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Inteview with Laxity
| found in | Type | Author | Year |
  | Diskmagazine |     Alcatraz4t Thieves - Archmage - Arrow - ... | a2/94 added 2/95 |
{ MEGA INTERVIEW OF THE ISSUE }
___________________
_LAXITY_OF_KEFRENS_
___________________
Mop / Alcatraz
Laxity is surely one of the most
popular scene personalities at the
moment. No one can neglect his great
talent, both as a capable coder and
also as an astounding musician. He
made all our dreams come true with his
Desert Dream, and astounded everyone
at the Hurricane party with Guardian
Dragon 2. Laxity needs no particular
introductions, still many sceners
might be interested to know something
more about this Danish hero. Mop made
a quick trip to Haslev, Denmark, home
town of Laxity, so get ready for a
long investigation into the secret
life of the most talented all-round
man, the scene has ever seen...
- You are most known, both for your
excellent coding abilities, and for
your melodious acoustics. How do
you manage to combine all of these
talents and divide your available
time?
Well, through my life, I have always
been told to use my creativity to its
full extent, and always seek new
possible ways of expressing my state
of mind. I believe our gifts do not
come from above; if we are lucky, we
experience the fascinating world of
creativity in an early stage of life.
I know I have, and I think that is the
answer to your question. I just want
to experience every way of being
creative, so beware, the day will come
when I will start releasing hard
graphics!
- Do you think that you dedicate more
time in developing your code or do
you prefer to spend more hours of
happy protracking?
Actually, I cannot tell. Though,
right now, I am 95% protracking and 5%
coding. But do not think that this is
a static effect; I have BIG signs of
biorhythms; I can code for several
weeks, then suddenly I won't look at
anything but Protracker! No, it is
impossible to tell certainly, but to
take a wild guess, I would say that I
am mostly making music, though 90% is
just experimenting!
- If at one time in the future, you
would be pushed, because of time
problems, to choose from stopping
coding or stopping making music,
which one would you prefer to leave
behind, without having any regrets?
Or isn't this possible for you?
I would say that it is totally
unimaginable for me. However, if I
actually should be directly FORCED to
quit something, I would stop coding.
Coding is no fun; just pain! No, of
course not, but it is just that I
could never neglect my musicality; it
is a too much big part of me.
- Let us now forget Laxity THE
musician for the moment. Can you
maybe try to remember why did you
decide to start coding, in the first
place, and did you have any
experienced coder, willing to help
you out?
Actually, I cannot remember why in the
world I wanted to become a coder. I
think that I have always been very
curious to figure out complex systems
and to find out, how impressing
tricks, in general, are made. When I
was a little boy and watched magicians
and artists, I wanted to know how they
did their tricks. Whenever I saw
something imposing to me, I would do
anything to know how it was done.
Then, when I got my first computer,
needless to say, I started coding
immediately. I saw the games and the
crack intros, and I wanted to be able
to create something by myself. But it
was only a good deal of time after I
got my Amiga 500 that I got in contact
with an experienced coder. Up until
then, I had learned everything I knew,
through magazines and books. But then
one day, I met this great coder, who I
do not think was at all appreciated as
much as he should have been. His name
was Tron, and at that time he was a
coder in a small Danish group called
Anubis. He was fantastic at figuring
out how other coders made impressing
routines, so I guess you could say
that I looked up to him quite a lot.
Later, he joined Scoopex, then Dexion,
and when they died he left the scene.
A great talent had left us, but I
think that he had just got tired of
coding. I learned a lot from him, and
I am still very thankful to him for
being such a very great friend when I
was nobody. Thank you Thomas!
- Most budding coders are always
moaning about the fact that no
experienced coder wants to help them
out. Don't you think that this is
unfair, or do you believe that the
best way to learn is still the hard
one?
As I said before, I learned a lot from
a great friend, but I think it depends
very much on the type of person you
are. You can learn a lot of basic
coding tricks from others, but you can
NEVER learn to hard-code from others.
It is something that comes from your
own initiative. You must have a big
desire to become famous and
appreciated, and above all, you have
got to be willing to spend at least
70% of your spare time with an
assembler!
- You surely are being asked all the
time, some little coding hints and
tricks. Have you ever neglected
your help to someone?
I was really afraid that you were
going to ask me that. I am so sorry,
to all those newcomers out there who
wrote to me and never received any
answer. I must say that I am sorry,
but if you want to share knowledge
with me, you have got to do better
than just send a disk and ask for
sources. That is NOT the way to
become a coder! About sharing
knowledge, I might add that I and
Vention have been working very closely
when coding, and we have sort of
inspired each other and both learned a
lot from our cooperation. Without
Martin (Vention), I could never have
been what I am today.
