Inteview with Mr. Man

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on The Gathering 1994
Diskmagazine
interviews
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Cesium - Connor - Fairfax - ...
z4/94
added 7/96
THE NORWEGIAN ANSWER TO RICHARD MARX?

Mr. Man / Andromeda in FOCUS


The Norwegian musician in Andromeda is famous for his ballads in Mirror and
various diskmags. Is he really that soft guy you might expect him to be?

By Cesium

NAME: Ronny Nordeide
HANDLE: Mr. Man
GROUP: Andromeda
FORMER GROUPS: Absence
FUNCTION: Musician
AGE: 23
IN THE SCENE SINCE: 1985
OCCUPATION: None, at the moment.
RESIDENT: Sandefjord, Norway
INSTRUMENTS: Roland JV-80, 
Roland D-70, Boss DR-550, Casio CZ5000,
Yamaha QY-10, (The Amiga), and an old
acoustic guitar.



The man behind the mister
You have probably never read any inside
stories  or  scandalous  articles about
this   shy   Norwegian  musician  which
happen  to  be  a  member of the famous
Andromeda.   D'Fence  says he knows "As
little  as  it  can  possible be" about
him.  Neither do I, so I'll try to lift
a bit on this mystic mask of his.

In  his so-called "real-life", Mr.  Man
attends  the  TBK school of telematics,
which       focuses      mostly      on
telecommunications,  though  he  hasn't
moved the step to buy a modem yet.


Mr.   Man  is  the  name  of a brand of
men's  socks.   A  lot  of people might
think   that   this  handle  is  highly
unoriginal  and  childish.  But he says
that  he actually didn't know about the
brand  of  socks  at the time he picked
the name.
- There was a C64-fellow at high school
which constantly addressed me with that
name.   When  I  came walking by and he
saw me, he bursted out; "Oh, Mr.  Man!"
I  haven't got any comments on the name
in   particular,   but   the   guys  in
Andromeda   often  calls   me  Mr. Boy,
Herman, etc.
The  latter  is  a  joke which probably
only Scandinavians will understand.

Other musicians change groups from time
to  time,  but  Mr.Man  says  he feel a
strong  relationship  to  Andromeda and
its members.
-   I've   only  been  in  Absence  and
Andromeda   during   my   scene   life.
Abscence was started together with some
of my best friends who live in the same
area  as  I.   We've  been knowing each
other  for  a  long  time,  and when we
joined  Andromeda  we got a good inside
contact between all of us.

Concerning   leaving   Andromeda,   Mr.
Man's opinion is clear.
- I have  no  plans whatsoever to leave
Andromeda.    I  haven't  received  any
serious   offers  about  joining  other
groups either.


The man and the music
- The most sucessful, or popular module
I've  made, must either be "Restricted"
or  "Distant Call".  Though the one I'm
most  satisfied  with myself is "Time's
the  Remedy".  It came as far up as the
4th  place  in  the music compettion at
The  Party  2  in  competition with raw
techno and heavy.

Though he has entered more music compos
than  most  others,  Mr.  Man has never
reached the no. 1 spot.
-  I  think  there are many reasons for
that.    My   modules   are  not  quite
"commercial    mainstream"-stuff,   you
know,  which the general Amiga-freak is
addicted  to  from  the  first pattern.
Besides, I've mostly competed with slow
tunes which I feel I master best at the
moment.   Another  reason is that there
are  many  talented  musicians who make
good  tunes  which sometimes deserve to
beat me.

Eventhough  all  the  best musicians in
the  scene  at  that moment competed in
the  music  competition at The Party 3,
Mr.  Man says he didn't think the music
was that good.
-  There  were  quite  a  lot of really
strange  techno  sounds,  which  is not
exactly  my  style  of  music.   A huge
amount of modules were handed in to the
jury  and it must've been a hard job to
pick  out the 30 modules for the final.
Anyway,  I  think the jury consisted of
people  with  a  too narrow music taste
and  I  think  they could have listened
more carefully to the modules they were
to choose.

