Inteview with Jester
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Diskmagazine interviews | Spaceballs Audiomonster - Castor - Chaos - ... | t4/93 added 2/94 |
INTERVIEW WITH JESTER / SANITY. by Lord Helmet and Cutcreator We tried to get the exclusive rights to publish the interview with Micheal Jackson, but as we couldn't afford it, we got a VERY good substitute. May I introduce Jester/Sanity, the man behind brilliant soundtracks like Elysium and WoC.(Applause!) Good afternoon Jester, how are you? Quite fine, actually, apart from the fact that you just mentioned me in connection with Michael Jackson. He sucks. You have just released a tape with your band Minimal Art. What sort of music is it and how good is the quality compared to other bands making the same sort of music? Well, it's synth pop, basically. A lot of people say it's got a heavy presence of The Pet Shop Boys in it but personally I don't think so. The styles are quite varied, from really slow, emotional ballads that might possibly bring tears to your eyes to really fast rave/rap ones. By the way, I even DID lend my voice to a rappy tune ! It was fun, really. What can I say about the quality ? Well, the sound is pretty massive and modern but of course it's not completely like a commercial record you might buy in a shop. After all, I don't have a studio worth 200000 pounds, yet I believe it's quite professional. Is this tape produced mainly for scene sale? Not really. To be honest, it was mainly produced for personal pleasures but once it was finished the idea of distributing it in the scene came along quite naturally. Here in my hometown it's doing tremendously well which might soon result in a live concert. In last RAW Bjorn Lynne advertised a CD and a free disk to the first orders.You are doing exactly the same? Do you try to copy Bjorn Lynne's success with his CD? Bjorn is a really good friend of mine and when I told him about the tape he gave me some advise on how to market it optimally. Moreover, the Minimal Art project was originally started in 1990, long before anyone in the scene ever released a tape, a CD or anything. Do you also use your Amiga when composing songs for Minimal Art. Yes, of course. We would not exist without the Amiga since there is no such thing as the world's best sequencer tool "MED" by Teijo Kinnunen on any other computer, I believe. I can't understand how anyone could possibly work with programmes like "Track 24", "QBase", "Notator" or whatever, they are all so incredibly time-demanding und user-unfriendly. But to answer your question, sometimes I work out a melody or a nice flow of chords on a synth but then I'll directly put it down on the computer. I control all the synthes with the Amiga which enables me to put together fine arrangements using the miraculous powers of a MIDI interface. As I can understand you have written all the songs and lyrics for the tape. What are the other members of Minimal Art doing? First of all, Minimal Art has only got two members in total. We have come up with a rather effective division of work. As you mentioned, the songs and the lyrics are all written by me. Furthermore, I did most of the arrangements and even rapped on one track while the other guy basically is the proper singer and the recording engineer. He also designed the cover of the tape which came out really fine and did some minor touches to the arrangements. Do you think/hope that you will be able to make a living out of music? No, not really. I'm a quite realistic (or pessimistic, if you want) person. Making music is just a really nice hobby to me and I am not so utterly conceited to believe that I'll make it in the bitchy record business. I will continue to produce soundtracks for demos and games to get an eventually fair amount of money out of that work. Still, if "Minimal Art" were asked to sign to a record company I would of course agree but as I said I am not full enough of myself to believe that something like this will happen. (If you are interested to buy his tape look the advertisment somewhere else in this mag) What's the difference between making Amiga music and real music? Making Amiga music is by far easier and faster work than "real music". For a computer track you just have to do a four-track-arrangement with some easy-to-manage samples and an eventually catchy melody while for a proper song you need to write lyrics that have something to say, that are not too cliche-like AND you have to do a really complex arrangement involving myriads of parameters. A lot of the melodies that work out fine instrumentally would sound rather misplaced if performed with vocals so the composition itself takes up much more time, too. You have more than once said that TECHNO SUCKS!, but lately you have made techno tunes. Does that mean that you suck as a musician? To give an answer to this question let me first define what I understand by "techno". To me, it's that sad chart-stuff like "2 Unlimited" or "Felix" or to give an example from the world of Amiga music the tune in Spaceballs' "State Of The Art". And I can only repeat it: "IT SUCKS !". Now, these tracks of mine you're alluding to are completely different from that sort of "music". What I have done are really hard, anarchistic dance pieces with a good dose of humour and self-irony which are in line with tracks like Static's "Humantarget" or Mad Freak's tune for the great "3D Demo II". There are a lot of really strong ideas in these pieces and that's why I like them so much. But why are we talking about this ? The tunes concerned have not been released yet, anyway. Another musician who was in Sanity before (Bit Arts), is known for his great techno/fast disco tunes. What do you think about him? I don't think Bit Arts is famous for doing techno but anyway, he's a really good musician who makes his tunes work by using a lot of nice samples. As far as I can judge he's pretty bright, his only problem is that he's a bit too