- How much is it important for a coder
to always come up with new and
innovative routines and ideas?
Innovative routines are not very
important. Some coders think that all
routines in a demo should be
innovative and totally uninspired.
But, let us face the fact, that it is
never possible anyway, so why bother?
Instead, you should spend all your
time making routines that generate
images that look as great as possible.
Of course, it is always nice to be
able to say that you have figured out
how to make a 256 colour full screen
vector running in every frame. But
why dedicate all of your time to
making this fantastic routine, if the
result will look ugly? Almost all of
my routines start by some vision, I
have had, and then, if I am lucky, I
am able to make it a record,
simultaneously.
- Chaos of Sanity is telling us all
the time, that the good coder can
only be judged from the complexity
and originality of his routines? Do
you agree with all this, and how
important do you think that
demo-designing should be for the
coder?
Oh, Chaos... You have a wonderful way
of expressing yourself. So narrowly
and one directioned. What you claim
here is like telling to a teacher to
judge an essay only from the spelling.
It is probably the most narrow minded
way of seeing the scene, for years.
Do not be offended, I just hope that
you will consider judging coders for
other reasons either than speed.
After all, you have been working on
"Broken Promises" for about 50 years,
haven't you? As I hinted above, the
main goal for a number one coder is to
make his routines worth THE perfect
demo, and that is achieved by
designing the demo yourself, as a
coder! Everything should have
relevance to the entire demo; else the
work is lost.
- You have worked on the design of
Guardian Dragon 1 and 2 and also on
that for Desert Dream. Don't you
think that the designing job should
be left for the graphician, or do
you believe that no-one better than
the coder can give an appropriate
visual form to his creation?
Again, that depends on your
personality. If you are very
team-spirited and you are able to work
at the best together with a
graphician, then just do it! The
problem with little Laxity is that he
has a vision which he wants to
realize, and only Laxity knows how
this is done. So, unfortunately I do
not draw on the computer (though I
have considered to start as a
graphician, too!), so I tell R.W.O.
or one of the other great graphicians
we have in Kefrens, exactly what I
want, and then, if I am lucky, he
produces something really good. But I
am a hard critic, and if I do not like
it, I draw it by myself! Actually, if
you should judge the graphics in
Desert Dream from quantity, I made
about 80% of it. But, since R.W.O.
drew the alien and the rotating wolf,
he is the winner in quality AND amount
of work.
- You live in the same town as R.W.O.
who was responsible for a great part
of the graphics in your demos. Do
you think that having a graphician
handy all the time, is of vital
importance, especially when working
on big projects like Guardian Dragon
2 or Desert Dream?
Well, if you (as for instance
Vention!) end up with a bunch of
random, chaotic pixels every time you
touch the mouse in DELUXE PAINT, you
need a graphician to deliver all the
graphics for your productions. This
is, I think, not the case for me, so
therefore, I only ask R.W.O. to draw
big pictures or detailed fonts in many
colours, and things like that.
Unfortunately, I do not communicate
all that well with R.W.O, so it is
only for big productions that I ask
him to participate actively in the
demo. It is nothing personal, you
know; It's just that we are just two
unlike types with different attitudes.
article continues...
...continued from previous article
- Sceners always seem to turn out to
the most popular charts, to decide
who is the BEST, in our case, coder.
Do you think that this is fair
towards the whole coder community,
and do you believe that the average
scener can really judge how good a
certain coder is, without being an
actual coder himself? After all,
coding, unlike graphics or music, is
an invisible effect which cannot be
judged by simply seeing or
listening.
I do not agree with you that coding is
not visible. Coding is the main
factor that scales a production's
quality from FANTASTIC to SUCKS LIKE
MY 12 YEAR OLD BITCH. I think that
charts should never be seen as a
quality determination. Charts are the
opinions of all sceners, and they only
tell how popular people or productions
are, and in my case, because of the
work I have done. I know that the
fact that I am a member of Kefrens
improves my status a lot, but after
all, I have a lot of credit for the
popularity of Kefrens, though we would
never have been as popular if it were
not for the ones like Vention, S.L.L.
or R.W.O.
- Still on the subject of charts, many
have suggested that only coders
should vote for coders, thus making
charts more reliable, but do you
think that this is fair? More than
often, coders don't express
themselves in an unbiased way.
That depends on the type of chart.
