AmigaLife
Interviews => Interviews with Demosceners & Developers => Topic started by: 4pLaY on June 15, 2019, 08:51:47 PM
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Hello Cutcreator. Could you please introduce yourself to our readers?
Hello, I`m Allan, back in the 90's I did Amiga music with the group Static Bytes. We did about 10 issues of the Eurocharts and various other small productions. I've worked in the computer games industry since then, mainly as a producer or company owner.
When did you get interested in computers and what was your first computer?
My uncle bought a ZX Spectrum and I spent summer holidays at his place, playing and programming on that. This was likely around 1985-86. My first computer was a C64 which I bought from an older kid on my street. I mostly played games on that one, although I also toyed with programming, graphics and game makers. I decided to get an Amiga after I heard the demo tunes from Octalizer at a friends house. He had it hooked up to his stereo, and those sounds just blew my mind.
What Amiga(s) did you have in the past and if you remember, what were the(ir) configuration(s)?
I've only had one Amiga. An Amiga 500. Over the years I expanded it with more RAM, an external disc drive, I got an Alcotini Sound Sampler and eventually had a 20MB hard drive which I used entirely for music and sounds.
Do you still have that Amiga or did you get rid of it?
No I don't have it. I think my younger brother had it for a while and then eventually it was thrown out or sold.
Could you tell us a bit about the equipment/application(s) you used to create music back in the early days?
I started with Soundtracker, then Noisetracker and eventually Protracker. Initially I just composed directly in the tracker with sounds from the early ST discs. Later I bought a KORG Wavestation synthesizer and sampled sounds from this using an Alcotini Sound Sampler. A pair of old hifi speakers and my fathers old amplifier was used for output.
Can you tell us how you got involved with the demoscene?
My childhood friend (Dice) and I started getting demos and music discs. We were fascinated by these, and spent our evenings in his basement room talking about how cool this was. We decided to write some letters to a few groups to ask if we could join as musicians. The very first group I joined was called Ascension, but after a few months I got accepted into Static Bytes.
Could you tell us a bit about the demos you worked on and which production you feel was the best one overall?
I composed a lot of diskmag music for Eurocharts #15-#27. This combined body of music is probably what I am most proud of, mostly because it took a hell of a lot of work to consistently spit out 3-5 multi-part tunes per year during that time.
I've never done music for any compo winning demos, but I did like our "Glenzpiration" demo. My music has been used in many productions where I was not actively involved (but simply did the music). I've also done the music discs "Cutcreations" and "Kuglepølen".
Is there any production you wish you had not worked on or perhaps there is a production you wish had turned out differently?
Not productions as such. Most of it is part of my journey. The old stuff was less good. Newer stuff is mostly better. There are a lot of my old modules available online. Only about 50% of these are good or even completed tunes.
Was there any music you created back then that you were really satisfied with and can even look back upon now and be proud of?
A few of the Eurochart parts I've done were really great and a few other modules. It's difficult for me to point out specific tracks.
Was there any musicians at the time, either demosceners or just musicians in general that you either looked up to or felt inspired you to create your own music?
Originally the C64 game music from Rob Hubbard etc inspired me. A lot of game music on the Amiga also caught my attention. From the scene it was initially Jesper Kyd, Maestro, Romeo Knight, Uncle Tom etc. Then of course all the greats of the era. Two that stand out to me are Bruno and Heatbeat.
Can you tell us if you remember, what you considered the best Amiga demos back in the old days?
I remember one of the first demos I saw and was awed by was Kefrens Megademo 8. It was one of the demos I was watching just before I decided to join the scene and when I listen to some of the music I still get very nostalgic. I love the Global Trash and Hardwired demos. Lots of others of course.
Are you still making music today, either in the demoscene or in other areas? If yes, could you please tell us a bit about it?
Just after leaving the scene in mid 90's I got a job making music for games, so I made a living from this for a while. I also had a dream of releasing my own music commercially and managed to get a record deal for some techno/ EDM stuff. However, I soon changed into a game producer.
I've made music on/off as a hobby since then. When doing non Amiga music I'm using Logic and various soft synths and VST's. In 2016 the team behind the Chiperia music disks asked me if I wanted to contribute. At the time I was changing careers, so I had some extra vacation time and decided to get into it again. I don't have an Amiga anymore, but 8bitbubsy`s Protracker clone (https://16-bits.org/pt.php) for PC is awesome and I've enjoyed composing on this for the past few years.
What do you think of the state of the demo scene today?
I'm not very active. I make a bit of music now and again, but I'm rarely at demo parties or other social events. I think I might enjoy going to one of the oldschool events, to share my passion and nostalgia for the "old ways, sounds, code and gfx". But I am super busy with life, work and various other hobbies, so I've not yet found time to go to a scene event.
The scene I know today consists mainly of people at my age. It's a nice community, but also a community for passionate nostalgics. I don't know any new young creative people working on Amiga tech.
What do you feel you got out of the whole experience of being active in the Amiga demoscene? for example, did it lead you to make music professionally?
Yes, I got a job in the computer games industry and have been working in that industry ever since. A lot of people from the Danish and Swedish Amiga scene ended up in the games industry and still work in it today. For me the demo scene was the doorway to my current career and job. At one point I was the CEO of a company of 32 people making games and computer software. That would not have happened if I had not joined the demo scene.
Most importantly the demo scene taught me how powerful it is when people with diverse skillsets work together to create something innovative and cool.
Have you ever considered remastering some of your old tunes?
I've actually done that with one track I did for a game: https://soundcloud.com/allan-kirkeby/laks-aka-salmon I've also completed one of my old unfinished tunes. But I've not re-mastered any of my demo scene tunes yet. Maybe I'll do that one day :-).
You have worked on a number of games as well, was it your work in the scene that lead you down this path?
Yes, exactly. A graphic artist called Sauron worked at a Danish game studio. Sauron also did some gfx in Static Bytes. So when the game studio needed Amiga music he suggested my name.
On the Amiga you are credited with working on the games: The Ultimate Pinball Quest, Living Ball & The Naugthy Ones. Could you tell us a bit about the history behind these games?
I was hired by a small Danish game studio to create a series of Amiga tunes for their Pinball game. I remember it was a challenge to only be able to use 3 out of 4 tracks (because the 4th track was for the sound effects). I was not involved with the actual development of the game, although I did create sound effects, and helped test the game in its final stages. I think I created 4 main tracks and 6-8 sub-tracks for this game (so quite a lot of music). It was later created for PC and I re-created all the music again using midi and a work pc that crashed all the time. Damn, I hated PC`s at that time, I really wished that making music with midi was as nice and easy as on the Amiga :-).
Naughty Ones was made by Jacob and Henrik from Melon Design and all the brilliant ingame music is by the late Maestro. I only contributed with a publisher logo intro jingle. Martin (aka Maestro) was a brilliant musician, just listen to his track in the Kefrens Megademo 8 (1990). It is way ahead of its time.
Btw: Ultimate Pinball Quest and Living Ball is the same game.
Is there anyone you would like to send some greetings to? Or perhaps you have some other last words?
Greetings to the Chiperia contributors and to everyone in Resistance (https://resistance.no/). I could greet all the oldschool people, but most of them will not read this :-).
That is the end of this interview, thanks for taking the time to do it Cutcreator, I am sure our readers will appreciate it :).