4-MAT'S LAST WORDS 
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¹ 
³Written by Matthew Simmonds alias ex-4-Mat. 
¹This following article is 4-Mat's reaction to the "musicians about musicians" article in the last ²ZINE¹ issue. As everybody knows he dropped this name and also his membership in ²ANARCHY¹. He is only active under his own company named ²SONIC PROJECTS¹. Read the News articles for more information about ²SONIC PROJECTS¹. 
Well, after reading that article I became quite depressed. I read through all their comments (some of which were by people I know) and thought I had better explained why (as some of them had said) my music suddenly dropped its standard.  When I first joined Anarchy at the beginning of 1990, (after being a member of the famous original Slipstream from May 1989 to December 1989) I was really active music-wise and produced the musicdisks Rebellion (which a lot of people liked), and Reflections I and II. I think I did reach a personal peak with Electric Revenge (known to many of you as the loading and title soundtrack in Shockwave by Digital Magic), but at around that time I had my last school year exams and so I stopped writing music to do work on them. Also around that time I was after a girl I knew from school, but it didn't really work out so I became pretty depressed and practically gave up on my music. I just sat about feeling completely worthless (you know how it is guys!) and thinking that I couldn't write another good piece of music ever again. During this time I wrote some of my worst pieces of music, namely Madness I, City at Night (I WISH I had never released that piece of shit) and basically anything from November 1990 to January 1991. I just couldn't think of doing anything partly original, and I was now at College doing a course I didn't want to do, so I just didn't bother doing anything at all. 
During this time in the scene any tracks that were released by me (even up to now!) are about 4-5 months old. The chip tunes that were used in Stolen Data and on intros etc. are all about 5-6 months old, some even more! This is because Nuke wasn't a member, and so the other divisions in other countries only had my old tracks to use. At the end of January 1991 I left College and the computer scene to form a commerical music company called SONIC PROJECTS, to supply music for games/utilities and other such medium (including consoles!), so far we have been quite succesful (Nuke is also a member) producing soundtracks for companies such as Core Design, Digital Magic, US Gold, Activision, Code Masters and are soon to work for more and more companies. The Madness II tune was made up from 3 old modules I had written in a hurry (hence the reason it sounds pretty crappy). It was about the time of Madness II that I didn't really feel any sort of buzz when writing music for the computer scene. So I kept leaving Anarchy but Judge Drokk kept convincing me to stay in! (Even to the point of just having my name in the member list without doing any work!) But in May of this year a certain company (who shall remain nameless to protect my future prospects) phoned me and told me that unless I left Anarchy and the computer scene I would not be offered any more work from them. So I handed in my resignation to Judge Drokk and I have now completely finished with the scene. I must say now that my time in the scene was really good (up to a point) but when you start getting silly phonecalls and people expecting you to talk to them at 1:30 in the morning for hours on end it does get tiring. On the Eurochart point, I did NOT deserve to be No.1, heck, when I got into the Eurochart I didn't even deserve to be in it at all! I really have written some very bad tunes in my time in the scene, but now (in my opinion) it has all changed with the invention of my company. I now can afford to buy synths (I didn't have any) and I now have a decent sound system (my music used to play out of my T.V!). I have already got 2 SONIC PROJECTS musicdisks written (with NUKE) and a lot of very interested companies who will be hiring us very shortly. With the company I have more freedom with my music, and can write tracks on the Atari ST, C64, IBM, Spectrum as well as the consoles, I also have a lot of new friends in professional music companies and a lot of nice new sample disks to use. I am even promoting several computer games to software houses (some of which are written by Anarchy members!). All in all, I do feel a hell of a lot better with my new life, I have got over the girl (even though I still do love her very much) and I feel a lot happier about my life. 
 
 
Continues...
...continued. 
 
I won't forget the scene, as without it I wouldn't be doing this, and I definately won't forget any of my best friends in the scene (I will still keep in contact with them!). So can I just say that yes, I do agree with the comments in your feature in ²ZINE¹, and I would just like to say some quick comments to friends and fellow musicians: 
 
²TIP¹ and ²FIREFOX:¹ - Congratulations on the Enigma soundtrack, you both deserve the number 1 spot in the Eurochart! So then, now I am out of it, get to number 1! I will vote for you! 
 
²OISTEIN EIDE:¹ - Sorry for the delay, expect our SONIC PROJECTS disks very soon, thanks for the comments on my tracks, I hope I have a nicer sounding style now! 
 
²AXEL/BRS:¹ - A great friend! Please stay in contact mate! You have a very rare talent! And good luck with ²SOUND WIZARDS¹! 
 
And complete greetings to Judge Drokk, Omri, Dan, Mr.Big, Kris, Mole, Mediator, Mystik, Igor, Nuke, Fobia, Morph, TIW and all the other people I know. Thanx very much for being such friendly guys! If you want to hear the REAL "4-MAT" in action, get hold of our two SONIC PROJECTS musicdisks (I advise TIP and FIREFOX to do so) which should be available to the scene quite shortly. (Axel/BRS already has them) Please note, you will not be able to get these disks from me as I have left the scene, and I am NOT interested in any form of communication with scene-related guys unless it is for a commercial project. 
Matthew "4-Mat" Simmonds 
 
¹(I hereby just want to admit that this article got written some time ago, so the ²SONIC PROJECTS¹ musicdisks are already out since two months. Secondly, Matthew, I would like to thank you to speak so openhearted about yourself to the scene. You will never be forgotten because you have been ANARCHY's main sign. Good luck with ²SONIC PROJECTS¹ and I am sure we will meet one day. Thanks for your always present friendship and your work done on the Amiga demo-scene! Keep your ears stiff!) 
Axel/BRS