You see, most charts have, due to
unsatisfied readers, been forced to
entitle the charts as "Most popular"
or whatever. That is good to me, but
if this is the title, then every one
should have a chance for voting.
However, if the title was "Best Fuck",
then only the ones, who knew how to
fuck, should be able to vote, if you
get my point!
- What do you think is the main
determinative fact that pushes a
coder to decide if his next
production will be a single-file
demo or a trackmo? Some have
suggested that some coders released
a single-file demo, just because by
doing so, their work would have
stood more possibility to stand
higher in every chart. Do you think
that this last statement can
somewhat sound credible?
Of course it is a fact that the
decision results in the ranking in two
different charts. And that is too
bad, I think. So to all chart-makers
out there: Why not create a new chart
entitled: "Most popular production".
This way, you could see both file
demos and trackmos ranked separately,
and you could also rank the production
in relation to other trackmos, file
demos, intros, dentros, mentros...
Anyway, I do not know how other coders
decide whether they should make a
trackmo or a file demo, but I know
that I will probably never again
create a trackmo, since compatibility
is decreased rather much in a trackmo,
and since I am a hard disk owner now,
I want to be able to store the demo on
my hard disk and load it at warp
speed!
- Coders have always been moaning
about the limitations of the A500,
which until some months ago was seen
as the "Scene machine" simply
because of the large number of
sceners that owned this particular
model. One year ago, Commodore
released the A1200, which was an
immediate success, and everyone
agrees that this machine, together
with the A4000 has nowadays become a
standard. In your opinion, what
particular demo-effects are now
possible to achieve just because of
the higher specifications of the AGA
machines, and which were only a
dream until some time ago?
Naturally, everything which contains
more than 32 colours or 32 + 32 half
bright colours will now be possible.
Also resolutions of 1280 * 512 pixels
are now possible, though I doubt it
will be used very often. The fact is,
I am afraid to say, that the A1200 is
not very much faster than A500, once
the instruction cache is disabled.
This is probably because of the not so
clever memory arranging in the AGA
systems, which makes the A1200 seem as
something that was released before it
was tested properly. But if the cache
is used properly, you will achieve
processor speed that is impossible to
imagine if you only have an A500,
especially if you have some 32-bit
fast memory installed, and together
with the new graphics features this is
all the reason for trashing your old
A500 and buying this, after all,
wonderful machine.
- We have heard that now, because of
the large user base of A1200 owners,
most productions will boast 256
coloured pictures, and longer music
with larger samples. Don't you
think that all this will impose new
limits to the poor coder? After
all, an unexpanded A1200 just has
2Mb of memory.
It is of course sad that the A1200
does not offer more than 2Mb of chip
memory. One could easily require at
least 4Mb with all the new features,
especially when the operating system
takes over 512Kb of lower chip memory!
But if you trash the system in the
start of your program, you will have
full access to the 2Mb chip memory,
and, believe me, unless running an
animation of 1280 * 512 * 8
resolution, you will have plenty of
memory for the first thousand kind of
routines.
- How can a coder possibly feel,
without any specific Hardware
reference manual for the AGA
chipset?
I don't know! 2 weeks after I bought
my A1200, I had a complete AGA
Hardware reference manual, so I simply
do not know, what you are talking
about! Still, I would not like it
without my references, but you could
always find Deluxe Paint 4's copper in
memory, and then see how it uses all
the colours and resolutions!
- The A1200 is now more than 1 year
old. Do you think that in all this
time, most coders have already
discovered all the secrets of the
AGA chipset? Can you recall any AGA
production which you found
especially astounding?
Not one! Yet I am determined to
produce a demo in the next year, 1994,
which uses AGA to its full extent;
nothing less, nothing more! Besides,
who knew, when the A500 was released,
what kind of demos we were able to
produce, a few years later?!
- You told us, in the end scroller of
Desert Dream, that your next
productions will work exclusively on
AGA machines. Don't you think that
by doing this you will automatically
cut out a small part of the scene,
or better, those who haven't still
farewelled their A500's?
Yes, and I am proud of it! Because if
they have not got the money for even
purchasing an A1200 without a hard
drive (in Denmark they cost about 3000
KR today), then it's just too bad! I
mean, when I quit the C64 scene, I
also cut out the C64 owners from
seeing Desert Dream, didn't I? So do
you still think that I should have
made Desert Dream compatible with the
C64?!
- Compatibility has always been the
main coders' nightmare, now
especially because of the great
number of A1200 owners. Is it fair
to accuse coders, just because a
particular production does not work
on an AGA machine, taking into
consideration that the poor coder
had never had the possibility to get
hold of one before? Does Laxity
also fear compatibility?
