like that ?¹ Just in the same way that I usually come up with names. After I'd finished the module I listened to it over and over again and simply waited for a suitable title to pop up in my head. I dismissed some ideas and finally got hooked on "²The Molecule's Revenge¹" because to my mind it ideally reflected the scientific and electronic atmosphere in the tune. ³The tune was disqualified, because it had been used in another music-competition. Is that true ? Did you try to cheat or what happened ?¹ Good of you to ask ! That was probably the most ²unfair¹ and ²sad decision¹ a jury has ²ever made¹. It ²wasn't played¹ in any other bloody music-comp ! It is in fact true that I gave the mod. for the comp in Aars but ²it was not chosen to be good enough by the "jury" in Dk !¹ Thus it wasn't fucking played and thus it has not taken part in the actual competition when people could bloody vote for the music. So, I have to assume that some ²envious dickhead¹ was deliberately trying to keep me out of the comp, probably because he was afraid of being defeated ! ²Suck on that.¹ ³The musicdisk 'Jesterday' was a big success. Will we soon see a follow up ?¹ Maybe. ³Do you think you are a better musician now than when Jesterday's tunes were made ? If so, in which fields have you improved ?¹ To my mind, I have improved ²largely¹, especially in the areas of arrangement techniques, sample-quality, variety of samples, harmonies, and variety of styles. ³Do you think you can be any better than you already are ? Where can you improve ?¹ Yop, the process of developing never stops. Changes will come along quite naturally. ³Try to describe the ultimate musician and the ultimate musicdisk.¹ Oh, come on, be serious. ³Who is in your opinion the most underrated musician in the scene ?¹ There are so many people on the scene who do tremendously good music, so if I only named one I would be injust towards the others. I personally find guys like ²Delorean, Lizardking, Bruno and Julius¹ shamelessly underrated by the major part of the Amiga scene. ³What can we expect from Sanity in the future ?¹ Some dentros, some intros, perhaps a musicdisk and definitely a ²big, Big, big¹ trackmo. ³Ask yourself a question you would like to have been asked and answer it.¹ ²Why do the personality and the musics of Virgill/Masque suck so fucking hard ?¹ Simple. Because he's a ²two-faced lying kid¹ who's utterly greedy for fame in order to balance out his complexes of inferiority, even if he's merely able to produce sadly chucked-up cliche-musics with ²no melodies¹ but bleeding imrpovisations all through the tune. He also ²wears his mum's dresses and make-up in front of his mirror¹. ³Anything to add ?¹ Yes, buy my tape ! Thanx to Jester of Sanity for answering all these questions. We hope you like the interview. ³TFG/MAJIC 12