During  the competition, the only thing
which  was shown on the big screen, was
the  number  of  the  module  which was
played.   The names were published on a
sheet  of  paper  after the competition
was   finished.    This  was  perfectly
allright  and  only positive, according
to him.
-  It's evident that many only vote for
the names.  This gives all musicians an
equal  opportunity  to  win.   But  one
thing  that  bothers  me is that during
the parties, when the music competition
is  running,  there are a lot of people
who  don't  listen much to the music at
all.
This basically goes for the rest of the
compos  as  well.   I think that during
this  short  period  of  time which the
competitions   are   going  on,  people
should free themselves from the machine
(read  "Sensible Soccer") and turn down
or   off   the  huge  loudspeakers  and
amplifiers  which  some  tend to bring.
It'd be nice if they would pay a little
attention  to  what many have worked on
for weeks or even months.



Most  people  remember  Mr.Man  for his
ballads,  like "Distant Call" and "Time
is  the Remedy".   But actually Mr. Man
has been in touch with techno.
- Yes, I have made techno; A tune which
is called "Heavy Industrial Toxic Waste
(!)   It's  not  totally  raw  hardcore
stuff,  as the name might indicate, but
at  least  something  which sounds like
techno.   But  this  tune  is made in a
combination      of      synths     and
Amiga-samples.
I  used OctaMed and Bars & Pipes Pro to
make  it.   I've got an 8-channel mixer
with  a 6 track cassette recorder which
I used to record several tracks "live",
so  to  say.  It sounds pretty good, to
be  an  experiment  which  only  took 2
evenings to finish.
Another  techno tune is my contribution
to  the  "Worst  module competition" at
The  Gathering '92,  "Der  Buut", which
came second.  I won a ST-01 sample disk
signed by Peter/PMC.  Really something.

Some   refer   to   Mr.    Man   as   a
"diskmag-musician",  other  as  boring,
but he isn't bothered by that.
-    To    be    referred   to   as   a
diskmag-musician is not something which
I look upon as negative.  The fact that
I often get requests about contributing
with  music  for  mags, must be a proof
that  a lot of people likes the modules
I've composed in that style.
Boring?   Yes,  I  can  understand that
some  think  so.  At least the ones who
likes  techno,  rave and the such.  But
then  again,  that  is the music I find
dull  and  less  varied,  so...   Taste
differs.



The  biggest events in his scene career
has  a lot to do with the reaction from
his audience.
-  Talking  about  releases, it must be
that   "Mirror"   got   such   a   high
appreciation   by   the   public.   The
biggest   thing   to   happen   to   me
personally so far, was when "Time's the
Remedy" came 4th at The Party 2.

Other people's
favorites among Mr.Man's tunes:
Cesiums   own  favorite  is  definately
"Distant  Call".   It's  the  clear and
beautiful  piano sample which does this
song.    Mr.   Man  didn't  create  the
melody himself, but anyway it's truly a
great conversion.  Mmmm...  Mr.Man!

Lizard / Spaceballs likes "Sequestrial"
and   "Beneight   Dignity"   best.    -
"Sequestrial"  for  the way he arranges
the  instruments  and  the orchestra in
this   song.   Though  there  are  some
small,  stupid  mistakes which could've
been avoided", Lizard says.

- The module I like best from Mr.Man is
without  doubt  the  pianotune "Distant
Call",  Jason  of Razor 1911 reveals to
us.
- Why, I can't tell, but it sounds very
professional,  and he is really showing
off  his strong musical abilities here.
Besides,   I   believe   it  is  not  a
conversion,  and  that  is  something I
respect and admire.
   Just to teeze you, Ronny, I must say
that  "Broken  Joysticks"  is the one I
like the least.  (so NOW you know that!
:-)  
I  like  quite  a lot of his older ones
too,  but I can't remember any specific
titles right now, Jason ends.

About other musicians
-  In  the  scene, I look most up to my
colleague    in    Noiseless,    Jogeir
Liljedahl.    Many   of  his  calm  and
atmospherical   tunes  are  superb.   I
would've  liked to hear a synth-version
of  one of these.  (Jogeir, contact BLC
NHQ    to    respond)   Besides,   he's
productive  as  hell,  quite  different
from   myself,  though  I'm  trying  to
improve on that point.
Other  musicians  I  like  very much is
Heatbeat   for   his   originality  and
experimenting  which actually turns out
good.

Dizzy  makes  good  music  as well, and
Chromag has some good slow tunes.


Mr.   Man  isn't  so  negative  towards
Jester as many others.
-  It's good commercial computer disco.
But  not all of his work keeps the same
standard,  I think.  My favorite is "My
Glamorous Life".  That one is good.