Oh, yes, surely! But then, no,
actually not. I mean, can it be my
problem if a certain part of the scene
cannot see my production, because they
are too lazy to walk 500 metres to the
A1200 owner nearby? Of course, I will
try my best to produce a system which
will accept any Amiga, but if some
A6000 or so slipped the routine, then
I do not care!
- Ripping is a very ugly word to use
nowadays, but still, it always seems
to sneak in every coder's small
talk. Do you think that nowadays
the resourcer has become an
indispensable tool, just like the
assembler?
Yes, of course. I mean, why code a
half-speedy line routine all by
yourself, if you, by peeking in
another coder's source, can see how he
sets 3 billion lines per frame?
Always choose the easiest solution, I
would say, though I think you gain
nothing from just resourcing a
complete routine and then inserting it
in your own source. You learn much
more by resourcing a bit and then
re-coding the routine; perhaps you
could even improve it, so you can set
3 billion + 1 lines per frame!
article continues...
...continued from previous article
- At this point, we would all like to
hear your personal opinion, on some
of your fellow coders. It would be
a real pleasure if you could
possibly detail their coding style,
innovative ideas, and how well their
code is implemented.
Chaos of Sanity is a quality coder,
not very productive, but still very
good. His opinions, I will not
comment here, but his productions are
certainly worth while, especially the
WOC 1993 demo, which for the first
time contained some nice colours!
Very innovative and fast routines!
Mr. Pet of Sanity has many good
ideas, but not very efficient when it
comes to speed. He has a good way of
solving problems, but he does not
optimize his code well enough.
Hannibal is A VERY good coder. He has
all the efficiency that Mr. Pet
lacks. Fast routines, good quality,
though he has never made a routine
that fully knocked me down off my
chair, as Chaos has. One word for
you, H-animal: Design your ideas a
bit more, they could be much nicer if
you looked twice at the screen when
coding them!
Dan is the cutest coder. Good ideas,
funny and original design, but never
that innovative. Average style.
Vention of Kefrens... Yes, I think I
recall him... Wasn't he a member of
Cycron?! Stop beating me! Well, he
has many nice ideas and a lot of will
to code good routines, and sometimes,
he even succeeds! Though, he lacks
optimizing a bit, many details he just
ignores, resulting in a routine which
could have been a lot cooler. VERY
nice colours and design, though he
ALWAYS releases things TOO SOON! Look
at D.A.N.E. for instance... right?
I remember some French coder
who did a goodbye intro for Silents,
and there was also something about a
Dragonball, which has never been
copied since! Well, Performer of
Melon has many good ideas and a good
way of constructing his assembly.
Nice design, good colours, but perhaps
a bit too French. I like your X-rated
movies, though!
BannaSoft of Melon. Now HE IS WEIRD!
Peeled banana split with ice cubes to
go. Though he does NOT control
contest arranging AT ALL, he has many
good ideas and a rather nice style.
S.O.S. stinks, but I liked the Tetris
intro VERY much. His mirror ball
rules!
Dr. Jekyll of Andromeda is a really
good coder, efficient, not all that
innovative, but... One thing: HIS
DESIGN IS TOO NICE AND I HATE MIND
RIOT! Okay, the 5 bit planes glenz is
indeed very nice!
Mr. Hyde of Andromeda. Well, well...
I guess, it's hard to say, he has
cooperated so much with Dr. Jekyll
that I rather see them as one, but I
guess that is quite good according to
their names! I guess he is quite
good.
The Spy of Crionics. Now, he's my
man! Many very good ideas, though a
strange way of coding them, but it
almost always works. However, if it
weren't for Mikael Balle, Hardwired
would have never entered the
Eurochart.
Hornet of Alcatraz? Horny of
Alcraschmudts? Cannot remember him!
Did he code Odyssey?
- Do you think that there are some
especially talented coders which we
involuntarily forgot to mention, and
which you especially like?
Nah...
- Most of the times, it is not very
difficult to judge a demo by its
graphics and music. After all,
graphics can be seen and music can
be heard, so the average scener can
tell if something is really good or
bad. But unfortunately, code is
something invisible, and so it is
very difficult to derive how simple
or complex it is without knowing the
limits of this machine, so listening
to a coder's point of view on this
subject is always enlightening.
Could we have your opinion, on the
following productions, all of which
were released in 1993, before the
Party 3.
Extension by Pygmy Projects has good
ideas, but the worst design since
Elysium by Sanity!
