Inteview with Chromag

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 AN INTERVIEW WITH

 CHROMAG OF REBELS

 AND POLKA BROTHERS

 BY PANTERA OF GODS.



      * Pantera      * Chromag


 Like the  headline  says, an interview
 with  the  skillfull  composer Timm or
 better known as Chromag.Lately we have
 heard rather many tunes by you  ..Like
 the one in the  Rebels demo Switchback
 which  is by the way very good, and in
 several  packs/mags. You  seem  to  be
 quite active these days. yes,Well..why
 don't  we  begin with the  introducing
 part as  always. The usual stuff like:
 name,age,length, simply your looks..

 Hello, I'm Timm, a 20 years old german
 who has  been in the scene for far too
 long.  I'm  known  for  doing   boring
 diskmag   tunes  and   writing   silly
 answers.. My handle, Chromag, has been
 stolen  from  a  group I  used  to buy
 demos from when I got my first A500 in
 1987. This is  by  the way a  hint for
 those who still didn't get the "Secret
 Stars"-quiz in last issue's The Charts
 ..I've finished upper secondary school
 last  summer and  I'm just doing civil
 service  at a  kindergarten which is a
 great job.  You  play  all day and get
 twice  as  much  money as  the  common
 soldier..That's not the only advantage
 of  doing  civil  service  instead  of
 crawling around in the dirt,I can tell
 you.

 When did  you  discover  the so called
 scene and which are your former groups
 and handles..

 I discovered the scene in 1989, when I
 was  a  swapper  of the group  Ecstasy
 (the lame one, not the one HaVok was a
 part of, of course!). As  I had played
 the piano for more than 8 years at the
 music  academy, there had never been a
 doubt what I intended to become in the
 scene: a musician. My previous handles
 have been Animalogic (hoho!)and Cromag
 (without the -h-,  you know, like  the
 Cro-MagNon  Tapes... ). I've  been  in
 quite a few groups,  such  as Ecstasy,
 Megaforce, Exult, End of Century 1999,
 Proton  Ltd., Cult,  Addonic,  Platin, 
 Dual Crew,  Essence, Dual Crew-Shining
 and Lego. 

 From  where  do  you get  inspiration?
 And  what  is  your  favourite style..

 I  always get inspiration from my cds,
 as well as from other amiga musicians.
 I think I'm  known for making  ballads
 and  diskmag  music,  but I've  lately
 turned  into a  demomusician  as well.
 Right now I'm working on the music for
 two  Rebels demos, basicly  techno and
 all that. Not  that 2Unlimited crap of
 course.. My favourite style is Dizzy's
 along   with   his    other    finnish
 groupmates, their  music  is the  most
 original.

 There  are a lot of good  musicians in
 the  scene and  what we  would like to
 know is your own favourites.. and tell
 us why they are so good...

 Dizzy  is so good because  of his very
 recognizable  themes  and  variations.
 Along with Heatbeat, he's probably the
 most  original and  musical  person in
 the scene.Groo is the one who does the
 most powerful  tunes, there's no doubt
 that he's underrated. Jogeir is  doing
 music  that  differs quite  a lot from
 the  above mentioned musicians but his
 melodies are so beautiful,nice to just
 sit down and relax. I also like
 Strobo's tunes,  as well as Soul's and
 the stuff Ukulele is doing.

 How much time do you spend in front of
 your  dear computer  each day? And how
 does an  ordinary  day  look  like for
 you? From the hour you wake up...

 A day when I do my job as a
 kindergarten cop goes like this.I wake
 up at 6:30 am and take my daily shower
 and  then  I  read  the  papers, drink
 coffee  and  go to work at 7:30. After
 the work is done at 2:50 p.m. I take a
 lot  of time to relax, listen to music
 etc. I mostly  switch on  the computer
 at  early  evening to listen  to other
 tunes   or  finish   my   hundreds  of
 unfinished tunes. At the later evening
 I meet my old school-mates  to visit a
 bar  to  play billiard  and have  some
 drinks,that's not every day,of course,
 many  days are boring like  hell. When
 you have a job, everyday  seems  to be
 the same, which is a bit sad but still
 there are the weekends  with all their
 sessions and parties...
 I  can't deny that I'm addicted to the
 scene, I switch  on  my computer every
 day,mostly to compose music,of course.

 Have any  bigger plans for the future?
 Your  general  life  and  the  scene..

 I'm  planning to study in Oldenburg or
 Cologne in 1996, after which I hope to
 get  a job as  a teacher  for mentally
 handicapped children.  I really  enjoy
 social   work  so   I  guess  it's  my
 profession... I  won't stop  composing
 though  as I still love the scene with
 all the diskmags, parties,friends etc.
 The scene is  probably  the  best (and
 most time and money consuming) hobbies
 one  might  get,  you   see  different
 countries  and  places  none  of  your
 other   friends  might  ever  get  the
 chance to see.

 Is this guy good hearted or what? heh.
 What  do you  do  on your  spare time?
 Happen  to  have  any  other  hobbies?

 My biggest hobby is the  music. I like
 every kind  of  music, while  I go  to
 Raves, I also like  Alternative music,
 Grunge etc... My  weekends  are mainly
 filled  with  meeting  people to booze
 and party,like everyone else in my age
 does.  Most  of my friends  don't know
 anything about someone  called Chromag
 and I think this is okay. Back to your
 question, I  spend  a lot  of time  in
 front of my TV and computer, I love to
 listen to music and spend a lot on Cds
 ,I  play  Volleyball  with  the  girls
 working at the  kindergarten. I'm also
 playing the keyboards in a local band.
 The best thing  that can happen to you
 is  playing  to an  ecstatic audience,
 they  clap like hell even  if you play
 like a lame school-band...

