Lizardking/Razor
and Colorbird/Razor
at The Gathering'94 

by El Loco/Talent

Author's preface:
Colorbird  is  the  HQ  of the rebuild
Razor 1911, and he is also a coder and
maineditor.  Read our news- section to
catch  up  with  why he's been in some
trouble  when  it  comes  to swapping.
Lizardking  should be known to most of
you,  he's  the  musician  behind many
good  and  popular modules through the
last  years.  The two of them answered
some  questions  regarding the rebirth
of  Razor  1911,  and  Lizardking does
also  give us information about his CD
and   demo-tape,   along   with   some
questions  that  revolves  around  his
music.

Well,  Colorbird,  you  are one of the
founders  of  the  new Razor 1911, and
we,  the  42  staff, would like to ask
you  some  questions  regarding to the
rebirth  of  Razor 1911.  How come you
wanted to rebuild Razor 1911, and have
you  ever been involved with the "old"
Razor?

Since  I  was  the Swedish HQ in Razor
1911  during  autumn  1992,  I thought
that  I had some rights to the name...
And  I  thought  that  the now so lame
swedish scene needed a good group with
a good name, and I figuered why not?

If  I  claim that you chose to rebuild
Razor  in  order  to  gain  some quick
popularity,   and   live  on  the  old
reputation  of  Razor 1911, would I be
wrong?

Well, its a good name.....

So I'm right then?

partly...  yes...

What does the 1911 stand for?

The  original reason should be the old
1911-line  routine,  a  routine  which
Razor  1911  invented.   We  must also
mention  that  a condom factory should
have  been  started  then  in  1911 as
well.    (What   about   trying   1911
hexadecimally?  -ed.)

Have  you  ever been in touch with any
of  the old veterans who started Razor
1911  in  1985 on the Amiga, after the
rebirth  of  the  new Razor 1911?  I'm
here  referring to persons like Dr.No,
Lord Strangelove, Shine, and Sector 9.
Do  you  think  they  approve  of  the
rebirth?

We think they would be happy when they
see our productions...  I (Lizardking)
have     spoken     a     lot     with
Mantronix/Phenomena   (former  Razor),
and  he  thought  it  was nice that we
rebuilt the group again.

You    guys    change   groups   quite
frequently,  especially  Colorbird who
has   been   in   groups  like  Razor,
Noxious,   Scoopex,   Jetset,  Circle,
Alcatraz  and now finally Razor again,
and the same goes with you, Lizardking
(Strange,  Alcatraz, Silents and Razor
1911) Will this be the case with Razor
as  well,  or  have you now found "THE
GROUP"  as  some people would refer to
their dream team?

YES!   Because  most  of  us  are  old
friends  since  1991-1992, and we have
been  in different groups and met each
other  at  parties and talked on phone
and exchanged letters (Lizardking once
a  year...  Gustaf, skicka oftare!) so
when  we  have now got the possibility
to work together in a group we have NO
reason to leave and which group should
we  join?   Which  group could offer a
better  situation??   Me  (Lizardking)
have  been  working together with Tony
(Also   current  Razor)  and  we  have
always been in the same group for many
years...   The  same  is  with Deelite
(musician  in  sweden), we do now have
better     possibilities    to    work
together...  (I like "..."'s!)

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Before we go on with this interview, I
would like to congratulate you and the
rest  of  the  staff behind Propaganda
with  your  recent success.  Why is it
so  that  you have been hitting it off
so  well, and do you think you will be
able   to  maintain  a  steady  course
towards  the  top  of  the  charts and
start   competing   with  R.A.W.   and
Upstream?

Are  we competing with Raw?  NOWAY, we
are perhaps among the top 10...  But I
(Colorbird)  must  really say thank to
everybody for voting us to a 5th place
in  Eurochart  (no.24),  big thanks to
the  scene!   I  hope  that  you  will
continue to appreciate our work...

Will  there be any improvements in the
next  Propaganda, or perhaps you could
reveal  some  other details concerning
the magazine?

Yes,   we   will  have  some  sort  of
jumpicons  like  AmigaGuide, plus some
sort  of  clip-routines, more cliparts
and   a   MUCH   more   user  friendly
interface,  multitasking,  and  a  lot
more  articles.   I  can also add that
we'll  have an intro by Tsunami/VD and
a titlepicture by Danny/Spaceballs...

Ok,   Lizardking,  could  you  explain
about your CD and Tape.