At first, I thought that the
Romantic demo by Melon! was a hate
demo, but in the end, it was just
another poor Melon Design. However,
the guitar music is VERY nice and VERY
innovative! So, credits to you,
Bannasoft!
Rink a Pink by Lemon. is a another
Lemon. production!
Mobile by SpaceBalls! HAAARH HAARH
HARH! Please, stop before I laugh my
guts out! Von mand, von rroutin! Has
he got ANY other routines?
Interference by Sanity is my clear
favourite file demo up to date! Very
cool, nice coding, good ideas and good
design. THOUGH THE SECRET PART
STINKS!
Mind Riot? AAAAAARRRRRRRRHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Puke!
242 by Virtual Dreams is another
Virtual Nightmare!
- If you remember well, some time ago,
some of the most known coders were
given the opportunity to express
their opinions about Guardian Dragon
2. Chaos of Sanity, told us that
the loader was positioned at a
critical memory address, making us
see you as a mere beginner. He even
accused you that you made a fake
zoomer and that your glenz vectors
seem more like a tortured cube.
Saviour of Complex said that you
should have focused more on quality
routines, and not just on the big
number of effects you used.
LoneStarr of SpaceBalls said that
the whole demo was totally boring.
On the other hand, Wayne Mendoza of
Masque was pleased with your efforts
and said that the demo was nearly
perfect. Dr. Jekyll of Andromeda
liked your exploding cube. Don't
you think that there should be a
bigger sense of fraternity amongst
coders, or do you think that in
today's scene, friendship between
the various groups' members is
impossible?
I don't know. I think that many
coders have potential problems. When
they criticize other coders, it is
probably because they have some deep
psycho problem. About Guardian Dragon
2; I actually don't care if famous
coders like my productions; I see my
production in the 2nd place in the
Eurochart, and I know that for some
reason, people must like it. That is
more than enough for me.
- You have managed to hit the charts
also as a musician. How and when
did you decide to start composing?
I started composing immediately when I
got SoundTracker 2.1 from a friend in
the start. I've always been told that
I had great musical talents, though I
do not think that the techno music in
Desert Dream, displays my talent at
all. The next time I will create a
file demo, I will surely include much
more interesting music. My favourite
right now is TRANCE! Get the feeling!
- Most musicians own a synth and some
other music-making equipment, which
they also prefer to play, apart from
using it as a sample source. Do you
think that making music on the Amiga
is much simpler than playing an
instrument, or do you think that the
Amiga has much more limitations in
this area?
The Amiga and Protracker together make
a perfect combination for music! I
just miss some more MIDI functions for
my Ensoniq synthesizer, that's all. I
love making Amiga music, it's just too
bad that the A1200 does not contain a
16-bit sound chip as standard. 8-bit
is after all not very good. Anyway, I
am not the kind of musician that cares
a lot about how you make your music,
like those punks called heavy bands,
but I want to hear good music, and if
it's good, I don't care whether it is
acoustic or synthetic.
- A synth is the best source for
getting samples from, and most
musicians put a copyright notice on
"their" samples. But don't you
think that by doing so, everyone is
breaching the copyright law, because
after all, the internal sounds of a
synth are all copyrighted by the
various synth-manufacturing
companies?
No, I think you misunderstood
something. You see, a synthesizer, as
I know it, is an instrument with which
you can create your OWN sounds
entirely from scratch or edit default
sounds and use them for whatever
purpose you might like. A Keyboard is
an instrument, like small Roland
keyboards, which does not contain any
possibilities of editing sounds.
Anyway, I don't think that it is very
important, from where the sound comes.
If somebody uses a sound that I
sampled, then I don't care, AS LONG as
they note that they took the sample
from my production.
- Some musicians have been heavily
accused, just because they borrowed
some samples from other musicians.
Do you think that borrowing samples
from others is strictly prohibited,
or do you believe that if you spot a
fabulous sample, then there is no
need to digitize it all over once
again by yourself?
I think that I have already answered
that question. It is totally alright
with me if others use my samples, just
as long as they write my name or
production wherever they use it. And
I think that one should use the
samples he needs, not caring much if
it has been used before, as long as
the MODULE is changed!
article continues...
...continued from previous article
- Some of the most popular musicians
always seem to seek different music
styles. Do you think that finding
an own style and develop it further
is the right move for the starting
musician, or do you think that one
should always try and experiment on
all possible kinds of music?
Absolutely the last. I think for
myself that it is VERY important to
experiment with all kinds of
expression, that has always been my
main goal. Of course, there will
always be one style, which you fancy
the most, but for me, it comes in
periods.
