In Focus: Wolfman & Mount!                                .magic.nah-kolor.

The  still  so  popular diskmagazine Upstream died after releasing it's 10th
issue.   Mount  and Wolfman, the two men behind it, left there legacy to the
9th RAW issue before they went up in smoke.  To air their thoughts about the
years  that  have  been,  RETRO  presents  an  exclusive  interview with the
'OldSkool' Danish writing duo.  Ashes to ashes, dust to dust..  Amen!

What was the main purpose in releasing a magazine only read by the scene?

"Fame and fortune" Wolfman says.  "Atleast it used to be like that; Later on
it  became  slightly  different.   I  had  gained the fame I wanted; Fortune
seemed  to  be harder to achieve.  I guess I saw it primarily as a hobby and
training for my future career back than."

"I  guess  the  situation  is quite similar to me" Mount says.  "It's hardly
money  or  attention,  because  in the real world those hundred kilobytes of
text  are  nothing  anyway.  It could hardly be fame either, because when we
were  beaten  by  a  magazine  never  released,  it  only makes you laugh at
yourself."

"Still  it  was  our goal to become the news-leaders of the scene, to inform
people  around"  Wolfman puts between.  "And Upstream was the link to all of
the good friends I have in the scene."

Perhaps a curiosity was another aspect?

"Yes,  of  course  it  was"  Mount  says  jealously.  "I found the so called
sceners  very interesting after all those years.  When I joined the scene, I
wondered  what the famous coders were like as persons, why they coded demos,
how  long  it  took for a graphician to make a picture and so on.  But now I
know  most  of  these answers, and I wanted to share this knowledge with the
scene.   And  like  Wolfman  said,  "I  had the personal benefit to get good
training in doing interviews, develope ideas and write."

Has the life as an editor changed during the last years?

"That  is  a  really hard question" Wolfman says hesitating.  "For me it was
different  from  what  it  was in the beginning, because Upstream became the
second  most  popular  diskmagazine,  and  that  alone  changed a lot.  I do
believe that the diskmag-scene has become more professional, and it's harder
to be an editor today."

Mop's  project  'ROM'  was  the  newcommer  of 1994, and it seemed that many
people saw this magazine as the new RAW.  What did you think?

"Those  people  probably  never got further than reading the logo.  Wouldn't
surprise  me  if  they  were word blind too" Mount says frustrated.  "ROM is
ROM,  RAW  was RAW.  Mop is on sunny Malta, Lord Helmet is 2 degrees away in
Norway  doeing nothing today, and Astro was only collecting articles, rather
than writing them."

"Mop  writes  long  articles,  close  to  essays.   Helmet  mostly  use  the
smash-bang-let's-get-this-finished articles you see in tabloid papers."

Wolfman agrees:

"I  don't think that ROM will ever be what RAW was.  ROM is far more serious
than  RAW has ever been.  The only aspect where I can spot RAW in ROM is the
design,  which  obviously  is  inspired  by  RAW.   Nothing wrong about that
though.  I really can't see any similarities, Mount insists.  Especially not
in  the attitude and respect for sceners, where ROM was miles away from Lord
Helmet's  and  Astro's  tricks.   Please note that I have nothing personally
against Lord Helmet or Astro, but RAW wasn't my style."

Which was the favourite diskmagazine then?

Mount hesitates:

"I like ROM's design and it's good mix of funny and serious articles, though
it's  too much of an one-man show by Mop.  I also was fond of The Charts hot
news articles and regular release that keep the finger on the scene pulse in
an  interesting  way.  Most other magazines don't have the quality that pays
back  the  big  amount  of  work put into them.  Too bad, really, because we
should  have  more  diskmag  fusions.   This  is impossible as most magazine
makers  still  do  it for their personal profiling and are afraid not to get
attention if they are in a bigger group of people."

"Don't  we  forget Abnormalia here" Wolfman says. "There's no question about
the fact that that was my personal favourite."

Where did you two go after the ninth RAW issue?

"Since  we could not make any more Upstream issues due to coder problems, we
gave  all articles we had so far to Astro, because he was actually asking us
for this day in day out.  We saw no harm in this, RAW was a good alternative
to Upstream anyway.  Unfortunately with this he thought we joined as regular
writers  and  included  us  and the other ex-Upstreamers into the RAW staff"
Mount  explains.   "And  talking  to  Astro  at  The  Party 5 we came to the
conclusion  that  we  didn't  have  the  time or motivation to write for RAW
anymore, so I was out of the picture"

Wolfman  agrees.  "I didn't even know I was in the RAW staff untill somebody
called me up on the phone and told me."

Were you inspired by any real magazines?

"Not  really"  Mount  says.  "Perhaps from news papers, then.  I read Danish
youth  and  music  magazines,  sometimes  Time Magazine.  The inspiration is
limited, though."

"I  wouldn't quite agree about that." Wolfman says.  "Newsweek International
is  my  definite  favourite.   It's  very professional, very worked through.
They have excellent reporters, brilliant photographers and manage to release
an issue each week, jampacked with interesting and actual news from all over
the world.  That is one magazine I would really like to work for."

Are  you  interested  in  real  journalism as well, and how does it manifest
itself?

"I  can hardly deny my interest since I was studying on the Danish School of
Journalism."  Mount  says  smilingly.   "Occasionally  I write for different
paper  magazines  about  rock  music  and  computers,  to  earn a bit extra.
Journalism  will  be  my future bread, no doubt, but the freedom in making a
high   quality   disk  magazine  such  as  Upstream  gave  me  pleasure  and
experience."

What does a correct language mean to you?

