Interview with Red Devil of Dual Crew

 by Judge Drokk for Stolen Data.

Drokk - 
Hello there! Who might you be?

Devil  -  
Hhmmmmm.. The   last  time  someone
uttered  words  at  me, they called me
Rob,  and  my errmmm...  HANDLE!..  is
Red  Devil!   Aged 18, 6 feet 4 inches
tall,    collar-length    hair,   very
handsome,  funny,  talkative,  Man Utd
supporter,  6 GCSEs, doing 3 A-levels,
IQ  of  54398735349459874.69,  fan  of
Iron   Maiden,  INXS,  Bangles,  Kiss,
WASP,  Mettalica,  Enya, U2, Skid Row,
Poison,  Seal,  Dogs  D'Amour etc etc.
Enjoys  the  scene, painting, Drawing,
eating,   playing  lots  of  football!
Very fit dude!

Drokk -
Well,  now  that  we  all know who you
are, maybe you might like to enlighten
us as to what you actually are and who
with?   I'm  sure thats what every one
out  there is just waiting to hear and
whether  they  are  or they arn't It's
what  I'm going to ask anyway, because
I'm   an   incredibly   bog   standard
question asker!

Devil  - 
Ohhh.  I wouldn't go that far
Drokky   babes-  very  good  question!
Right,  I'm  now  the  leader  and gfx
artist  in  Dual  Crew's  reformed  UK
division.     Its   good   being   the
organiser  because  I  get to speak to
and  co-ordinate  the talented actions
of  some  of  the  funniest  and  most
friendly  guys  on  the  scene.  (Just
thought  I'd  make that public!) Yeah,
honestly  I  thoroughly  enjoy  it.  I
also  do some mailtrading with friends
(Hi   Cone,   The  Pride,  Daryl+Rave,
Flash,  T-Bone,  Winger,  Adec, Flame,
Biscrok,   Survivor,  Coaxial,  Krest,
Pazza,   Bart,  Cheah,  Lynx,  Mystik,
Prophet,  Nightshade, Tomcat, Stratos,
Facet,  you!!)  and I have a 14400 HST
modem.  Well, Its not mine, but if you
wanna  know how I use it, haven't paid
for  it  and get my bills paid for me,
drop me a line!

Drokk - 
I  see!  But you weren't always in the
position  you  are now though, can you
tell  me  how  your  scene  life first
began  and  how you came to be in your
present position.

Devil - 
Ha   ha..   you  swine..   looks  like
everyone's  gonna  find  out  about my
seedy  past!!  Well, once upon a time,
in  a bedroom far away, there came me!
My  mate  Dave  (Isis of the old LADS-
anyone remember them?  Scooter and all
them  lot!?!?!)  gave  me  a  copy  of
Dpaint II.  I then hammered away at it
and  finally plucked up the courage to
ask  Manny  if  I  could  join  Pendle
Europa.  He was delighted and promptly
said  `yes!',  so I joined them.  Then
as  time  went  on we released lots of
well,  average things and I started to
get  a  little  disgruntled when I saw
the  quality  productions  of Kefrens,
Silents  and  cool cracks by the Band,
Bamiga/Quoram  (showing  my  scene age
now!) and the old Quartex.  I then got
an  offer  from my mate Jez who was in
the  UK  division  of the Silents.  Of
course  I  was  a  little naive in the
scene   and  I  thought  that  the  UK
division  of  them would be as good as
the  continental  guys-  HOW  WRONG  I
WAS!!  I was in for about 3 weeks, got
to   16th  in  the  Eurochart  without
releasing  ANYTHING!   (There  you are
Mystik- no wonder you were annoyed!!!)
and  Robotron  had  nicked  off with a
stack  of  my  disks  because he never
replied  to  any  of my letters.  Then
Warlord  (then  Mutant)  of Warfalcons
offered  me  a  place  which I grabbed
with both hands.  About a week after I
joined,  the  German  guys  split then
reformed  as the ill-fated Gold, which
left  all  us  English guys groupless.
After  a  while,  we  got together and
formed  a  UK  division  of Dual Crew,
made  up  of  Warlord, Jazzcat, D-Man,
Demon,  Sorcerer  and Neuromancer.  As
you  can  see,  theres  no  productive
coders  in there and so as a result we
made  NO  productions except some lame
packs.  Again I was annoyed with no of
my hard work getting used (at the time
the  Swedish  guys  weren't  using  it
either)   so   I   left   and   joined
Genestealers;  a  little known English
group  with not technically brilliant,
but  productive coders.  At last, some
of  my  GFX  were getting used!!  Then
Rogue  and  Warlord  left, leaving the
group  in tatters.  Between myself and
Stiga  we  collected  up  the  pieces,
dumped  the  shit  and formed Wizzcat.
You  all know about Wizzcat so I'm not
gonna  bore  you with info about them,
except  a little note to Darkie- Shame
you  guys  are  too  lazy,  because we
COULD  have  become  very  good!  Dual
Crew seemed to be churning out quite a
few  really  nice productions by then,
so  I  thought  I'd  ask Stookie if we
could  reform  a UK division.  Between
Yoghurt,  Polarbear  and  Stookie they
said  yes,  so there you have it!  The
scene-lifestory of Red Devil!!!

Drokk - 
Wow!,  and I thought I'd had fun!  Are
you  happier  with your current status
and  group  than you ever have been in
the  past,  or  is  there some time in
your past scene life that you wish you
could revisit, for whatever reason?