- How much do you think that melody
should be important in a tune?
Not very much. As long as the music
is varied and interesting, it does not
matter if the module contains nothing
but bass and drums! Or perhaps no
drums, just melody, but who cares!
- We common sceners are always hearing
musicians talk about the advanced
technical moves they use in
protracker. Is it possible to judge
the technical part of a piece of
music, just by listening?
Yes, I think so. Yet, the thing is
not to be as technical as possible by
using many effects, but to show that
you can control the commands
completely and that you can achieve
any effect you desire.
- Bjorn Lynn has recently said, that
Amiga music had already reached it's
outmost peak some years ago, and
that musicians have already
discovered all the possible
ProTracker techniques, since ages.
Do you agree with all these
statements?
Well, yes, that is probably true. But
if it sounds good, then who cares? I
mean, just because the piano only
contains 12 notes per octave, you
still have endless ways of composing
them. It is all wrong to think like
Bjorn, I believe, he must have
misunderstood something. Originality
is not at all important when writing
music; what is important is that you
create something which expresses
precisely your feeling at that time.
If you do, the result will almost
always be worth listening to.
- Judges, after sample-rippers, are
the most hated thing for you
musicians! Is this also the case
with you, and have you ever entered
any music competitions?
No, never. It is probably because I
never fancy music competitions much
myself. It is not that I am afraid of
losing, it's just that I always end up
making some images along with the
patterns, and there you have it... It
always ends up as a demo!
- There are a lot of talented
musicians out there, yet we would
still like to hear your opinion
about the following stars. We would
especially like to know something
more about their composing style,
melodies, quality of their samples,
and maybe also something about the
innovations they brought amongst all
musicians.
Jester has a very professional way of
composing, a very good sense of rhythm
and melody, and though his samples are
almost unbearable to listen to when
played alone, he always manages to
make them sound great! This seems to
be the best way of protecting against
ripping! A very fine musician indeed!
Moby of Sanity is THE king. I need
say nothing more, just that he
controls all styles and does it with
such supremacy, that I really envy
him.
S.L.L of Kefrens... Well, I guess he
is good with mixing, but he has always
seemed a bit too poppy for me. Then
sometimes, he suddenly creates a very
nice melody, like for instance the
introduction to Guardian Dragon 2.
That was VERY nice!
Bruno is a very, VERY fine musician.
He has all the quality of a
professional musician. I especially
like his reggae pieces. Cool sense of
beat!
Travolta of SpaceBalls is quite good,
really nothing less or more. He is
very appreciate.
- Do you think that there are some
especially talented musicians which
we involuntarily forgot to mention,
and which you especially appreciate?
Yes, in fact Scott of Spaceballs has a
very good technique and is an overall
good musician.
- You are the main man behind the
music of Desert Dream and DANE.
But, as far as I know, you always
seem to do tailor-made music for
particular demos. Is this true?
Can you maybe tell us something more
than we already know, on the time
when you made the music for Desert
Dream?
As I said before, I always end up with
modules for demos since I am a
perfectionist. I always think that
there is something that ought to be
changed. Actually, the first module
of Desert Dream was created at about
6:00 in the morning at Vention's
place. I bet you've noticed the
resemblance between the drums in this
module and the soundtrack in
Terminator 2. Well, it is probably
because I love that soundtrack, and I
wanted to make a demo that was just as
majestic as the movie. Then, a couple
of days later, Vention and me joined
our ex modem trader, Raxor, who's a
really great guy, where we spent the
rest of our autumn holiday. So, there
I started designing and coding the
introduction; the space ship part. I
drew the credit logos, and meanwhile,
Vention told me that I should not
expect him to be in Kefrens next time
I would visit him! I guess he was
going through a phase. Anyway, that
was probably the main reason, why
Vention didn't code anything on Desert
Dream. But it soon passed, and we are
very good friends now.
Back to the Subject; Module 2, the
part that starts with the alien, was
actually made in an interrupt. You
see, my brain is very good at
interrupts, so while coding the
various routines for the demo, I, once
in a while switched to ProTracker to
do some more music. And when I got an
idea for timing the music, I just
switched between the two wonderful
programs and tested the result.
Eventually, the demo was on its way!
The rest is a VERY long story, so I
will leave your little minds to guess
what happened later. Perhaps I will
write a biography sometime, so you all
can get to know the secrets of Laxity
and his Amiga!
- Can we expect to see, at one time in
the future, a music disk by you?
Perhaps, but I don't know! I can't
imagine myself composing a bunch of
modules that all sound good to me.