"It's   of  not  importance  when  it  is  a  cool  article"  Mount  laughs.
"Seriously, I think that people shouldn't make a mag if they are not able to
express  themselves  so that it is easily understood by the readers.  Nobody
has  to be masters of language, but I really dislike fighting my way through
a  badly  written article.  A couple of bugs will naturally appear once in a
while when you write a lot, like in real magazines."

"The  same  basically  goes for me" Wolfman agrees.  "I'd like to be able to
understand  what people mean when they write.  When it comes to gramma, like
to  find  that  somewhat  decent.  However, when it came to Upstream, I must
sadly admit that we don't manage to correct all mistakes there might be, but
I do believe that we after all treated the English language rather well."

What  is  the  most  important quantity or quality?  Is it more important to
release  the  new  issue  in  time  than to reach a certain level of quality
first?

"Basically quality is the most important" Wolfman says.  "I'd rather have 50
good  and journalistic worked through articles than boring and badly written
ones.   But  on the other hand, quantity can also play a role if you have to
cover   the  different  groups  of  readers  sufficiently.   Therefore  it's
important  that  the  quantity  of  articles  is enough to satisfy the most.
Quality and quantity is the most proper way, I suppose."

"I  agree"  Mount  continues.   "You  have  to publish a certain quantity of
quality  to  create  a  good  magazine.   Therefore, you can see the typical
quality-strategy  in  many  diskmagazines:  A couple of good articles, and a
lot of so called 'fillers' to make the mag look good too."

What  did  the future in the scene looked like for you?  Was there one? From
where did you get your inspiration to carry on?

"Like  many  other  'aged' sceners I often asked myself this question" Mount
says.   "The sceners as real friends are a good reason to carry on.  But not
enough.   I  could sell my Amiga and still know them.  The vital fuel for me
to  keep  on  was  simply the projects that I am involved in.  It could be a
diskmag like Upstream or doing graphics or design for a demo.  Without these
things, the scene life would soon become pointless."

"The  scene  friends seem to be very important for many to carry on" Wolfman
puts  between.  "The same partly goes for me too.  When my friends that I've
made during the scene years left, I had to go with them."

"As  I'm now 25 years old." Mount continues, "I sometimes seriously feel too
old when I see 'kids' who can sit hours daily and paint.  I neither have the
time  or feel the urge for that.  But when some new projects kept coming up,
that  was  my  future.  Making ideas and dreams come true is a wonderful and
harmless drug.  Sometimes I doubt that the scene will ever die."

Is the PC-scene tempting?

"It has been on occasions.  I certainly wouldn't mind having a PC I'd really
like  to  play Doom and some of those complex flightsimulators.  But when it
comes to the scene, I really don't know" Wolfman says.

Mount:
"The  PC  scene  still  has no soul, only fast processors.  Just look at the
best  three  productions  from  e.g.   the Party IV - they were all made and
designed  by  Amiga people.  Though it is improving, it's still years behind
Amiga."

What do you think about the recent evolution in the scene? Positive? Negative?

"I  actually  think  that  the  scene is making some kind of progress.  Even
though  people  are  leaving, new talents still see the light.  It's hard to
deny that a lot of new productions have been released.  Some people complain
about  the  fact that people only release demos at parties, but with as much
as perhaps 10 big parties a year, that shouldn't be a problem.  Besides from
party releases it is clearly visible that lots of things are being released.
The scene is not dead, despite the melancholic schmugs may think so" Wolfman
says irritated.

"I think that the evolution has been both positive and negative" Mount says.
"The  activity  is  still  high, and I don't think that you have to work for
years  on  a  great  production.   Some of the stars may fade away, but like
Wolfman  says, new ones will step out from the shadows.  However, the active
scene  is  divided  in the small part of original developers, who like Melon
dared  making  experiments,  and  the  majority  who just follow the stream,
unfortunately  downwards, and think that they're cool if they can remake the
newest  routines  from  The  Black  Lotus.   The scene is in serious lack of
coders who can develop new kinds of routines."

What has the scene given you?

"It  has  given  me a chance to use my creativity and try a lot of my ideas"
Mount   says.   "which  I  believe  would  have  been  impossible  in  other
environments.  The only thing you lose by making a flop-demo is the time you
have spent on it.  Too bad that most people keep on doing the same things as
all  the  others.   The scene is a tough school but if you survive and reach
the  top,  you've  learned  a  lot  about  getting success and reaching your
audience.  Some see the scene as hard when they have to do this and that.  I
think it's a great playground.  Some sceners might spend a lot of their time
in front of their computers, but programming, drawing and composing is a lot
more intelligent than watching TV and video, isn't it?"

Have you made any friends that will remain when you quit the scene?

"I  hope  so" Mount continues.  "But it's still hard to say.  No, actually I
have  had  a lot of good 'friends' that seemed like nothing when the subject
was  turned  away from computers.  Still I have had the chance to meet a lot
of interesting people"

Wolfman:
"I  especially  see  the international connections as a gift, since I get to
use  my  English  a  lot.   Today  I'm beginning to find out who are my real
friends, and I have to tell you that they are not as many as I expected them
to  be.  However, they are extremely important.  It's very risky to put your
whole identity on some microchips, plastic, pixels and bytes."

Here  RETRO  leaves  the  Danish  writers  duo with there way upwards in the
Danish  society...   We  can  maybe  expect  some articles by Wolfman in the
Eurocharts,  Curt  Cool  of  Depth  whispered  into  our  ears.  Upstream, a
magazine  that  left it's legacy to the (diskmag) scene today, brought to us
by Wolfman and Mount...  Have a nice and glamoures life guys...