Inteview with Chromag
found in | Type | Author | Year |
Diskmagazine interviews | Gods Bifrost - Bridgeclaw - Chris - ... | a4/95 |
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!