Devil - 
Good  question.  YES is the resounding
answer!   I'm  VERY happy with where I
am.   Dual  Crew  are a friendly, well
respected  group  that are EXCELLENTLY
organised.    As   members,   we   get
T-shirts,  an  internal mag, stickers,
disklabels,   repect,  everything  you
could  want  from  a group really!  In
answer  to  your  other  part  of  the
question,  ermmm..   I  only  have one
real  regret and that was leaving Dual
Crew in the first place!

Drokk-
You   openly  admitted  in  Dual  Crew
Messagebox one that you were medically
certified partially "Colour Blind", to
what  extent  does  this  effect  your
graphics,  and  is  there any truth in
the  story that you finished a picture
of  a  face, or something similar, and
asked a friend for his opinion of your
finished  work.   To  which he replied
"Apart  from  green  skin, orange hair
and blue lips...it's GREAT!"

Devil - 
Ho  ho,  yup its absolutely true about
me being colourblind, but to be honest
it   doesn't   affect   me   too  much
nowadays,  because  I  always  get  my
brother to check the colours of things
before  I  release  stuff,  and I also
'borrow'  a lot of palettes from other
artists to make sure that I don't have
`green  skin,  orange  hair  and  blue
lips!!'.   I've had no complaints yet,
but  the  problem  is, if you borrow a
palette,   you   also  often  tend  to
emulate the style too and this is very
bad.   Its a problem all artists face,
but  for  me  it  is  a  bad  problem.
Trying   to   come  up  with  original
material  is  very  difficult  and  as
anyone  thats  seen  any  of my latest
work  will  tell you, that I've tended
to  be  a  bit  more original and more
experimental;  hopefully  its been for
the better.

Drokk - 
As  an  artist,  do you find your self
being   inspired   by   the  styles of
any   other   scene   or   non   scene
artists(if  so  ..who?)  or do try and
make a  completely individual style of
your own?


Devil - 
Ha, just almost answered that with the
last  question,  but  yes,  I  do draw
inspiration  from  a  number  of scene
artists such as my good friends Facet,
Lomes  (He  he-  sorry  John,  bit  of
fun!),  Tomcat,  Krest  Couger, Mystik
and  Havok,  who  is STILL the best in
the  UK!  Outside of the scene, I love
some  Heronymous  Bosch  (dunno wether
Ive spelt that correctly), Carravaggio
and  Turner (contrasting styles eh!) I
also  LOVE the works of todays heroes-
Melvyn  Grant,  Tim  White  and Rodney
Matthews (all 'fantasy' artists)

Drokk - 
In  the  last  Stolen Data's Flashback
page  I wrote the line....  "Red Devil
of  Groupname  used  to be a member of
Pendle  Europa,  English  people  will
find this funny".  Well, I was given a
hard time for this but not by you, I'd
like  you  to tell me what you thought
about  this and and what your reaction
was  upon  reading  it.  Did it bother
you,  or  did it make you laugh?  Tell
me and the world.......

Devil - 
Ahhh- they were the good old days when
the  scene  was  young  and  built  on
friendship,   not   eliteness,  as  it
invariably  has  been  over  the  past
eighteen  months!   Good  to  see  the
scene is returning to the old days!
 No,  I  didn't  really  mind it being
made  public.   Not  at  all!  My only
regret is that you received some aggro
about  it;  there  is  no  need for it
really,  I  mean  what is the 'scene'?
Its  a  bunch  of  friends who compete
with  each other by creating.  That is
the  be-all-and-end-all  of  it!   Why
should I hide my past?  I am what I am
and  I've been in the groups that I've
been  in!   Simple  as that.  I'm glad
that  a  few  more  people  seem to be
getting  the  message that it is after
all  is  said  and done, a scene based
upon  a  hobby-  a  pastime-  a common
interest.


Drokk - 
Well, I'm not one of those people that
asks  your  top  ten  favourites in an
interview,  but I am one of those that
asks  if theres anything you'd like to
add  before  we end, if you realy want
to   tell   everybody   your  top  ten
favourites then do it NOW!

Devil - 
No,  I'm  not  going  to  give any top
tens,  but  I  would  like someone out
there  to pick up where Crusaders left
off  and  produce  a good scene chart-
its  something  for  all  us  creative
dudes  to strive for and if us English
guys  were  honest, we'd tell you that
the first thing that we all turn to in
Grapevine  was  the  chart, except for
swappers  who'd  obviously turn to the
adverts.  But now thats stopped too!!!
(By  the  way,  call  me  thick if you
will,  but  WHO votes in the SCX world
charts??   Does all the scene vote, or
is  it  just 'ELITES'?  If its all the
scene,  then  can  someone  send  me a
voting  form.  One last thing- a plug!
If  any GOOD gfx artists wanna contact
me,  or  if any GOOD UK coders want to
join  Dual  Crew,  or  anyone wants to
send  adverts,  messages or scene news
for  the  Dual  Crew  messagebox  then
write   to   me  at  47  Moxley  Road,
Darlaton,  West  Midlands,  WS10  7RE,
England.
 
Drokk - 
Well  it  was  certainly a pleasure to
meet  you  and  hopefuly  we'll  do it
again  sometime?  Maybe a "reversal of
roles"   in   the   next   Dual   Crew
Mesagebox?  (But thats another story!)
...Judge Drokk

Devil -
Yes, It was a pleasure to meet you too
matey.    Bye   for   now,   ...   Red
Devil/Dual Crew.

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