Inteview with Moby
found in | Type | Author | Year |
Diskmagazine interviews | D-Tect Advance - Agent - Arrakis - ... | z11/91 |
Interview with Moby/Dreamdealers Done by: Jester/Sanity The following interview with Moby of Dreamdealers was done by Jester of (rebuild) Sanity! ?: Please tell us a bit about yourself (age, profession, name, group, hob- bies etc.). !: Well... I'm named Fred, like the fa- mous French composer. I'm 21 and I study computer science. I'm a real music lover! I collect tapes, LPs and CDs, I love reading Stephen King's books, and I love (overall) BEER! My favourite ones are Pelforth (a French one), Chimay (Belgian), De Verboden Vrucht (Belgian, too), and some others... Belgian beers rules! ?: When and on which machine did you start with computer music? !: I started music on ORIC-1 in 1983! Actually, it was not music, just bip bip, like the Atari ST. I also began to code in machine code on Oric, it was so funny! Then I bought a C64, on which I coded a few things, thanx to my training on Oric (same machine code) and I of course did some tries with music programs, but I didn't manage to find any user-friendly editor! So I really started computer music on AMIGA, 4 years ago. First with Sonix, then with Soundtracker. Now I also work on PC with Adlib card and soon on Apple IIgs. ?: Did you have a training on certain instruments? What instruments do you play? !: I've been playing keyboards for about 7 years, but I stopped 3 years ago because I was fed up with syn- thetic sounds! I started to play the drums, and I now play in a Blues- Rock Band named Dear Popol... sounds great! We mostly play old ZZ-Top stuff, Johnny Winter, SrV, AC/DC, and old Blues standards. We also compose some tunes of course. ?: Could you give us some info on your computer history (earlier groups)? !: My first team was IMPACT INC. I stayed with them 1 year and a half. We released some simple demos and a music disk. Then I joined Apology, a french team which released a demo disk and died. Then I joined Dragons. We released 2 demos and one Megademo (on which most of the tunes were unfinished! grrr). Alcatraz as- ked me to join them. I did it. Some of my tunes were released in the Me- gademo IV, and in two music disks. (Try to find the Alcatraz Music Disk #1, because it has not been very well spread and my best tune lies in it! It's called 'Pelforth Blues'!) And now, I am a member of DreamDea- lers, the coolest team in France! ?: How do you like your current crew? !: As I said, they're very cool, very funny (one of our musician is called 'the Clown'. Cool name Djam! hehe) and very powerful. Before I joined them, they have released 2 Megademos and a game music compi- lation. And the Juke Box 2 is now released (36 ripped game musics). We really plan to do great things together! Here's our memberlist: - Kougar : Musician - Sun : Musician (the clown!) - Redlight : Coder - Tony : Gfx - Tik : Gfx - Croquik : Coder - Moby : Musician Our new demo, called "Tales of a Dream", is now out! Check it out! ?: What computer equipment do you own? !: A500 + 512 Ko, home made sound sam- pler, Philips monitor, Nordic Power, A590 + 2Mo, + soon a 150Mo HD. Of course, my Amiga is linked to my stereo amplifier 2x45 watts! Yep... ?: Do you use synths as well to create your music ? !: As far as Amiga music is concerned, I mostly use synths to sample sounds. But sometimes I use my Midi Keyboard to compose (not often!). But now that I bought my Korg M3R, I am also composing on synths, and it is more funny than the Amiga! ?: How many percent of your samples are self-made, how many ripped? !: I'd say 50-50... Used samples of course, because I've got loads of ripped samples that I never use. ?: Do you consider sample ripping to be a poor thing? !: Of course not! When somebody has sampled a sound you need, why should you sample it by yourself? You can take it! That's what I think. I'm never angry when I hear my sounds in some tunes! Moreover, I'm very proud that Walkman uses my Piano (nice sound hee?). ?: What's your favourite real music? !: Well, it depends... Sometimes I got da blues. Yeah... And then I like to listen to