 You have been in the scene for a quite
 a long time. What do you  think of the
 scenes  development through the years?
 in   what   way   has   it    changed?

 I  like the scene the  way it is  now-
 adays, I'm  happy in my  group and I'm
 very  happy about the  fact that there
 are people liking my music. It's  just
 a  great thing  to  see  that  you get
 feedback for  the  work you  have been
 doing  for so long now. There could be
 a  few more  parties  and  demos,  but
 todays   demos  have  reached  such  a
 professional   qualitiy   that    it's
 impossible  to release  a lot  of good
 demos in short periods.


 Do  you  have to  compose a lot  since
 you are in 2 groups at  the same time?
 What's  the  reason  for  joining  two
 groups?

 I don't  HAVE  to compose if  I  don't
 feel like  it. As I said, I love to do
 music so there's  no  problem  at all.
 About groups  though, I  don't  really
 care about  them  nowadays.  If people
 want to use my  music  I'm  more  than
 glad if they  do so. I'd  never  leave
 Polka, because it's more like a family
 than a group. So I'm actually a member
 of  PB and do music for my  friends in
 Rebels. Loads of things have been said
 concerning  my  membership  of various
 groups  anyway, as  I  said, I'm happy
 with my current situation and it won't
 be changed.

 What kind of atmosphere do you have in
 Rebels  and  Polka? Do all of you know
 eachother?

 I don't  really know  how  to describe
 the  atmosphere, I know Mount since we
 were groupmates in Cult, the same goes
 to Easley, shortly afterwards I got to
 know Airwalk, Gargoyle and the others.
 Exciter is probably  one  of  my  best
 friends in the scene, since we  travel
 to  parties and have fun all the time.

 What's  up  in  Polka?.. Should  we be
 expecting a bigger  prod from  you for
 the party 4? You can skip rebels plans
 since  they  are  mentioned in another
 interview... Do as you like...

 There'll  be a big  4 disks-demo coded
 by Gargoyle,and a brilliant soundtrack
 by Slide. You  never know what's going 
 on  in   the   PolkAppartment,   maybe
 something from Airwalk or Laxity?

 Now to your favourites..

 Musician: Dizzy, Heatbeat, Groo,Jogeir
 Graphician: Sol/Complex
 Swapper: Exciter and me
 Coder: Zulu & Grey
 Group: CnCd
 Demo: Virtual Dreams - Love
 Editor: Mount
 DiskMag: Upstream, The Charts
 MusicDisk: Book of Songs
 Slideshow: Seven Seas
 Woman: baywatch (...)
 Guy: (Err...) my mates
 Movie: Life of Brian, True Lies
 Food: chinese, spacecakes
 Drink: coffee, beer, jim beam.
 RealMusic: grunge, rave, crossover,
     alternative, indie-rock/pop etc...


 Like  you  know you  have been  ranked
 high in  numerous  charts, how  do you
 take it?  Remember  when you saw  your
 name on the charts for the first time?

 It's  something  that  I'll   remember
 forever, I guess. I first saw my  name
 in The Charts,according to Chromagic's
 giant  success  (thanks  for  all  who
 voted!). I really jumped up in the air
 when I saw my name ranked there, I can
 tell you. It's a  great  feeling to be
 in  the  charts and  it  inspires  and
 motivates  you to  improve your  music
 and just keep up your work.

 Many  musicians  are  also  into  real
 music, how  are things for you? Should
 we  be expecting  a demo tape from you
 or something?

 I'm playing in a real band,mainly rock
 and heavy  metal music but  we haven't
 played anything composed by ourselves,
 we  just play  the  music  we like and
 have  fun.  We've  had  some  gigs  at
 parties which  is really  cool because
 most  of the attenders are too drunken
 to notice our real  qualities (because
 there  are no qualities  we  have...).
 And  NO,  there  won't be  a demotape, 
 either.Honestly,most of the stuff that
 Amiga artists have done is crap, noone
 outside  the scene would ever  buy it.

 This  is  quite boring  but let's  see 
 your reactions! I'll  say  one word at
 a time, say the first thing that comes
 in your mind...

 Mags: Entertainment&Information
 Parrot: heh?
 Piss: (Yuck!) 45 seconds
 Future: Chromagic II-XX
 FreshPrince: RTL 
 MO-DO: (sux!): pure crap but somehow
               successful anyway...
 Ja,Ja,Jaa. : Was ist los, was ist das?
 Soccer: Borussia Moenchengladach!!
         Berti Vogts sucks!
 Schwing: bad jokes... NOT!
 Sadness: ex-girlfriends
 Heineken: Hollands best beer I think?
 Brothers: Polka
 Hatred: Love
 Tori Wells: Tori Amos
 Klinsman: should leave England for
           Borussia Moenchengladbach
 Whigfield: dee dee da da daaa?


(This has been a particularly stupid
 game... -Cmg)


 Wasn't that  something? hmm.. I  guess  
 we have  reached the  end.. Thanks for 
 the  interview and good  luck  in  the
 future  and  keep  on  composing those 
 lovely modules. Now you may write some
 greets or something.. 

 Thanks for your interest in me,Pantera
 ! ( Pantera kicks butt, huh, huh, hmm,
 huh-huh!). Feel free to contact me at:
 Timm Albers - Sauerlandstr. 49 - 48527
 Nordhorn -  Germany  -  But  please no 
 swapping offers,only write in case you
 need some  music, ok? Sorry to all who
 still  wait  for  an  answer, or  have
 already given up to get one.Work takes
 too  much  time already and I unfortu-
 nately can't reply every letter I get,
 I hope you understand... Contact Zinko
 for swapping!