Interview with Andromeda
I bumped into Andromeda of Noice and Razor 1911 on #trax the other day, and he asked when new Hugi was going to be released and if his song was going to be featured. We all know the answer by know. He also nagged like hell for me to interview him... nah... not really. He asked me when I was going to send him his interview, now that I'd already done Gnilk. I said "On Sunday", which I didn't because I sent it to him on Saturday. Now I have his reply, LATE AS FUCK! But since he's such a jolly fellow, and as I respect him very much as a tracker, I won't be too pissed about it. Let's get it on!
Makke: Tells us a little about your scene history. Like, how long have you been in the scene, and have you ever done anything besides music? What made you interested in, and why did you start contributing to, the scene? (Groups, parties, releases etc.) When did you get your first computer?
Andromeda: My name is Morgan Norrestam, probably better known as Andromeda of Razor 1911, Noice, Kosmic. I've been in the scene ever since I lifted my first pint... ;)
I got my first computer when I was maybe 9 years old, it was an Atari 520ST, should be in a closet somewhere :) ... Anyway I thought it was real cool since all my friends had C64s, and this machine (the Atari) was quite much faster and had smother & better looking graphics etc., so all my friends were at my house playing games during the days. :)
In 91 I got my first PC, it was a 386-20MHz, this one was cool since it had a hard drive so I no longer needed to see the 'please insert disk #2' shit.
I started to get interested in the scene back in 93 when i saw my first demo ever. It was Lunatic by Extreme, a demo for TCC'93 if I remember right. I thought it was real cool, especially the music, but I couldn't understand how people could be so skilled to do this kinda stuff, I really thought they maked demos as a living. :)
Well anyway, I started to collect demos and modules. So in 95 I got my hands on FT2 and started to compose, I thought it was real cool and that I was the king of music, but later on that year when I finally got my first modem I realised that I sucked pretty much. :)
My first group besides ehm lame groups with friends :) was Addict, I got in contact with them in 96 at a local BBS. Later on that year I joined Cryonics since Addict was kinda inactive. But in late 97 I got kicked out since I was kinda inactive and didn't have much contact with them anyway (which I actually do now). A few weeks later I joined Noice and Kosmic (KFMF). My first tune in a demo was in Noice TG'98 demo Goatage. I also did the music together with Evade for Destination Goatland, and later that year the music for Goatzilla.
In 99 I made a coop with Evade which turned out to be the music for Goatage, I also composed the end part music.
In late summer I joined Razor 1911 and made the music for the first Razor demo in ages, Mindstammer, which won Dreamhack '99. We're currently working on a 64k intro which hopefully should be finished for TP9.
Makke: How does your present hardware-lineup look?
Andromeda: Hmm... not much really, only a p2-400 with a SB16 + sound canvas. And of course, sample CDs etc., if you can call that hardware that is.
Makke: Do you do any MIDI or do you just track?
Andromeda: Only track, I have had thoughts about midi thought, but since it's quite expensive it will have to w8, I need a car first.
Makke: Do you have any other music activities going on besides the scene? Are you in any band, play some other instrument or perhaps make porn-soundtracks?
Andromeda: Hehehe... there's actually some rumours that there is a swedish tracker making music for porno movies. ;) (Yea, Zip was positive, he heard one of them we he was up late at night watching TV1000... hehe //Makke)
Anyway nope, besides tracking I don't have much musical experience, besides that I played the piano for 3 years when I was a kid, which of course has helped me a bit.
Makke: The soundtracks to the Noice demos are usually coops between the musicians in the group, but from what I can hear it's "your" sound that tends to be the main sound. Are you the "main musician" in Noice?
Andromeda: Don't want to comment the "your" sound statement, but yes you could say that me together with Evade are the main musicians in Noice. Actually there is no other musicians in Noice that has done anything for a demo since 97.
Makke: What's the connection between the Destination Goatland soundtrack and your song "Jelly Vibes" (Hehe!)? I almost thought I'd downloaded the wrong song for a few secounds.
Andromeda: Hehehe... actually the Destination Goatland track is a remix of Jelly Vibes.
Makke: The recently released follow up to the Stage 9-musicdisk, Return to Stage 9, features over 60 artists and songs. In my opinion it's a little overdone. I see it more as a "collection"/archive of good songs than a musicdisk, and the fact that a lot of the songs were already released a long time ago disappointed me a lot. What are your thoughts on this?
Andromeda: I agree with you. Loots of people including me ;) had like 4-5 tunes on the disk, Lizardking even had 8 tunes or something similar, which could as well be just one disk by itself. I believe in quality before quantity, and I prefer a interface for a music disk as well. And of course it's also kinda boring to release the tunes before the actual music disk has been released. Besides that I think 'Return to Stage 9' was quite a sucess.
Makke: I've gotten the feeling that Noice is a real boozers-group. What's your opinion in the "boozing at demo-parties"-issue? A lot of people don't like it, organizers for example, and a lot of people think it's part of their religion.
Andromeda: A party is no party without booze ;)... Most sceners I know like to booze on parties, including pantaloon, the main coder in Razor that actually got cought by the police when we where boozing a bit of too much at Dreamhack this year. ;) I can understand why organisers don't want people to hang around boozing at parties, but still it's a part of the demo cult, and shouldn't be removed.
Makke: Which was the best party ever honored with your presence?
Andromeda: Well, don't know if it's such an honour to have me on the party. :) But yes I had a great time at Dreamhack '99, even if there where loads of gamers at the party place.
Makke: Firing up good 'ol Razor 1911's demo division again was a nice gesture. Whose idea was it, and how come?
Andromeda: It was some of the dudes in the Razor 1911 warez section including Hetero and Fireblade and Graffik I think, mainly because they wanted to see some Razor 1911 demos again :) and also to bring the wares and demo scene a bit closer, like it was in the old days.
Makke: Would you mind terribly if I called you Sugarboots? (I'm running out of questions.)
Andromeda: What's that? Sockerstövlar in swedish? :) (Something like that // Makke)
Makke: Which/who are/is your favourite...
Demo(s) (PC/AMIGA/C64/ATARI etc.)?
Andromeda: I kinda like Robotnik by Rage as well as 9 fingers by Spaceballs, actually there is too much good demos to be mentioned in my list, let's just say I have lots of favourites.
Makke: Tracker(s)?
Andromeda: Hmm... hard question, there are loads of talented people out there, but my list of of the all time favourites should be something like: Chorus & Sid, Radix, Misty & Daeron, Zodiak, Lizardking, Purple Motion, Deelite, and yes I've probably forgotten a bunch of them, I just love old Amiga music.
Makke: Non-scene musician(s)/group(s)?
Andromeda: I like hard rock, like Metallica for instance, but I don't listen very much to non-scene music, at least not as much as scene music.
Makke: Bedtime story?
(No answer? // Makke)
Makke: Beer?
Andromeda: Heineken, Lapin (Lapin rules! // Makke)
Makke: Saying?
Andromeda: Yes it keeps the scene spirit alive, don't forget to bring beer and booze at the parties!
Makke: That's probably enough. Any final words/greets etc.?
Andromeda: Yeah, I want to greet all the people in Noice, Razor 1911, Kosmic, Cryonics, especially Gnilk, Krikkit, Graffik, Smash, Pantaloon, Mithris, Fireblade, Maelcum, Steffo, Case, also some greets to the fellows hanging around in #swedescene + the rest of the people I've forgotten.
And now some commercial. ;) If you want to take a listening to my music I've made you should have a look at andromeda-music.co.uk which should be up at the time this mag is released. Or you can get them from my directory at ftp.scene.org.