J. Winter, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Albatross, Jimi Hendrix and so on... But sometimes, I really love to destroy my hears with Metal- lica, one of the best band on Earth. Or Annihilator, Watchtower, Holy Terror... I also love Steve Vai, Joe Satrani, Randy Coven, Stu Hamm, Steve Morse and so on... You didn't ask what I don't like but I'll tell it! I HATE rap, house, newbeat, techno, Jarre, Depeche Mode, Bros, PSB,U2, Simple Minds, Cocteau Twins, and all kinds of dance music. That's pure crap! ?: And on the Amiga? My favourite musicians (should I say my Gods?) are: - Bruno who has a very funky style and who sounds like nobody else. His musics sound "real". - Walkman who always brings wonder- ful melodies, and who can also do some very powerful things (Thrash Collector was so fun!!!). - Heatbeat who smashes my ears and my brain with his unbelievable solos! "Scrambled Mind" is one of the best tune I've ever heard on Amiga! - Uncle Tom who should drop gfx and get back to music coz' I love his crazy style! He's so original! I also like Kougar/DreamDealers, Chrylian/Proton, Delorean/Vertigo, Jester/Sanity (Ja, ja!), Mantronix/ Pha, Nuke/Anarchy, Axel/BRS, Audio- monster/Silents, Tebirod/Concept, and some more... ?: What kind of (Amiga) music do you hate and why? What elements in the tunes makes you scorn them? !: I hate all that house-hip hop rappy tunes. It isn't music. There are no melodies in those shits. Just a beat. I also hate musicians(?) who sample a complete drumtrack cos' they are too lazy to do one by them- selves (or not able?). I hate wrong notes, and samples with bad loops. ?: According to your opinion, what is more important about a song: the composition or the arrangement? !: When I compose a tune, it's in order to express something that I have in my mind or in my heart. Arrangement requires mostly technic. And a bad tune with a good arrangement will remain a bad tune. Listen to Walk- man's tunes... There are nearly no effects, but his composition is so powerful! So, we have to compose more instead of trying to hide the poor composition with arrange ment. (Hi Tip!) ?: How do you like parties in general and soundcompetitions in particular? !: Well, I only attended to 3 parties: the Alcatraz party in Switzerland in June 90, the Cyclone party, in France in August 90, and the Cyclone II, in August 91. They were all very cool. I really LOVE party, but big parties are always in nordic count- ries, and it's quite far from my hometown. I wanted to go to the Silents party in Denmark this summer but it has been cancelled. I've par- ticipated to only one sound compe- tition. It was this summer at the Cyclone meeting. Well, there were 35 tunes to be played. It was more than boring. We listened to the songs for about 4-5 hours.. And the 6 guys got bored very fast... I hope that's why I ended only 17th (or something like that)!!! ?: Do you know a lot of other musicians and how important is the rest of scene to you? !: I only "swap" with a few guys (hi DeLorean, Chrylian, Axel, Jester (yo!), Sir Monkey, Ostein Eide...). I am quite lazy, that's why I only have a few contacts. The crack'n' swap-scene doesn't interest me at all, but I am fond of demos! I own about 250 disks full of demos. But I am not very involved in the scene... ?: Do you need success or a positive feedback in your work (e.g. from charts, pals, contacts)? !: Well, I guess I would have stopped Amiga-music since a long if I needed success... Because I've been doing music for 4 years, and I'm only starting to be known. Anyway, I compose music first for my own pleasure. But I must admit that it's really motivating to see your name the charts! ?: That was it already. Any famous last words that you want to spread to the world? !: I'd like to say to all my contacts who didn't receive anything from me since about 6 months that I will answer soon! Be patient! I'm so lazy. Watch out for DreamDealers productions! Beers Rules! ?: Moby, thanks for your patience. All the best for your future work. Notes from the editors: Thanx must go to Moby for answering all the cool questions and to Jester for making this GOOD interview possible!