You see, nothing that I produce is
ever finished. I could go on and on
rewriting music if there wasn't
anything called deadlines. That is
why I never release anything outside
parties. I just can't get it
finished!
- Good music disks are very rare these
days, yet groups like Andromeda came
up with something different with the
release of Mirror. Do you think
that also the graphics and code DO
MAKE UP a music disk?
Of course they do! To me it is not
that important what kind of production
it is, as long as it sounds good,
looks good, and even tastes good. I
only use the type of production to
refer to it.
- You also did the sound effects for
Guardian Dragon 2 and Desert Dream.
Do you think that spot sound effects
have become a standard in demo
making?
No, but to me they are. The sound
effect when the cube exploded in
Guardian Dragon 2 was taken from an 80
minute mix by Uncle Ben, and that was
the main fact that ensured the 1st
place in the demo competition.
- We have said a lot about Laxity THE
coder and Laxity THE musician, that
one might tend to forget to talk
about the actual productions you
worked on. Do you think that a
GREAT production is enough to make
one gain total popularity?
Yes. If it is as breath taking
production as Desert Dream seems to
be, it is far enough for me.
- In 1991, you released Guardian
Dragon 1, which was more or less,
Kefrens' comeback in the demo scene.
You worked on the main code and
design for this demo. How important
was this demo for you, and how much
time did you spend on this
production?
About 2 minutes. Let it be said; The
demo stinks! In fact, I do not see
why you credit me for design at all!
The best part was that it made all the
way to the 8th place on the Eurochart!
- At the Hurricane party, you then
released the much acclaimed sequel
to Guardian Dragon. Once again you
worked on the code, design and sound
effects, but this time you had the
opportunity to work with Vention,
although you were responsible for
the main code. Has this division of
work made things easier, and what do
you think is the actual stress that
a coder has to stand, when such big
projects are commenced?
I was very thankful that Vention
wanted to put so much work into
Guardian Dragon2. I don't know if it
made it easier... Well it did, but
mainly it made the demo longer. Some
have claimed that this is poor, but I
think that as long as every effect in
Guardian Dragon 2 looks nice, it does
not matter if you've seen some effects
more or less before.
article continues...
...continued from previous articleðn
- Guardian Dragon 2 reached the second
place in the EuroCharts just after
it was released. Did all this maybe
inject in you a kind of unique
satisfaction?
Yes, of course it did. It is always
nice to know when your hard work is
appreciated, and although I know many
coders hated the demo for all the
success it got, it all seemed fair to
me.
- We all know that Guardian Dragon 2
won the demo competition at the
Hurricane party. We also know that
the organisers refused to give you
the promised prize. After all this
time, can you tell us if you ever
managed to get what you deserved
from the organisers?
Nope! Not one single banana! Anyway,
now I do not give a damn, but after
the party I was of course very
depressed, but still, I had the honour
of producing the best demo that
summer! Plus the fact that Guardian
Dragon 2 made it straight to the 2nd
place on the Eurochart and stayed
there for several months!
- At the Gathering 2, you released
Desert Dream, which once again won
the demo competition without any
problems. You always seem to win
every competition you take part in!
Do you plan to continue going on
like this?
Yes, of course!
- You told us that Desert Dream has
been 6 months in production. You
did the main code, design, some
graphics, sound effects, main music,
and wrote the screen play. How
important was Desert Dream for you,
and did you enjoy every second you
spent working on this production, or
was there some time when you were
almost on the verge of giving up?
Well, I guess you could say I nearly
killed myself between Christmas 1992
and March 1993! I had absolutely NO
inspiration in that period, and
whenever I think of it, I only see a
vacuum. Desert Dream was VERY
important to me, because since I did
practically all of it, it was very
much "me". Confidentially, Zeus only
coded the part with the 5 circles, so
it seemed too idiotic to list the
parts with credits, since I coded
everything else, and even the replay
routine and the track loader! I
cannot tell you, how glad I was when I
faced the fact that Desert Dream had
won the demo competition in Norway.
Suddenly, all the hard work seemed
worth while, and I will surely never
forget that moment!
- In Guardian Dragon 2 you divided the
coder's responsibility with Vention,
but in Desert Dream you teamed up
with Zeus. Do you prefer working
more with Vention or Zeus?
Don't take any offence, Zeus, but what
you offered for Desert Dream wasn't
much compared to Vention's work on
Guardian Dragon 2! One man, one
routine!
