Chromag/Polka Bros.

by Boo/Talent

   Chromag is the guy behind the music
disk,  "Chromagic",  which has climbed
very  high  in  several charts lately.
He  is  also known for being an active
composer  for  several diskmags in the
scene.   Maybe  you listen to his tune
right now?

   What  do you think people out there
wants   to   know   about  you?   Just
introduce   yourself   with  som  real
facts.  And please behave!  

    I'm currently 19 years old and I'm
still  attending  school, in fact I've
just  finished  my  final  exams,  the
"Abitur"  as we say it or "le bac" for
our  french  readers, and "gøbelhoden"
in norwegian.
   After  having finished school, I'll
start  my  civil  service  at  a local
kindergarten,   which   lasts  for  15
months  and  after  that I'll become a
professional        composer        of
gameshow-scores.   Up to now, my tunes
can  be heard in several famous german
shows  such  as "Der Preis ist heiss",
"Gluecksrad"  and  "Wuerfelhusten  und
Darmverschluss".

   Now  for  the real facts you wanted
to  know...  I'm a swapper (da kewlest
elita,   wid  hunderd  doods!   Plenty
ruller!)    and   technomusician   and
sometimes  I also give interviews, but
they are rare because noone's actually
interested  in  me  at all, which is a
fact  that  keeps on depressing me all
the  time,  so  I'm  glad  to be here.
Furthermore, I'm playing the keyboards
in  a  local rock-band and I sometimes
go  out  to  buy  a  new  joystick and
stamps,    and    I   love   diskmags,
especially 42!

  Thanks, I feel flattered!  Well, now
you  can  tell us what groups you have
been  a member of through your time in
the  scene,  and  when  you  made your
first modules?

   Everytime   I   join   a  group,  I
immediately  get kicked out, because I
want  to  be  a full-time swapper, not
doing  music  at  all,  I've therefore
been  in  quite a few groups, ea sunt:
Megaforce, Ecstasy, Exult Proton Ltd.,
Royal  Amiga  Force,  End  of  Century
1999,   Cult,  Addonic,  Platin,  Dual
Crew,   Essence,   Dual  Crew-Shining,
Polka Brothers.

    My first tune was made in 1989 and
fortunately  didn't  get  used,  as it
sounded  pretty  horrible and was sort
of the worst Walkman rip-off ever, but
noone  starts as a pro, right?  If you
want  to  get  the first ever released
piece  of  music by me you should grap
your  nostalgy-box  and search for the
Exult  megademo  II,  boot  it  and...
Surprise!   A  "Chromac"  module (they
didn't  even know how to spell Chromag
at  that  time...)  from 1990(?).  I
entered  the "scene" in 1988, one year
after  I  got my first A500 and joined
the  mighty  (fake-)Ecstasy (not the
one   from  Havok/SNT,  though)  as  a
swapper,   organizer  and  code-ripper
(haha!).   Anyone  seen  our  unbeaten
Cli-packs  and  sounddisks?   Gosh, we
knew  how  to  use the type command in
ultimate perfection...

    Everybody  knows that Dual Crew is
in  a  co-op  with  Shining.   How did
these  two  groups smash together, and
how is the friendship in DCS?

   I don't want to cause any anger, as
I've    just   left   the   team   but
objectively  I'd  say that the friend-
ship  in  DCS is very good, as all the
members  I  know  are  very  friendly,
especially  Red  Devil.   On a Shining
and  Dual  Crew meeting it was decided
to   merge   together,   also  because
Mutant,  Stookie/DC and Iridon/Shining
had  been  together on the good old 64
back  in  1985  and  both  groups  had
always  been  in close relationship so
it  wasn't  such  a  big  step for the
fusion.   Referring to the high amount
of   members   though,   it's   almost
impossible   to   get  to  know  every
member,  but  I  have  been in contact
with some of my fellow-musicians and I
live  in  the  same city as the former
german  organizer.   DCS  has  got  an
enormous    potential   of   brilliant
graphicians  and  musicians,  but some
coders  tend  to  be  a little bit too
lazy.

      >> Continued next page <<


    >> Continued from last page <<

  You   left  DCS  to  become  a  pure
Polkabrother,  so what can you tell us
about them?

   Accidently this is my only group at
the  moment and it was built years ago
by         Airwalk/Kefrens         and
Easley/Parasite.   Its  aim  is not to
rule  the scene or something even more
boring  but  to  see  things  from the
point of fun and friendship.  First it
seemed to be a sort of joke group with
double-members  only  but  then almost
all   of  PB  joined  as  full-timers.
Here's a short memberlist:

- Airwalk/ex Kefrens
- Chromag/ex Dual Crew-Shining
- Devilstar/Virtual Dreams
- Dice/ex Kefrens
- Easley/ex Parasite
- Gargoyle/ex Parasite
- Julius/ex Lemon.
- Mount/ex Parasite
- Pixie/ex Parasite
- Slide/ex Parasite
- Twilight/Desire
- Vention/ex Kefrens
- Zinko/Kefrens

   Do  you  your group have any coming
productions  you  want  to  inform  us
with?   I  have  heard that "Chromagic
II" will be out in 1994, is that so?

