Inteview with Lizardking
found in | Type | Author | Year |
Diskmagazine interviews | Talent Boo - Cindy - D-orb - ... | a5/94 |
Lizardking/Razor and Colorbird/Razor at The Gathering'94 by El Loco/Talent Author's preface: Colorbird is the HQ of the rebuild Razor 1911, and he is also a coder and maineditor. Read our news- section to catch up with why he's been in some trouble when it comes to swapping. Lizardking should be known to most of you, he's the musician behind many good and popular modules through the last years. The two of them answered some questions regarding the rebirth of Razor 1911, and Lizardking does also give us information about his CD and demo-tape, along with some questions that revolves around his music. Well, Colorbird, you are one of the founders of the new Razor 1911, and we, the 42 staff, would like to ask you some questions regarding to the rebirth of Razor 1911. How come you wanted to rebuild Razor 1911, and have you ever been involved with the "old" Razor? Since I was the Swedish HQ in Razor 1911 during autumn 1992, I thought that I had some rights to the name... And I thought that the now so lame swedish scene needed a good group with a good name, and I figuered why not? If I claim that you chose to rebuild Razor in order to gain some quick popularity, and live on the old reputation of Razor 1911, would I be wrong? Well, its a good name..... So I'm right then? partly... yes... What does the 1911 stand for? The original reason should be the old 1911-line routine, a routine which Razor 1911 invented. We must also mention that a condom factory should have been started then in 1911 as well. (What about trying 1911 hexadecimally? -ed.) Have you ever been in touch with any of the old veterans who started Razor 1911 in 1985 on the Amiga, after the rebirth of the new Razor 1911? I'm here referring to persons like Dr.No, Lord Strangelove, Shine, and Sector 9. Do you think they approve of the rebirth? We think they would be happy when they see our productions... I (Lizardking) have spoken a lot with Mantronix/Phenomena (former Razor), and he thought it was nice that we rebuilt the group again. You guys change groups quite frequently, especially Colorbird who has been in groups like Razor, Noxious, Scoopex, Jetset, Circle, Alcatraz and now finally Razor again, and the same goes with you, Lizardking (Strange, Alcatraz, Silents and Razor 1911) Will this be the case with Razor as well, or have you now found "THE GROUP" as some people would refer to their dream team? YES! Because most of us are old friends since 1991-1992, and we have been in different groups and met each other at parties and talked on phone and exchanged letters (Lizardking once a year... Gustaf, skicka oftare!) so when we have now got the possibility to work together in a group we have NO reason to leave and which group should we join? Which group could offer a better situation?? Me (Lizardking) have been working together with Tony (Also current Razor) and we have always been in the same group for many years... The same is with Deelite (musician in sweden), we do now have better possibilities to work together... (I like "..."'s!) >> Continued next page << >> Continued from last page << Before we go on with this interview, I would like to congratulate you and the rest of the staff behind Propaganda with your recent success. Why is it so that you have been hitting it off so well, and do you think you will be able to maintain a steady course towards the top of the charts and start competing with R.A.W. and Upstream? Are we competing with Raw? NOWAY, we are perhaps among the top 10... But I (Colorbird) must really say thank to everybody for voting us to a 5th place in Eurochart (no.24), big thanks to the scene! I hope that you will continue to appreciate our work... Will there be any improvements in the next Propaganda, or perhaps you could reveal some other details concerning the magazine? Yes, we will have some sort of jumpicons like AmigaGuide, plus some sort of clip-routines, more cliparts and a MUCH more user friendly interface, multitasking, and a lot more articles. I can also add that we'll have an intro by Tsunami/VD and a titlepicture by Danny/Spaceballs... Ok, Lizardking, could you explain about your CD and Tape. There are two productions, first a CD called "Physiology" containing real studiorecorded music by Lizardking/Razor 1911 and D-Luxe/Equinox. And also a special Demotape with music from Lizardking/Razor 1911 and Mantronix/Phenomena... The CD has been REALLY delayed! We've had troubles concerning the price, and other things concerning the studio... The CD and the Tape should be out very soon, and I if you would like more information, you can write to this address: Lizardking/Razor 1911 Gustaf Grefberg Duvhoksvagen 25 85651 Sundsvall Sweden. Some people say you, Lizardking, tend to go on with your disco-pop, and never change style, thus the result of your tunes sounds very much alike. Do you agree with this statement? Well, if you had asked me this question a year ago I would have approved, but have you heard Memorial Songs? There is Jazz, Tango, Vocoder songs and more... I think that a musician should have his own style, but if you get my latest work, you will find some really odd tunes. Memorial Songs 2 will be VERY different, and it will contain music never heard before on a computer... e.g some caribian music, bossa nova, and more spacy vocoder music. And of course it will contain some "Lizardking-alike" music, too... So the answer to this question should be no, I don't agree and I think that the ones who claim this wouldn't if they heard all of my music... As always, the person who is at the top of many charts, finds himself in the line of fire and accusations by other musicians, yet he's adored by other scene-members. State your opion when it comes to Jester/Sanity: I think that Jester is a quite good musician, no doubt about that, but I find him overestimated... I have heard one REALLY good tune from Jester: "Cyberride"... He is badly treated by other musicians, I have experience about that. I have never been on 1st place (It must be terrible!) Tip/Mantronix was also VERY badly treated by other musicians... I'm not so sure if Jester should be on the 1st place, but many people like his commercial style... Jester do deserve a chart place in any case... >> Continued next page << >> Continued from last page << Okay, let's change the subject. If I said that the swedish scene is one of the worst ever, today, do you agree, even though you are swedes? The swedish scene has been LOUSY through 92-93, that's for sure! the only really good group from sweden was Phenomena, when they were active. If you saw (i guess you did) Enigma, Crystal Symphonies etc, you will agree, but that was in 91-92... I hope that Razor will give the swedish scene a better reputation (we're working on it/Lizardking...) There are also some talented coders in unknown swedish groups like C-Lous, Medicine that could be something in the future, at least we have some good swedish diskmagazines like Nordic Report, Oepir Risti, Buzz, Svensktoppen and Propaganda, just to mention some! Well, now we're about to get where I've been heading for a while, the war between you (Colorbird) and Zinkfloid/TRSI. Isn't such a verbal war silly and childish? Yeah, I totally agree with you, but PEACE have been settled so I do not want to say anything else, except that Zinkfloid and I are swapping long letters.... (How cute... ed.) Chaos/Sanity is known as a bigmouthed, hot-headed and arrogant coder as it goes, here's your chance to tell the scene your opinion on this notorious German boaster. Well, he is for sure one of the best coders ever, BUT how the hell could he be number one without releasing almost anything in the last years? He has just got his 1st place because of all interviews and that he has slagged off other people.... I do not claim to be better than Chaos, but, frankly, I think he is highly overrated! And how about Laxity, what do you think about his releases? He is good in DEMO-making, e.g linking and "design-coding"... He has a big advantage of being a good musician, so the impression of the demos are really great but when judging the class of code he is just "very good"... And if I mention the precalculator no.1, Lonestarr/Spb? Well, whats wrong with pre-calculating, a demo is not just code, it's the total impression. And making the precalculation also requires great coding abilities as well... And to precalculate 9-fingers could not be easy! To put it short, I admire him!!