The  usual  tricky  FOCUS  question  is
which  other  scene  musician  Mr.  Man
would   prefer   to  compose  a  module
together with.
-  I think I'd wanted to compose a tune
together  with  HeadX,  actually.  He's
not  only  a  skilled coder, but also a
musician  on  the  side.   He made some
good  ones  during  the time we were in
Absence.
We've  been  talking  for  a  long time
about  making  some music together, but
it  never  turned  out to anything more
than talks.


Charts
Mr.  Man reached his best position ever
in  the latest issue of The Charts!  He
was  ranked  as  no.  13 but he doesn't
support charts himself.
-  Usually  I  don't vote since I'm not
really  a  scene  freak  who  have  any
knowledge  in  who  coded what in which
intro,  who  drew the font in part 3 of
3D Demo X, etc.

Music taste
Mr. Man listens  to  Amiga modules from
time  to  time, but not that often.  He
mostly  listen  to  all  kind  of music
except  speed, death metal and hardcore
techno.
-  Some  of  my  favorites  are Michael
Cretu/Enigma/Sandra,  Jarre,  Enya  and
John Williams.
My  favorite "performer" is Celine Dion


- she's got a fantastic voice and sings
songs  created  by a.o Diane Warren and
David Foster.

He  has  indeed  let  people  from  the
outside  listen to his music.  Two guys
who  worked  in  a music store together
with  him  for  a  year were playing in
bands  themselves, one of them had even
a   background   in  music  production,
recording and mixing.
- They  thought that  a lot of my music
was  good,  that  it  didn't sound like
computer  music.   They  meant that the
sound quality itself was poor, but they
were  quite  impressed when I told them
what  one  has got to work with to make
modules.  8-bit sampler, only 4 tracks,
without   the   possibility  to  record
properly from a MIDI-keyboard.
One  of  them  then commented:  "I see,
it's  the  level  right above Nintendo,
isn't it?"

MIDI  could  according to Mr.  Man mean
quite a lot to the music.
- I   think   there   would  be  a  big
difference.   I do have MIDI-equipment,
a  small studio you might say, and I've
made  music  with  MIDI.   
I'm  in  fact working on a MIDI-version
of  "Distant  Call",  with  a different
arrangement than the Protrackerversion.
I  think that common people could have
bought  my music and not only guys from
the  scene  -  at  least  I hope so.  I
don't  think  it'd  been  something for
scene  people  only,  because  I try to
make  my  music  sound  "real" by using
acoustic  instruments  like piano, sax,
strings, etc.  OK, this is my words and
others might disagree.


1994 featuring Mr. Man
There   should  be  something  to  look
forward  to  in the months to follow if
you're  a  fan of Mr.  Man of Andromeda
and his music.
-  The  next half year, you can see new
modules  in the demo "Sequestral" coded
by  my  good  friend, HeadX.  The whole
"soundtrack" is made by me.
I will compete in the music competition
at  The  Gathering  1994 and there will
most  probably  be a module in a coming
slideshow.
I've  been asked  by Nick / Offence  to
compose  a  tune  for  them if they can
manage  to  release  a demo in the near
future, but...
That's  all I can say at the moment.  I
have   a  small  hope  of  releasing  a
musicdisk   by   time  as  well..   But
somebody has got to code it.


Mr.    Man   is   not   going   for   a
professional  music  career,  like  a.o
Bjørn  A.Lynne  and  Rune Svendsen (Ex.
Travolta  /  Spaceballs)  in  the  near
future.
- Well, we'll see.  It wouldn't be bad.
Several  still  active musicians in the
scene  are  releasing  their  own CD in
these    days.     I'm    thinking   of
Lizardking,   Vain,  Vortex  &  Trixal.
That  musicians release their own CD is
something which is only positive.  They
get   their   music   released   in   a
professional format which might lead to
more attention and which also hopefully
gives some bucks in their pockets.

But the dream is there....
-  To  release  one's  music  on  CD is
something  which  most  musicians want.
When I worked in that music store I got
to  know  people  who run sound studios
downtown  and  the  boss  in the store,
whom  I  know  very  well, has a lot of
good contacts all over.  So if the time
comes  when  I  feel ready to release a
CD, it should work out well.