LORD HELMET


The  first interview ever, with the man
behind  the most popular release in the
scene, brought to you by Top Secret.
Read about Raw and the man behind.

When did you decide to make a diskmag ?
And  was  it  a group (PMC) decision or
was it mainly you ?

RAW  got  started  late  91.  It was MY
decision.   Actually  the leader of PMC
was  against  RAW  in the start, but he
soon  changed  his  mind.  I think it's
here  RAW is different from other mags.
The  other  mags  are group productions
where  the  coder  decide  most  of the
things.   In  RAW  I decide everything.
And  I  think  the  others main editors
should do that do!

Right  from the first issue, Raw became
succesful.   All other new mags, need a
couple    of    issues   to   establish
themselves,   but  Raw  was  different.
What  do you think made the first issue
so popular ?

Only  bad  mags  need  time  to  settle
themself.   Before  you start a mag you
have  to  make a concept.  Ask yourself
the  question:   "What will I do better
than  the  others  mags",  and if can't
find  anything  don't  start  a mag.  I
think I also today could have started a
new  mag that should be succesfull from
the  start.   When I started RAW I knew
that  I  could  do  better than All the
other  mags  in  certain  areas, so the
success wasn't that surprising for me.

After  the  first  issue,  the standard
improved  until it reached an extremely
hign  standard  with  issue  #3.  In my
opinion  this  standard  has  been kept
during  the  two latest issues, but not
improved.   What's  your  opinion about
Raw's development and do you think that
you  are capable of rising the standard
?

Of  course  we  are  capable of raising
that  standard, but that will mean much
more  work to increase little.  I think
RAW   in   the  future  will  keep  the
standard  that  it has now.  But it all
depends on time and motivation.

Are there things/articles that you have
regret  that  you have published during
the  5  released issues ?  (What ?  Why
?)

It's  only  one  article  that I regret
that  I  published,  that  is  the  "10
reasons  why  Tip  &  Mantronix" sucks.
That   article   was  only shit and not
serious  at  all.   Otherwise  I  don't
regret anything.

In issue 5 you presented a new style in
Raw  and   perhaps in the diskmag-scene
in  general.   Only  scene-stuff.   Why
this change ?

It's  not  a big change at all.  In RAW
issue  3  and  4  there  are  minium of
articles  not  involved with the scene.
We   published   only   4-5  non  scene
articles  in  RAW 4.  So for the normal
reader this means nothing.

Do  you think it's possible to keep the
amount  of  articles  on the same level
now, without decreasing the standard of
the articles ?

The  amount of articles is not a target
in   itself.    It's   the  quality  of
articles.   If  we  only  have  20 good
articles.   I  will  release  RAW  with
those 20 articles.  RAW has never tried
to  get  the  most articles of the mags
around.   Of  course  there  can  be  a
danger   that  we  don't  get  so  much
articles  in  future RAW issues, but we
will   instead   use   more   bytes  to
Gfx,music etc.

Has  it  been easier, during the period
Raw  has been released, to get the most
talented  people  in  the scene to work
for Raw ?

RAW  had good support already from it's
start,  so  it  has always been easy to
get  the  most  talented people to work
for RAW.

Making  a  diskmag  is hard work.  Have
you ever thought about quitting ? (When
Why ?)

For  many  persons  it  is  either FULL
ACTIVE  or  QUITTING.   For me it's not
like  that.   I release RAW when I feel
for  it.   So  therefore  I  have never
thought  of qutting the mag.  If I have
no  time  or  inspiration  for RAW I do
nothing,  but  a month later I can work
as  hell.   Therefore we in RAW have no
deadlines or releasedates.

What  makes you keep on working so hard
?  The money ?  Ambition ?  Fun ?

To  be  honest  I don't know.  I have a
inner  motive  power  that  drive me to
work  for  RAW.   Also  the fact that I
please many people with my work is also
a  great  motivation.   Without all the
Moral support RAW wouldn't exists!  The
money  is  great,  but if you work only
for money you can give up!
All  diskmag  people says that it is so
hard  to  make a diskmag.  I disagree..
Making  a  diskmag  is not SOO hard and
time consuming.

You are famous for your ideas.  Does it
get  harder  and  harder  to  get those
ideas ?
The  ideas  come with your inspiration.
If  my  inspiration  is  great,  I  can
create  10  new ideas in one hour.  But
If  I  don't  feel  the inspiration for
RAW,  the  ideas don't come that quick.
So the answer to your question is NO!

For how long time do you think Raw will
stay no.1 ?  And if a diskmag ever will
push  Raw of the first place, which mag
will it be ?  Zine ?

At the moment I don't see any mag close
to  RAW.   But  the  delays  &  lack of
inspiration  we  got  lately  give some
other  mags  the oppurnity to close the
gap  to RAW.  These mags can soon start
to   push   RAW:   Top  Secret,  Sledge
Hammer, Upstream and The Jungle.

Before  the  release  of  Raw  #5,  you
decided  to  join Spaceballs.  What was
the  reason for leaving PMC and why did
you choose Spaceballs ?

The  reason  for joining Spaceballs was
that  I  had more friends in Spaceballs
than  I had in PMC.  So the joining was
not that difficult!

Raw    takes    money    for    placing
advertisements  and as far as I know it
cannot  be sold without your permission
(probably  without getting some money).
Do  you  make money on publishing Raw ?
How many ?
I don't know.  But it is not that many.
Nothing to get rich of.

Try  to  tell  us your best, your worst
and your funniest experience with Raw.

BEST:
The Best experiences is all the letters
I  got  from  the  readers that praises
RAW.   I  also  liked the first time we
got  a  first  place.  It was in Stolen
Data  March  92.   At  that time I knew
that I had succedded.  I was overhappy.
But now charts doesn't mean much.

WORST:
My   worst   experience   was  then  we
released  RAW  4  and it only worked on
Machines  with  more  than  1Mb memory.
But  we  soon  fixed  the bug, but many
wrong copies had been spread.

FUNNY:
The  most  funny moments was then I and
Tommy  wrote the Funny articles for RAw
issue  1  &  2.   At  that time we were
TOTALLY CRAZY and had a real good time.
Now  RAW  is  a  bit  more serious, and
Tommy  is not in the RAW staff anymore.
That's a pitty!!!

Tell   us  which magazines (also Raw of
course)   have   the   best  (different
catagories was mentioned):

At  the  moment I think RAW is ahead in
most  areas.  But Many mags are closing
the gap.

What   is  in  your  opinion  the  most
interesting  discussion  that have been
running  in Raw (Zine, Oscar, Tip+Mant.
vs.  Oistein Eide, etc.) And why ?

I  think the Tip/Mtx vs Oisten Eide was
a  very  interesting discussion because
everyone  had a view in the discussion.
Maybe   the  discussion  become  a  bit
overheated.   But  both parts got their
view  in  RAW,  and  I  don't think any
parts can call himself a winner.

What  is  your  biggest wish concerning
the scene and Raw ?
My biggest wish concerning the scene is
that the scene continues to develop the
demos,music, gfx to the better.  I hope
RAW  will  be  successfull  also in the
future.

Anything to add ?

Not really!