INTERVIEW WITH
FAIRFAX OF
ANDROMEDA

INTERVIEWED BY KRIS/MIRACLE

K:KRIS/MIRACLE     F:FAIRFAX/ANDROMEDA

K: Hello Fairfax! Thank you very much for giving us this interview.
   Firstly please give us some info about yourself (age, size, equipment..)

F: At the moment I'm an 18 years old member of Andromeda, and for those
   who actually find this interesting I'm 1,79 tall. I have got a normal Amiga
   2000 with an extra drive and an extra kickstart. My monitor is a commodore
   1084. As you can see,no special equipment.

K: Please tell us something about your former groups.

F: It all started for about 4 years ago when me and my brother bought the 
   Amiga 500.The first year I didn't do anything else than playing.After a
   while I saw more and more productions from different groups and one day
   I wrote to my first contact.This guy offered me a membership in his group  
   as a graphician and swapper.This group was the reborn Beastie Boys.To make
   a long story short,this group didn't do nothing,and I joined the norwegian
   group Network.I didn't stay there for too long,and after a few weeks I
   become a member of PMC.I found after a while that this group was a falling 
   star,and after a year I joined Offence which was a little mistake
   (they died).My next changing of group was when I joined the galaxy guys:
   Andromeda.This has until now been a great success.

K: You are one of the best graphicians, everybody knows your great talent,
   Where are you impressed from while you draw your pictures?

F: There are many sources of inspiration that make me go on drawing on my
   amiga.Many of my favorite graphicians through times have always  been
   a nice source of inspiration. Very often when I see a nice picture on 
   the amiga I feel that I have to draw something great too,-(who knows why?).
   I also get a great deal of support from my brother and my friends that 
   criticise everything I do,and ofcourse I get a a lot of inspiration from
   the demo-scene.

K: Who are your favourite painters (in real life) ?

F: I don't have any spesial favorites,except from one,when it comes to
   painters in the "real life".The one exception is a book-illustrator called
   Mark Harrison,-(is it a surprise that he draw a lot of mountains?).
   Other good painters is Clyde Caldwell,Tim White,Rolf Groven.

K: Have you ever tried to draw real artistic pictures? (not like general
   style of graphic, except horrible creatures, dragons and known heroes )

F: I as everybody else have drawn some women,dragons,etc.,and I'm very,very
   ashamed. But I'm not that ashamed either because I have done more of other
   things,like differen sceneries and that kind of pictures.I'm planning on 
   continuing doing that for the future,but with some exceptions now and then.
   I haven't stopped making mountains!!

K: Which movement of painting you like the most? (e.g.Cubism, expressionism,
   surrealism etc.)

F: It's a bit hard to say what movement I like the most,but all in all 
   I would come to the conclusion that pictures drawn to copy natures
   own images would be the ones I would like the most.

K: Have you ever drawn any picture without models or illustration books?

F: I have done some pictures without model,but most of them are crap and not
   worth watching,but there is one exception.One year ago I drew 2 pictures 
   for a game which I at that time was quite happy with.In the future I will
   draw for more games and than there will be more copyrighted pictures.
   In many of my pictures I also often mix things from books and things from
   my mind,something that make it more fun to draw.

K: I haven't seen so many logos of yours. Don't you like to draw them?

F: I thought you would ask me this.The almost true fact is that I stopped
   drawing logos and fonts for about 1 year ago.I have always thought of 
   that as a boring thing to do.One exception is the RAW-4,1/2 issue logo
   released at the christmasparty in Aars.I remember that I made a lot of
   logos back in the "old days",and never got any of them released.Then I 
   gave it up.(What a sad story).  

K: Who are your favourite graphicians in the scene?

F: There are many talented graphicians out there that I admire for different
   things.TMB-design,Facet,Mack,Hof,and Archmage/Andromeda are my favorites.
   I could list up a lot more like Danny,Peachy,Cougar,Sauron,Uno and many 
   more graphicians that have inspired me in different ways.

K: Why do you think results of the graphician charts are different in most
   of chart-mags?

F: I really don't know actually,maybe you should ask the people that make the
   charts and see what they say.Maybe It have something to do with the country 
   the chart is produced in.In the Eurochart for example there are maybe more
   danes that vote,than people from other countries.I'm really not the right
   person to ask.

K: What do you think about digitizing&scanning ?

F: Digitizing and scanning are nice ways to show a picture through the 
   computer.What you probably is thinking of is people that take credit
   as a graphician with a scanned picture.It's gladly not often you see
   people do this sort of thing.It is a really stupid thing to do.Besides
   is it in most occations easy to tell what pictures that are drawn by hand,
   and those that are not.