- The start of Guardian Dragon 2
seemed to be like a "condensed"
Odyssey, but then the rest of the
demo turned out to be something
similar to HardWired. Did you
really mean to produce some kind of
combination of these 2 particular
demos?
Oh, come on... I mean, if I wanted to
combine two shitty demos into one, I'd
say it, wouldn't I? Seriously, I know
that I was inspired a lot by both
productions. But at the time when
Odyssey was released, nothing similar
had been seen before. It was a new
way of telling a story, and of course
it seemed nice to me. I always wanted
to capture my audience in a good
story, and so far, only CHAOS dislikes
the story. Everyone else has only
complimented me.
- Desert Dream has finally topped the
EuroCharts, and you also have the
compensation from the Gathering 2
competition. Do you think that this
demo deserved all this, and do you
see any current rival at the moment?
Naturally, the demo is the best ever!
No, frankly, I think nothing like it
has ever been produced, since it is
unique and inspired, but aren't we
all? I mean, which is the most
desirable, to be an ignorant innovator
or to be able to evaluate your
impressions and combine them in a
creative result? Struck you, Chaos!
- Chaos of Sanity labelled you as a
lousy storyteller, so can you tell
us who is really behind the texts in
Guardian Dragon 1 and 2?
You can judge it from the spelling!
Guardian Dragon 1 contained about as
many spelling errors as words, so
evidently it was R.W.O! Guardian
Dragon 2 was a bit inspired by the
theme in Guardian Dragon 1, but was a
lot more exciting and contained nearly
no grammatical errors, so therefore it
must have been me! Now, about Chaos;
I think he has been very depressed
since he could not see our demo
because of my poor loader.
Eventually, I take it that he must
have liked the demo very much, though
he has always seemed like an angry
little boy to me. Has it got
something to do with his child hood?
- Even if Chaos of Sanity dislikes
your stories, still, we all love
your poetical texts about King
Kefren and the power of the Ankh.
Do you think that it has become a
new trend to build up such colourful
descriptions around one's group? Do
you think that sceners really do
believe that King Kefren has passed
onto you the power of the pyramids?
Probably. Anyway, that's my
impression. Furthermore, who are you
to question the King's existence?
Beware, unfaithful, for thou might
suffer from pain in thy soul
eternally! Chaos has long ago doomed
himself to ever lasting pain, since he
has disregarded the holy scripts of
the King. Have not the same destiny
as this poor soul, unite with us
believers, and thou will always be
granted luck.
- Kefrens is surely amongst the most
elder groups in today's scene. I
think that everybody knows that. At
one time, after all those years of
scene activity, Kefrens decides to
pack up and close down definitely.
Later on, sometime in 1991, you
decided to rise back from your deep
Egyptian tombs, but I must admit
that not everyone seemed to like
your comeback. Were the texts in
Guardian Dragon 1 and 2 really
directed towards Melon?
Nope. Only a little bit. Actually,
the texts were referring to a lot of
former Kefrens members and stupid ones
who for some strange reason claimed to
have a right on our group? The world
must really stink to those people!
- The introductory part in Desert
Dream surely had some sort of
meaning. We know that after all
this time, Kefrens and Melon have
sorted out all the misunderstandings
between your groups. Can we maybe
expect to see some kind of
co-operation production between both
groups in the future?
NOOOOOOOOOO! MELON SPLAT! MELON RIV!
MELON KNUS! Hi Henrik, you old stud!
- Well, today we have learnt a lot of
new things about Laxity, but we have
never mentioned anything about
Anders Hansen. Do you think that
you would still be looked up to as
an important personality, if you
maybe presented yourself at a party
just as Anders, and not as Laxity of
Kefrens? Do you believe that the
scene is basically just made up of
group names?
Yes. By the way, who is Anders
Hansen?
- Do you hate being referred to as
Laxity instead of Anders? How do
you think that the two mix up in
everyday's life?
Quite well, I think! Though I have
some difficulties remembering whether
I actually AM Anders, or if Anders is
just a pseudo for Laxity Hansen?!
- Every interview must have an end,
and I must really admit that when
one is talking with Laxity, there
are so many things to discuss that
one never seems to reach an end. We
hope that we would have the
opportunity to host you once again,
here in Compass, but in the
meantime, we would like you to end
this interview by putting down your
last words.
Sure, just leave it all up to me to
end this interview. Did you know that
the hardest bit is always the end?
Don't you watch any Schwarzenegger
movies? Well, to all my scene friends
and enemies out there: Don't take the
scene so seriously. You know, outside
the monitor, there is actually a world
besides our imagination. And making
friends is always much more fun than
making enemies!