Interview with Jester/Sanity
------------------------------------
by Dolphin

Before  we  start  this  interview, I
have   to   thank   Jester   for  his
incredible  patience  and  help.  The
post  actually managed to destroy two
sendings,  so  I was forced to send 3
times in order to get this interview!

"Hi Jester!  This is supposed to be a
"chat" with you.  Maybe you can begin
by  introducing yourself.  E.g.  your
age, earlier groups etc."

"Okey doke, I've been wandering round
this  little  planet  for  almost  21
years  now, three of which I've spent
on the Amiga scene.  I've started out
in a local group called "ROUGH TRADE"
which  was  founded  by me and my pal
Diddle but really, this was more of a
laugh.   Some  groups  of  greater or
lesser    importance   followed   but
nothing  of real quality was released
during this time.  Finally I ended up
in  Sanity  and from this point on, I
assume most people know the story."

"Well,   this  seems  like  a  pretty
normal, but yet interesting career"

"That's  as may be but actually I had
to  fight  a  lot  against people who
hated  me personally or because of my
music.   In one group the guys wanted
me  to produce Acid House tunes, just
because these were "hip" at the time.
Moreover    the    lads   were   very
unprofessional   when   it   came  to
producing  and designing a demo which
I  quite  openly complained about.  I
think  I  complained about a vast lot
of  things  at  this  time, actually.
But  in the end I was obviously right
because  these guys are still the sad
bunch  of  lamers they were back then
while   my   concept  seems  to  have
worked.   I  have my own ideas of why
almost  every  group  I  had problems
with  never  became  successful.  The
point  is,  they were never honest to
themselves  and  they  were unable to
see   their  own  mistakes.   It  has
always  been a policy of mine to spot
especially  the bad points in my work
in  order  to improve in these areas.
That  seems to be something they have
never learned.  They preferred giving
in  to  the  illusion  of having made
something   great  and  everyone  who
dared  to  interfere (like I did) was
regarded as some sort of enemy."

"I've  noticed  that  you  advertised
about  a  tape  entitled "Simplicity"
made  by  your  band,  called Minimal
Art.  Can you please tell the readers
when  you  started this band and also
how  the response has been.  Have you
made any serious money on this tape?"

The project was originally started in
1990  when I wrote my first songs for
vocal  performance.   It  took a very
long   time   until   something   was
released because of internal problems
but  when the tape finally came out I
was    quite    astounded    by   the
overwhelmingly  positive  feedback it
got.  I myself was not too happy with
a  certain  number  of things, all of
which  had  to  do  with  the singer.
First  of all, he always needed to be
motivated  by slimy statements before
he did anything and then he added far
too  much reverb to his voice and put
in unplanned and unfitting background
vocals   which   as   a   consequence
sometimes    delivered    a    rather
distorted  picture  of the idea I had
about  certain songs.  Anyway, I have
now   gotten  rid  of  him  and  work
completely  on  my  own  which in the
past  has  always  proven to be best.
The   project   will  now  simply  be
entitled  "minimal"  since  I  didn't
really like the longer version in the
first  place.   The  monetary  aspect
about  the  tape is not too exciting.
Actually,     the     price    merely
compensated  the  costs  I had making
it,  so  I didn't really earn any big
money.   After all, it was not my aim
to  become  rich  by  selling  it but
rather  to  give  as  many  people as
possible  an idea of this facet of my
musical   imagination.   Meanwhile  I
have written some new material and at
some  point  in  the  future  I  will
probably make a CD out of it.  As you
will  know  the music on "Simplicity"
has  been  compared  to  the Pet Shop
Boys  quite  often,  a  fact  I never
really  understood.  The NEW arrange-
ments,  though,  I've made are a true
step  into  their  direction  or even
more a bit New Order-ish.  To come to
the  point,  I  am  already much more
satisfied  with  new vocal stuff I've
done   that   with   the   songs   on
"Simplicity"."

"Many  musicians  have certain idols,
people  they  respect  and  are being
influenced  by.  Can you mention some
musicians  you  like, both scene- and
non-scene-related?"