There  are two productions, first a CD
called  "Physiology"  containing  real
studiorecorded         music        by
Lizardking/Razor        1911       and
D-Luxe/Equinox.   And  also  a special
Demotape      with      music     from
Lizardking/Razor        1911       and
Mantronix/Phenomena...    The  CD  has
been   REALLY   delayed!    We've  had
troubles  concerning  the  price,  and
other  things concerning the studio...
The CD and the Tape should be out very
soon,  and  I  if  you would like more
information,  you  can  write  to this
address:

Lizardking/Razor 1911
Gustaf Grefberg
Duvhoksvagen 25
85651 Sundsvall 
Sweden.

Some  people say you, Lizardking, tend
to  go  on  with  your  disco-pop, and
never change style, thus the result of
your tunes sounds very much alike.  Do
you agree with this statement?

Well,   if   you  had  asked  me  this
question  a  year  ago  I  would  have
approved,  but have you heard Memorial
Songs?   There is Jazz, Tango, Vocoder
songs  and  more...   I  think  that a
musician  should  have  his own style,
but  if  you  get  my latest work, you
will   find  some  really  odd  tunes.
Memorial   Songs   2   will   be  VERY
different,  and  it will contain music
never  heard  before  on a computer...
e.g  some  caribian music, bossa nova,
and  more spacy vocoder music.  And of
course    it    will    contain   some
"Lizardking-alike"  music,  too...  So
the  answer to this question should be
no, I don't agree and I think that the
ones  who  claim this wouldn't if they
heard all of my music...

As  always,  the  person who is at the
top  of  many charts, finds himself in
the  line  of  fire and accusations by
other  musicians,  yet  he's adored by
other scene-members.  State your opion
when it comes to Jester/Sanity:

I  think  that  Jester is a quite good
musician,  no  doubt about that, but I
find   him  overestimated...   I  have
heard   one   REALLY  good  tune  from
Jester:   "Cyberride"...   He is badly
treated  by  other  musicians,  I have
experience  about  that.  I have never
been   on   1st   place  (It  must  be
terrible!) Tip/Mantronix was also VERY
badly  treated  by  other musicians...
I'm not so sure if Jester should be on
the  1st  place,  but many people like
his  commercial  style...   Jester  do
deserve a chart place in any case...

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Okay,  let's change the subject.  If I
said  that the swedish scene is one of
the  worst  ever, today, do you agree,
even though you are swedes?

The   swedish  scene  has  been  LOUSY
through  92-93,  that's for sure!  the
only really good group from sweden was
Phenomena,  when they were active.  If
you  saw  (i  guess  you  did) Enigma,
Crystal   Symphonies   etc,  you  will
agree,  but  that  was  in 91-92...  I
hope  that Razor will give the swedish
scene   a   better  reputation  (we're
working on it/Lizardking...) There are
also  some  talented coders in unknown
swedish  groups  like C-Lous, Medicine
that could be something in the future,
at  least  we  have  some good swedish
diskmagazines   like   Nordic  Report,
Oepir  Risti,  Buzz,  Svensktoppen and
Propaganda, just to mention some!

Well,  now  we're  about  to get where
I've been heading for a while, the war
between     you     (Colorbird)    and
Zinkfloid/TRSI.   Isn't  such a verbal
war silly and childish?

Yeah,  I  totally  agree with you, but
PEACE  have  been  settled so I do not
want to say anything else, except that
Zinkfloid  and  I  are  swapping  long
letters....  (How cute...  ed.)

Chaos/Sanity is known as a bigmouthed,
hot-headed  and  arrogant  coder as it
goes,  here's  your chance to tell the
scene  your  opinion on this notorious
German boaster.

Well,  he  is for sure one of the best
coders ever, BUT how the hell could he
be number one without releasing almost
anything  in  the  last years?  He has
just  got his 1st place because of all
interviews and that he has slagged off
other people....  I do not claim to be
better  than  Chaos,  but,  frankly, I
think he is highly overrated!

And  how  about  Laxity,  what  do you
think about his releases?

He is good in DEMO-making, e.g linking
and  "design-coding"...   He has a big
advantage of being a good musician, so
the impression of the demos are really
great  but  when  judging the class of
code he is just "very good"...

And  if  I  mention  the precalculator
no.1, Lonestarr/Spb?

Well,       whats      wrong      with
pre-calculating,  a  demo  is not just
code,  it's the total impression.  And
making    the    precalculation   also
requires  great  coding  abilities  as
well...  And to precalculate 9-fingers
could not be easy!  To put it short, I
admire him!!