K: There are a lot of new amiga models with amazing graphic capabilities.
   Will you stay in the format of the amiga you are sitting in front of or
   will you start making picture on superior formats?

F: This question has been quite obvious for me as the time moves on.If I some
   day will buy a new machine it will probably be an Amiga 1200 which offers 
   quite nice graphic capabilities.To tell the truth:I'm actually not looking
   forward to it.It will be quite different drawing with high resolution and
   plenty of colours.Ofcourse it will be quite nice for me as a graphician,but
   I guess the scene will get kind of separated between those who have the
   older models and those who have the newer machines.

K: I think you are in the scene since Beastie Boys, that's a very long time.
   Are you still taking so much pleasure in being in the scene?

F: I haven't been in the scene since the time when The real Beastie Boys where
   alive,(just as you know).After 4 years I still take a great deal of
   pleasure in being a part of the scene.I think I have found the right way to
   avoid getting tired of the scene.First of all I'm not a swapper,second: 
   I'm not "overinvolved"if you know what I mean.The third thing is that I
   actually always have liked to see the progress which take place in the 
   scene.

K: How long will you stay in the scene?

F: It's hard to say.By now I have no plan to quit,but as often,things come up
   in your life that make you lose interest in what you are doing.It could be
   a lot of things like:Changing of machines,the army,education,girls etc...

K: Did you ever get offers from software houses or did you ever think to
   draw graphics for games?

F: I have been involved in some projects,but never linked directly to software
   houses.2 games are under development at the moment,which I together with 
   some other guys are working on.If the projects will result in any
   money,I don't know.

K: What are your futuristic plans?

F: I have no exact plans for the future,but it would be a dream come true if
   I could get to work with something that have something to do with what I'm
   doing today.My future in the scene is a bit cloudy if I look past this year.
   This year I will probably work on some games,demos,my slideshow and
   whatever comes up.By the beginning of 1994 I will hopefully serve my
   military duty,and after that we'll see what happens.

K: What do you think about the largeness of the scene?

F: I think the scene is quite as big as it should be.It has never bothered me
   that there are an ocean of groups.Maybe it's because I don't watch all the
   intros that get released.Besides,as long as smaller groups continue to melt
   together into bigger units there will never get to many groups.

K: They say you are a gay? What will you say about it? hehe

F: I am very sorry to disappoint you,but the answer must be negative.
   If you are lucky,maybe I can get some phonenumbers,thats if you are 
   interested,(they are all over the newspapers.)

K: What a nasty joke I did! It was just a bad attempt to kill the serious
   atmosphere of the interview but it turned out even worse.. sorry, here we go
   Which were the parties you went? What do you think about the PARTY II?

F: I have by today been to 4 computer-parties.These are:The Amegaparty by CRB,
   The gathering-92 and-93,and also the Party II in Aars.The partyII was all in
   all quite nice.It's one of the best parties I have been to,but it is quite 
   difficult to compare these different parties to eachother.For me this party
   was quite fun because I met the members of Andromeda there for the first
   time,and it didn't get any worse when I came second in the hard graphic-
   competition.The worst thing about the party was definately the tecno-music
   playing all the time.It made me crasy,(-but I'm getting better!).

K: Have you ever won a gfx compo? Which party(s)?

F: Actually I have.Once,at a summerparty by Symbiosis last year,I won my
   new Amiga 2000.The worldfamous swapper and a friend of mine,Moxy/Andromeda
   brought one of my pictures to the competition there.Luckily there were 
   no cool demos or music present in these competitions so I think I got the 
   price that was ment to be for the demo-compo.

K: We know that you are preparing a slideshow. Could you tell us something
   about this slide?

F: Yes,I'm working on a slideshow which I hope will be out this summer.Further 
   details will be kept secret for a while,but I'm sure that nobody will be 
   disappointed.(Everything isn't totally decided yet).

K: Dear Fairfax, now the traditional 'the end' question is coming, do you
   have something to add, greetings or a msg to our readers?

F: I want to send some hellos to everybody in Andromeda,especially to our 3
   new members:Uninox,Decker and Jaz.Some other greetings goes to TMB-design
   Jawbreaker,Mystik,Facet,Red devil,Kingpin,Cougar,Lord Helmet and to my
   brother and my friends Niclas,Ole,Moxyen,og Banjo.
   Finally!Look out for future productions from the galaxy team:Andromeda!
   (You know what we told you about 1992!!!)

K: Okay Fairfax, thanx for your great contribution, I wish you a good year,
   we are waiting for your new stunning pictures! Good bye!