Inteview with 4-mat
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Diskmagazine | Pure Metal Coders 4-mat - Aristotle - Axel - ... | t6/92 added 8/94 |
INTERVIEW WITH 4-MAT ------------------------------------ Those who have been in the scene for more than 1 year must remember him, 4-mat, he released many excellent music pieces for Anarchys' more or less good productions. He topped all musicians charts for many months. After he had been on the top for some time and he looked to stay there forever, some musicians started to complain that 4-mat was not talented. He ripped all his instruments and there was no end of the complaints against 4-mat. This stopped with Zine 10. In this issue Zine was asking all the OTHER musicians on the Eurochart what they thought of 4-MAT. They all slaughtered him! Because of this 4-mat left the scene and choosed to make music for different games. He was tired of the scene! Now, one year after, the Scene can welcome 4-mat back. RAW is the first magazine that got an interview with the most "famous" scene musician on the Amiga ever. Why did you return to the scene? I took a year off, with Sonic Projects, and basically just tried to write better music, working for companies helped a lot. They expect a more varied amount of styles, and when Tip & Mantronix joined then obviously I had to push my talent to try and keep up with them.. Eventually at the end of 1991, I thought I had improved enough to rejoin the scene. Do you think that you make better music now than one year ago? In my opinion, yes, now I don't switch the Amiga on that often, there's no pressure to HAVE to write music for Anarchy.. Besides, I much prefer writing and playing "real" music than just writing Amiga stuff.. I think before, because I was suposed to be this GREAT musician I pushed myself too quickly before I really understand what music was about.. Now I really don't care what people think of my work, I used to, so I stuck to well-trodden styles like Eurodisco and stuff.. Now I feel free to do whatever styles I like! Tell me the most positive thing about the scene? Hmm.. I don't know, probably the demos, I mean that's the reason I first joined the scene, and for me that's what the scene is about. I don't have games, I just collect demos. Also the cool people out there, I have some good friends in the scene, most are members of Anarchy, but I have friends outside the group. And the most negative one? People who are all to happy to slag you off when you get some fame, even if you didn't want it in the first place. Did the Sonic Projects develop as you wished? Yes, it did work out, I didn't lose any money, and it's lead onto other things so that's cool. Tip and Mantronix were paid for their work, and I was paid for mine.. Now I've been offered a job with a development house so I'm still working in the music field even though Sonic Projects has finished. Tell us some of your previous/coming game music work? Okay, well over the last year I've worked solely on the Amiga : Cardiaxx (Electronic Zoo) Agony (with Tip and Mantronix, but we only did half the music!) Princ of the Yolk, Folk, Violator, Magic Land Dizzy (Code Masters) G-Loc (US Gold) Space Gun (Ocean) WarZone, Chuck Rock (Core) Leander (Psygnosis) (title song) I've done various other pieces, but I can't remember them! In the future I should be working mostly on consoles, and that's an area I really want to get into. Also, I'll be working with my band so I doubt I'll do much more Amiga work this year. < Flip Page > In Zine issue 10 you said that you should not have been placed in the Eurochart list at all! Many think you was the Best! Do you find your own fans STUPID liking your music? I didn't think people who liked my music were stupid, I was happy that they did, but in my own opinion I didn't think what I was writing then was worth all the rave reviews it was getting. I hope they like my new stuff because it has all been written because I WANTED to write it, not because I HAD to write it. Well, you reached the Number one spot! Do you think it was only LUCK! Don't you think that people actually LIKED your music? Obviously some people must have liked what I was doing, but I wasn't happy with it, a lot of my work had been spread that was half finished, or was just experiments, hence there is a lot more 4-MAT music around then most other peoples! I think I was quite lucky to be arriving on a wave of "new talent" from the UK, but even now I don't think I deserved my placing for the work I did then.. Maybe I'm too self critical, but I think if I was happy with those pieces I'd still be writing tracks like them! You was quite depressed when some Musicians slaughtered your music. Do you only hear what musicians tell you? Can't you hear the thoughts of NON-musicians ? Yes, I do now, but back then I tended to listen to what other musicians were saying, now I don't really care.. If I still listented to what they say I'd just be another clone like a lot of new musicians, I think I'm now just "4-MAT", and I'm happy to be myself. If I'm pleasing myself and other people, that's fine by me.. Tell me what you think of some of your songs: Dna Dream - Oh dear, I don't like this at all, but a lot of people do, TDK/Anthrox even did a MIDI version! Phantasmagoria - This I do like! It isn't particulaly original, but for it's time I think it did change an outlook on the UK scene, when coupled with Kreator's excellent demo. I think it was the first time a group in the UK went all out to challenge the overseas groups.. I listened to the song a few months ago, and surprised myself, I think the melody is one of the best I've written. I've now done a proper STEREO version, and that sounds okay. Psychopugs - Eh? Oh I remember this, took me 15 minutes to write, and was just a "filler" track for an ECS musicpack. I had to rush around the day before the ECS show compiling a disk, I was going to release a 3-disk music collection, but the coder never finished it.. hence this was done, it's crap! Many think you are a "Pop musician"! Now when you have returned to scene will you continue making the same music as before or will you try to make a new kind of music? I supose I used to be, though I don't like any "Pop" stuff at all, it makes me feel sick! I did do a lot of other styles though, but then the "Euromusic" wave came in and EVERYONE was doing Eurosongs.. The last Euro song I wrote was for Anarchy's Hardcore demo, and that's going to be it! I'm doing a lot more interesting styles now, if I'm going to keep interested in Amiga work, I better challenge myself. When it comes to "real" music, I prefer bands like "King's X","Pearl Jam","Last Crack","Led Zeppelin", "R.E.M" and musicians like "Jarre". Amiga musicians I admire are Tim Follin, Tip/Mantronix, AudioMonster, Bruno and HeatBeat. < Flip Page > Before you got a synth you ripped many samples! Do you think that ripping samples is OK, or are you today AGAINST ripping? Hey, what synth is this? Where's this synth? (Ehhmmm, Maybe a little misunderstanding Ed.) What actually happened was Tip, Mantronix, Nuke and a few other friends gave me some sounds! I'll admit I used to rip loads of sounds, because I couldn't get them anywhere else, but let's face it, most musicians at one stage have ripped sounds.. You'll notice with my new work, most of the sounds are mine, I sample my guitar,bass and organ a lot.. I should get a decent sound module this year, as I'll need it for this new job. I don't rip sounds very often at all now.. What about NEW musicians without synths?. Do you think they should BUY samples or can they rip till they can afford a synth? It's up to them, I'm not going to say anything! --- You CAN'T call him a BOASTER! 90 % would have been totally happy if their music got a 1st place in the Eurochart. 4-mat wasn't! 4-mat left the scene because every complained why he was on the 1st place. The scene LOST a great musician. The same thing happens in the year 1992. Tip is the most popular musician, Many musicians complains that he is not the best. Maybe they will stop complaining then Tip are leaving the scene? Is that what the complainers want? Musicians should NOTICE that "MOST POPULAR" don't mean "THE BEST". So if you are arguing against the chart. Tell why Tip is NOT the most popular musician, and NOT that he hasn't got enough talent. We want to KEEP the best dudes on the scene, don't we?