Interview with Mark Knight
 (ex-TDK/Melon Dezign)


by Hollywood




It's January 1993. You rush to your postbox/modem to get hold of the 
releases from the biggest party ever, The Party 2 in Denmark. You gasp 
and coo at the pretty effects on the scores of new demos. But what REALLY
catches your eye of the 40K intros is the entry from those dark and 
dastardly designers, Melon!. A stupendous design, cute graphics, a 
Tetris block building Crystal logo, and some WONDERFUL Russian chip-music 
by a certain Mark Knight, TDK/Melon!. And let's face it, those cute 
little Melon! crack-intros would never have been the same without some 
catchy chip-tunes from the ex-Anthrox musician. So, where did The Dark 
Knight get to? RAW caught up with him.




Hi Mark. Would you care to introduce yourself to the reading millions, 
possibly including your current job, and your dark Amiga alter-ego past 
you'd rather forget about?



Hello. I'm Mark..........is that it?

O.K., I'm 22 years old and I'm the in-house computer games musician 
for Mindscape Inc. My dark Amiga (Ami-what???) alter-ego (R.I.P.) was 
T.D.K. of MeLon Dezign, whom yes, I'd prefer to forget about...




Now, I know you don't care much for the Amiga scene any more. Is that 
purely because you don't get to see anything anymore, or is it that if 
you do you find it boring? Or is it deeper than that?



There are a few reasons.


1). Once you start working for a company that is willing to pay you to 
write music, and then buy you whatever music equipment you want i.e. 
Kurzweils etc, then four channel sound chip on the amiga does seem to 
be a little basic, and limiting. Ha ha. Also, when I (try to) write 
music all day, I don't want to go home and...well, write more music.


2). The demo scene is stockpiled full of young arrogant little shits 
whom I hate.....


3). I finally decided something that I should have decided years 
ago....my Amiga tunes are not very good. When there were musicians 
like Moby (who I now work with, he's at Mindscape France), 
Audiomonster, Heatbeat etc., why bother. I wasn't even getting much 
pleasure myself from it at the end. And, the biggest mistake I ever 
made was putting my phone number in my mods. The number of people who 
phoned up and said 'I really like your music' and then couldn't think 
of anything to say after, was just untrue. I still get a few now, 
mainly for Tubular Bells, which I don't mind any more.....




You're particularly remembered on the scene for your chip-tunes. Is that 
purely because they were used in high-profile productions, such as Melon 
and Anthrox cracktros or the Tetris intro, or did you actually enjoy 
making chiptunes more?



Yes, most of my chip tunes were in high-profile releases, in fact I 
think chip tunes are the only thing I'm remembered for..and yes, I did 
enjoy doing them, because (I think) I was good at them. I had a little 
rule book for writing the tunes, and I was able to get some really 
good sounds into a really small space.




Your concert at the Melon Birthday Party (in 1993) was, I believe, 
considered one of the highlights of the event. Considering the party was 
so abysmal, do you take that as a compliment or an insult?



I suppose it's a compliment, but like you say, it's not really saying 
much. I didn't really enjoy doing it either cos it was a total cock 
up. I even had to hide halfway between a pair of curtains, because the 
leads weren't long enough. The best thing that happened was when some 
dickhead came onto the stage and started playing notes on the 
keyboard to show that it wasn't on. Unfortunately for him, it was! And 
I was playing live, but with a backing track.



I feel really sorry for the people who went to the party, including 
myself. I could have had more fun counting the nobbly bits on a piece 
of artexed ceiling... as you can imagine, I left melon there abouts, 
`cos their name was very quickly being dragged through the shit.




In your current job, how much pressure is there to produce music to a 
strict deadline? How difficult do you find it to produce a certain style 
of music `to order`, so to speak?



Yes I do have deadlines, but now I'm allowed to specify my own 
deadlines so I try to work out how much time the music, sound effects, 
voices etc will take, and then multiply that by 2.



The certain style thing is much harder. I find I often write 
different styles of music depending on how I feel. Which is a pain. 
But it's something I have to learn to deal with. It is hard, but if 
you have enthusiasm for a project, you'll get it done, even if it does 
take a bit longer!




What games, for what formats, have you worked on recently?



Recently.....erm.....well....I think the last thing I did was the 
sound effects for the P.C. CD-Rom game, DragonLore.




Which did you most enjoy making, personally?



Erm, Dragonlore. No, I hated that. I HATE SOUND EFFECTS. It's so 
boring. Fiddle-arsing about with CD's etc. is not my idea of fun.




Do you find it difficult to make music for a game if you hate the game?



Yes, and there have been a few! Most of them, I havn't had to write 
the music, just arrange it, like:
Battletoads (Amiga) (BLURGH)

Sim City 2000 (Amiga)

Mario's Time Machine (Snes)



You need enthusiasm to work well on a game, if you haven't, well you 
consider for the 13th time whether to leave the company...

<<< TURN PAGE >>>

<<< Continued from last article >>>




Do you see the future of game music going towards famous real-music 
artists making music for games? If so, do you fear for your job security?



Some companies will of course use big names to promote a game, but 
believe it or not, after all other costs there isn't that much money 
left to throw away on well known (or failing, ahem Ocean!) musicians. 
If it did happen, well, are they going to be able to produce sound 
effects? Will they be able to turn their tunes into Playstation, 
Saturn, or P.C. soundcard versions? I don't think I have to fear for my 
job. They may be able to write the music, but that'll be it.




Who do you rate the best computer-game/demo musicians of all time?



Rob Hubbard was the best of his era, but now there is a lot more to 
the job. You can't just chuck any old tune in a game, and hope for the 
best, like in the days of the C64. Game music has to be part of the 
experience, just like in a film.



Now, I'm really now sure. There are a lot more unknowns out there 
(like me!). I haven't played a game for a long time, but the Fatman on 
P.C. is pretty cool, and what a character!!!



Heatbeat, I think was the best demo musician. If not for his melodies, 
but for what he could do with a Paula chip.




And who do you rate as the worst?



Simon Carless ;-)



(NOTE:the interviewer stands up and punches Mark, via email. Guess
who Simon Carless is?)




Can you tell us anything about forthcoming products you're working on?



Yes, I'm working on two really big titles at the moment for 
Playstation and PC-CD-ROM release. He he, that's it.... What I can say 
is that one of them has a massive (hopefully) fully interactive 
orchestral soundtrack, and the other has a mixture of 
ambient/techno/dance music. I'm also in the middle of discussions to 
sort out simgle/album/D.J. remixes of the second lot. So, you never 
know....




Finally, who or what is King Song Boy?


Bibble bibble where's my fish!

And there we leave Mark to get on with his lunatic ravings. Actually, 
people with a very good memory might be able to work out what the last 
question was all about. Tell us and we'll tell you next issue..