  All   of   the   tunes  for  another
musicdisk  have  already been finished
by me, I just have to force someone to
code and pixel...
  As you see, nothing's really firm up
to  now, but there will certainly be a
musicdisk  by me this year.  I've also
done  a LOT of tunes for various disk-
mags  and  I  still  don't get sick of
composing.    DCS  Germany  will  soon
release  "Mel o'dee's for Millions", a
musicdisk  by err...  (no need to tell
you,  eh?) and I heard that Polka will
release a megademo, but I don't know..
Just wait and be surprised.

      What  is  your  favourite  demo,
group,  coder,  musician,  graphician,
and  game?   (If you feel like mention
more  than  just one coder etc, please
do!)

       My     favourite     demo    is
Spaceballs' "Nine Fingers", believe it
or  not  I  voted  for it at The Party
III,   unfortunately  it  didn't  win,
though  Spaceballs is not my favourite
demogroup, as I prefer Virtual Dreams,
CnCd & Movement.  I'm not a coder, but
I  think Dr.  Skull & Tsunami are both
skilled  AND  active,  which is very
important  as  far  as  I'm concerned.
Graphicians  say that Hof is the best,
so  he  probably  is, but my favourite
one is of course Fade One!  
The best musician is
without  any doubt Dizzy/CnCd and MANY
musicians  will agree with me that his
music  is out of this world, Dizzy has
done  brilliant  tunes when most of us
were   sorry  lamers,  playing  Winter
games etc. 
   Heatbeat,  Groo,  Dean,  Strobo and
Jogeir   are   names  that  should  be
mentioned   here  as  well.  My
favourite  game  is  still Super Mario
Kart 
and  Zelda  on Super Nintendo, I don't
have   any   Amiga  games  though,  my
brother's  Snes is better anyway.  And
if   I  wanted  to  play  games  worth
playing  I'd  buy  a  Pc  with all its
cards etc..
      >> Continued next page <<

    >> Continued from last page <<

   I  have  heard  that  you also make
music for games. Can you confirm this?

   Where did you get this rumour from,
did  I  tell you?  It's partly true as
I've  done  the  music for a detective
game  called Humphy, done by the world
famous       Cultural      Productions
(Cybersonik,  Mount,  Estrup, Chromag)
which  was  published as free-ware and
I'm  not  sure if I'm doing the title-
track   for  a  game  by  some  french
friends of mine (I'd like to, but they
are   not  sure  yet,  actually).   If
anyone  wants a game-/demo- or diskmag
tune  don't  hesitate  to  contact me,
I'll  try  to  send  back  a  tune  to
everyone...  Write to:

             Timm Albers 
           Sauerlandstr.49 
           48527  Nordhorn
               Germany

    Please tell us something about the
"Fair  Charts"  you  are doing.  Don't
you think that today's charts are fair
at all?

   The  "Fair  Charts" is just an idea
to  see  who  really deserves to be in
the  charts.   Musicians vote for the
musicians  they want to see on top, as
most  musicians  complain  about  e.g.
Jester's  position.  I don't generally
think  that  charts  are unfair as you
always  vote for the most popular, not
neccessarily  the  best  one.  Despite
this  fact  I think it is quite inter-
esting to see the result, as musicians
judge  musicians from another point of
view,  other than swappers, who mostly
seem to be the ones who regularly vote
in  the  charts.   All I can say up to
now  is  that  Jester didn't receive a
single vote by other musicians yet..

   You  just mentioned the position of
Jester, do you think he deserves to be
on top of every charts?

   If  so  many  people complain about
his  position,  why  do  they vote for
him?   Obviously there are more people
who  like  his  music  than people who
hate  it,  so  I  don't really care as
long as I've got other favours.  All I
can  say  is  that  this C-min-A#-maj
synthpop stuff is very easy to do, but
only  Jester  is  able  to  catch  the
audience perfectly it seems...

   Thank  you  for  taking  your  time
doing this interview, Chromag!  Do you
have  any  last  words  for  our  dear
readers?

   Greets    to    everyone   at   The
Gathering,  especially  the  Talent-ed
ones (hoho) and the following persons:

   Fester,       Funky,      Homicide,
Cybersonik,   Interphace,   Hollywood,
Groo,  Clawz,  Twilight, Slam, Dascon,
P$,  Touchstone,  C.A.T., Howie, Wotw,
Skull,  Kris,  Daze, Schmoovy Schmoov,
Polka   Brothers,  Dual  Crew-Shining,
Trasher, Oxide, Estrup, Mount, Liquid,
Zinkfloid,  Virgill,  Adder,  Rackler,
Melvin,  Chorus,  Colorbird,  Cartoon,
Laxical,  Uga Software, Cultural Prod-
uctions  and  last not least thanks to
Boo/Talent for his patience.

   And   always   remember,  never  to
believe  me  and  my crappy answers...
Why stand on a silent platform - fight
the war, fuck the norm!