Inteview with Jester
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Interview with Jester/Sanity ------------------------------------ by Dolphin Before we start this interview, I have to thank Jester for his incredible patience and help. The post actually managed to destroy two sendings, so I was forced to send 3 times in order to get this interview! "Hi Jester! This is supposed to be a "chat" with you. Maybe you can begin by introducing yourself. E.g. your age, earlier groups etc." "Okey doke, I've been wandering round this little planet for almost 21 years now, three of which I've spent on the Amiga scene. I've started out in a local group called "ROUGH TRADE" which was founded by me and my pal Diddle but really, this was more of a laugh. Some groups of greater or lesser importance followed but nothing of real quality was released during this time. Finally I ended up in Sanity and from this point on, I assume most people know the story." "Well, this seems like a pretty normal, but yet interesting career" "That's as may be but actually I had to fight a lot against people who hated me personally or because of my music. In one group the guys wanted me to produce Acid House tunes, just because these were "hip" at the time. Moreover the lads were very unprofessional when it came to producing and designing a demo which I quite openly complained about. I think I complained about a vast lot of things at this time, actually. But in the end I was obviously right because these guys are still the sad bunch of lamers they were back then while my concept seems to have worked. I have my own ideas of why almost every group I had problems with never became successful. The point is, they were never honest to themselves and they were unable to see their own mistakes. It has always been a policy of mine to spot especially the bad points in my work in order to improve in these areas. That seems to be something they have never learned. They preferred giving in to the illusion of having made something great and everyone who dared to interfere (like I did) was regarded as some sort of enemy." "I've noticed that you advertised about a tape entitled "Simplicity" made by your band, called Minimal Art. Can you please tell the readers when you started this band and also how the response has been. Have you made any serious money on this tape?" The project was originally started in 1990 when I wrote my first songs for vocal performance. It took a very long time until something was released because of internal problems but when the tape finally came out I was quite astounded by the overwhelmingly positive feedback it got. I myself was not too happy with a certain number of things, all of which had to do with the singer. First of all, he always needed to be motivated by slimy statements before he did anything and then he added far too much reverb to his voice and put in unplanned and unfitting background vocals which as a consequence sometimes delivered a rather distorted picture of the idea I had about certain songs. Anyway, I have now gotten rid of him and work completely on my own which in the past has always proven to be best. The project will now simply be entitled "minimal" since I didn't really like the longer version in the first place. The monetary aspect about the tape is not too exciting. Actually, the price merely compensated the costs I had making it, so I didn't really earn any big money. After all, it was not my aim to become rich by selling it but rather to give as many people as possible an idea of this facet of my musical imagination. Meanwhile I have written some new material and at some point in the future I will probably make a CD out of it. As you will know the music on "Simplicity" has been compared to the Pet Shop Boys quite often, a fact I never really understood. The NEW arrange- ments, though, I've made are a true step into their direction or even more a bit New Order-ish. To come to the point, I am already much more satisfied with new vocal stuff I've done that with the songs on "Simplicity"." "Many musicians have certain idols, people they respect and are being influenced by. Can you mention some musicians you like, both scene- and non-scene-related?" "I really don't have any idols in an orthodox sense but rather people who I really respect for their work or simply like what they do. Within the Amiga scene there are guys like Moby, TIP/Mantronix, Bruno, Julius, Lizardking, Uncle Tom, Nightlight and quite a lot of others who really give me a good time with their music. Actually, I think the list of composers I despise would be shorter. The best computer musician of all times, though, is to me Rob Hubbard because what he did with the good old C64 is so incredible and so revolutionary that I don't believe any Amiga scene musician will ever be able to reach his status. Commercial music I like includes the Pet Shop Boys, The Smiths, New Order, Electronic, Banderas, Frankie Goes To Hollywood and some 70's disco. Most of the pop music produced in the 80's is extremely fab, too. When I'm in the right mood I lend my ears to classical composers like Claude Debussy, Edvard Grieg or Peter Tchaikowsky. And, believe it or not, sometimes I even enjoy tracks by groups like Metallica or Faith No More. The music I hate the most is ordinary rock like Dire Straits, U2 and all that sad sort of unoriginal one-out-of-the-mass crap." "Terminal Fuckup was the latest dentro in a series of fuckup's. Your module was really wild/desperate. Is this the new Jester-style, or was it just an experiment?" "Hm, I don't really think so. If you take a look at the development of my music over the last two years you will notice that I've changed from a harmony-lover to someone who plays and juggles with sounds a lot. I don't really like to pick out one song and say: "Listen to this, it's my new style". In fact, it's the diversity and the constant change of genres that is typical of "Jester" music. I simply do what comes to my mind and I don't calculate any of my moves. Trouble is, recently quite a lot of people asked me for a tune and they all wanted something in the style of "The Machinery" (Terminal FuckUp) while I myself are already a few steps away from this type of music. So, the tune for TF was not an experiment but just another tune that has the same position as any of my other mods." (This interview continues on the next page...)Interview with Jester/Sanity ------------------------------------ by Dolphin (Continued from previous page) "With the birth of a new Amiga generation (I'm refering to the A1200 and A4000) many say that the A500 is dying. What do you think? Will the scene die?" "I personally believe it will move on rather than die. New computers offer new possiblities and there will always be people who like working creatively, so I can't really imagine that there won't be a scene one day. Actually, I believe the trend is going to be that software companies recruit their employees from the scene since it becomes more and more professional and has already provided a large number of great talents. The scene is some kind of a creative playfield on which people can develop their imaginative powers, so companies will be very interested in finding young talents that can do something the mass likes." "I know for sure that Sanity are planning a trackmo entitled "Broken Promises". Will you do the music in this production? And can you reveal some other future projects in Sanity? "There are probably going to be some tunes of mine in the demo but I can't really give you any details yet. Sanity has quite a lot of things in stock, I believe. Our new members Moby and Ra will soon show their talents in a new SNT demo, while I have worked on a new funny dentro together with Tron and HaVoK. Moreover, there will soon be some commercial games from Sanity members which I have made the musics for. Last but hopefully not least you should be able to find some modules from me in non-Sanity productions over the next few months." "Now you have some space where you can write greetings to your friends etc." "First of all, it was really nice to have a chat with you. Then I'd like to send out a hearty hi to all my friends Chris, Steve, Marc, Oliver, Alex, Peter, Sergio, Bjorn, Bobby, Andy, Filippo, Anders, Teijo, Borge, Fred and everyone else I have forgotten. Steve, I hope you'll have a fine time in Germany together with everyone else in Sanity and of course especially over at my place ! Chris, un beso grande para la guapa ! Alex, really nice graphics for the intro, you're one of the scene's best designers. That's all folks." Thank you!