conceited. He left because he was tired of being the number 2 musician in Sanity. Many have said that the loader tune in Turmoil and the tune in WoC are the BEST tunes ever made on Amiga. How can it be that such a popular musician didn't get enough releases? Who told you such crap ? Actually, he was worshipped by Mr Pet who kept crawling up his arse all day long. I think BA got pissed by the fact that he didn't get to work with Chaos because to him that seemed to be the reason why he didn't manage to become as popular as in the old days with RSI. But in fact his music just wasn't that superior anymore since nowadays there simply are far more good musicians in the scene than in the beginning. And THAT was probably something he could not handle. So it has nothing to do with the rumour that Chaos doesn't like techno? Chaos loved some of Bit Arts' pieces, especially "Synergy" was one of his favourites, I think. It's just that Chaos and I have always cooperated very well and we simply are a good team, so that's the reason why Bit Arts only got to work with the other coders in Sanity. So who is the new number 2 musician in Sanity? You might be surprised to hear but there is no other musician in Sanity. More than once there have been musicians slaughtered in the press (Mantronix,Tip,4-mat). What do you think of this? Oh, it's all envy and latent complexes of inferiority. If someone can't handle the fact that someone else is well liked for his work I advise him to go ahead and do something better. It simply proves that there are a lot of bad losers in the scene who should go and see their psycho-analysts rather than slagging off other people in diskmags. But what do you think of Chaos/Sanity slaughtering nearly every demo released? Chaos simply is a brilliant coder and if he thinks that something is programmed in a sad way than he probably is right. Moreover there are demos he really likes and I've seen him being enthusiastic about other people's routines, as well. Apart from that, I think it's his problem and not mine. Many people have said that the beginning of your song in WoC is nearly the same as the beginning of the Enigma tune by Firefox & Tip. Do you have any comments to this? Oh yeah, and many people have once said that the sun was rotating round the earth. So what ?! What do you think of charts? Do you like yourself being on the charts? It's nice to see that your work is appreciated, even though it's not essential for the music I'm making. Actually, I have always done what came to my mind and as you will see in the forthcoming Sanity releases I am risking quite a lot in terms of my image these days. The most important thing is still that I am satisfied with my work and if other people like it as well that's fine, if they don't: so what ! One aspect I really love about the charts is the fact that so many "bad losers" (see above) get enraged when seeing me in a high chart position. It's so funny to observe their behaviour and to have a good chuckle about their seemingly infinite degree of sadness. Lay down on the couch, guys ! Which scene dudes do you admire for their work? This list would be endless, I guess. Let me just mention Teijo Kinnunen who coded the inevitable MED, HaVoK, Alex, Mack, Fairfax and lots more who do wonderful pieces of art, Moby, MTX/TIP/FF, Lizardking, Bruno, RK and Mad Freak who have always been an inspiration, Chaos, Hannibal, The Spy and Laxity for smashing demos and finally Estrup, Retep and you for great diskmags. Who are lamers and who aren't? Take a look at one of the above questions' answers and you'll know. How was the scene in 1992? It was alright, I guess. The demos were getting more and more professional, the parties were getting bigger and the scene as a whole seemed to be getting smaller. One thing is really strange, you know. The more I lose interest in this entire scene business the more popular I get. Life's a miracle sometimes. If you should mention one your songs which you are more proud of than any other, which song would you mention and why? Really, I can't. Some time ago I would have said it was "Wizardry" but I've progressed such a lot since I made it that it is not relevant any more. In contrast to a lot of listeners I am quite satisfied with the tune for the "Optimum Fuckup" demo because it's very catchy and quite powerful. Some other tunes of mine that I am really proud of have not yet been released so it's no use talking about them here. But let me just state that there's one song on that "Minimal Art" tape entitled "Against The Tide" that really touches me when I listen to it, therefore I must say I like it a lot. This may sound very conceited now but hey, you asked for it. Will we hear any soundtracks in forthcoming productions? Oh yes, definately. There are going to be some intros/dentros by our new coder Tron which I already made the musics for and as far as I can judge they're going to be really smart. Furthermore I'll do all audios for our biggest ever project "Broken Promises" and if I find the time I'll squeeze in another musicdisk. Finally, I am in contact with a number of groups who have asked me for a soundtrack for their productions but since nothing is confirmed yet I can't give you any details. But be sure to find a tune by me in Chit-Chat or R.A.W. once in a while. If you got invited to a BOOZE party with FREE beer and lot of nice girls what would you answer be? Don't make me sad ! Lately Sanity lost some members to Lemon. Why did those guys decide to quit Sanity? I don't really know. They said something about friendship and that they didn't consider themselves to be able to keep up their high standards because the Amiga was less important to them and stuff. Frankly, I don't believe it's true but after all, it is their own business so why should I care. I only know that both, KR'33 and The Pride were and still are really nice chaps and good friends of ours. We wish Jester the best of luck in the future!