"I  really don't have any idols in an
orthodox  sense but rather people who
I  really  respect  for their work or
simply like what they do.  Within the
Amiga scene there are guys like Moby,
TIP/Mantronix,     Bruno,     Julius,
Lizardking, Uncle Tom, Nightlight and
quite a lot of others who really give
me  a  good  time  with  their music.
Actually,   I   think   the  list  of
composers I despise would be shorter.
The  best  computer  musician  of all
times,  though,  is to me Rob Hubbard
because what he did with the good old
C64   is   so   incredible   and   so
revolutionary  that  I  don't believe
any Amiga scene musician will ever be
able to reach his status.  Commercial
music  I  like  includes the Pet Shop
Boys,    The   Smiths,   New   Order,
Electronic, Banderas, Frankie Goes To
Hollywood  and some 70's disco.  Most
of the pop music produced in the 80's
is  extremely  fab, too.  When I'm in
the  right  mood  I  lend  my ears to
classical   composers   like   Claude
Debussy,   Edvard   Grieg   or  Peter
Tchaikowsky.  And, believe it or not,
sometimes  I  even  enjoy  tracks  by
groups  like  Metallica  or  Faith No
More.   The  music I hate the most is
ordinary  rock  like Dire Straits, U2
and  all  that sad sort of unoriginal
one-out-of-the-mass crap."

"Terminal   Fuckup   was  the  latest
dentro in a series of fuckup's.  Your
module was really wild/desperate.  Is
this  the new Jester-style, or was it
just an experiment?"

"Hm, I don't really think so.  If you
take  a look at the development of my
music  over  the  last  two years you
will  notice that I've changed from a
harmony-lover  to  someone  who plays
and  juggles  with  sounds  a lot.  I
don't  really  like  to  pick out one
song  and say:  "Listen to this, it's
my  new  style".   In  fact, it's the
diversity  and the constant change of
genres  that  is  typical of "Jester"
music.   I simply do what comes to my
mind  and I don't calculate any of my
moves.   Trouble is, recently quite a
lot of people asked me for a tune and
they  all  wanted  something  in  the
style  of  "The  Machinery" (Terminal
FuckUp)  while I myself are already a
few  steps  away  from  this  type of
music.   So,  the tune for TF was not
an  experiment  but just another tune
that  has the same position as any of
my other mods."

(This interview continues on the next
page...)


                              



    Interview with Jester/Sanity
------------------------------------
by Dolphin

(Continued from previous page)

"With   the  birth  of  a  new  Amiga
generation (I'm refering to the A1200
and  A4000) many say that the A500 is
dying.   What do you think?  Will the
scene die?"

"I personally believe it will move on
rather than die.  New computers offer
new   possiblities   and  there  will
always  be  people  who  like working
creatively, so I can't really imagine
that  there won't be a scene one day.
Actually,  I  believe  the  trend  is
going  to  be that software companies
recruit   their  employees  from  the
scene  since it becomes more and more
professional and has already provided
a large number of great talents.  The
scene  is  some  kind  of  a creative
playfield on which people can develop
their    imaginative    powers,    so
companies  will be very interested in
finding  young  talents  that  can do
something the mass likes."

"I  know  for  sure  that  Sanity are
planning  a  trackmo entitled "Broken
Promises".   Will you do the music in
this  production?  And can you reveal
some other future projects in Sanity?

"There  are probably going to be some
tunes of mine in the demo but I can't
really  give  you  any  details  yet.
Sanity  has  quite a lot of things in
stock,  I  believe.   Our new members
Moby  and  Ra  will  soon  show their
talents  in  a  new SNT demo, while I
have  worked  on  a  new funny dentro
together   with   Tron   and   HaVoK.
Moreover,  there  will  soon  be some
commercial  games from Sanity members
which  I  have  made  the musics for.
Last  but  hopefully  not  least  you
should  be  able to find some modules
from  me  in  non-Sanity  productions
over the next few months."

"Now  you  have  some space where you
can  write  greetings to your friends
etc."

"First  of all, it was really nice to
have  a chat with you.  Then I'd like
to  send  out  a  hearty hi to all my
friends  Chris,  Steve, Marc, Oliver,
Alex,  Peter,  Sergio,  Bjorn, Bobby,
Andy,  Filippo, Anders, Teijo, Borge,
Fred   and   everyone   else  I  have
forgotten.  Steve, I hope you'll have
a  fine time in Germany together with
everyone else in Sanity and of course
especially over at my place !  Chris,
un beso grande para la guapa !  Alex,
really  nice  graphics for the intro,
you're   one   of  the  scene's  best
designers.  That's all folks."

Thank you!