Interview with Djamm of Sunlikamelo-D and KFMF

Written by N.r.t.h.

Djam(m) has been active in the demo scene as a musician since the old Atari ST times. Currently the 28-year-old French is a member of his own group Sunlikamelo-D and the Kosmic Free Music Foundation. Besides, he does freelance work for other groups such as Bomb and Nomad. He is one of the main characters in the tracker scene in France. His new homepage will open soon. It is going to be located at http://www.error-404.com/djamm.

N.r.t.h.: Were you on the Atari-scene? I've heard you had been part of the Replicants, right?

Djam: No, I made my little modules at home with my Atari ST but I was not in any group. Just like one of these kids admiring the ST's megademos! The guys who created Eko (n.b.: read more about Eko below) were actually in the Replicants.

N.r.t.h.: What were their nicks? (So that it reminds me of good souvenirs.)

Djam: Wow, you may not have known them. In fact they who were working with the Replicants were Maxx-out, Def-Klf and some others I have forgotten.

N.r.t.h.: These are the handles of some MadVision members.

Djam: Exactly! Wow, you remember that? Not a lot of people do. MadVision created a demoscreen, great for this time, in the Transbeauce Megademo if I remember right. But now, it seems so far away!

N.r.t.h.: True. Then came the Falcon, what did you release on this computer with your group Eko?

Djam: It's where we really started, and where I really started! We released quite a lot of things: our first demo was named Shade.prg, we remember it! I had challenged Maxx-out: "I'm sure you can't code any shade-bobs in one night!", and of course he did it! I still owe him a MacDonald's meal for that. I composed the music for Shade, a pure horror! Shade has been followed by an intro for the Place To Be Party which monitored many points, how many I don't know anymore. We also made: "Papa was a BladeRunner", "Eko System", "Are U Experienced", furthermore a game called H2O. At this period, I also composed the music of a game by G. Audolly, called Moon Speeder, as well as some tunes for his intros.

N.r.t.h.: Wow, you were productive Falcon-sceners! Were many people involved in this scene?

Djam: Quite productive, yes! I believe, without wrong modesty, that we were the best on this computer, though there weren't lots of groups, we were only few to face each others: Adrenaline, MjjProd, us... hum, what was the name of this group from Lyon (France)? Ah yes, it was Abstract.

N.r.t.h.: All these groups are coming from the Atari ST.

Djam: Yes, only from the ST, since just a few people bought a Falcon at its release, except Atari fans. Music on Falcon was tracked music: ProTracker with four channels, 44KHz at least! There were no multi-channel tunes at the beginning (maybe with Audio Sculpture, but as far as I can remember, it was hard to play its modules due to its effects), multi-channels came a long time later.

N.r.t.h.: Do you know if Animal Mine had moved to Falcon? (Germans are nice sceners!)

Djam: Yes, yes, they were on it! We met them at the SiliConvention 94! What a souvenir! I met the guys from Avena, Animal, Lazer, Aura... Excellent rendez-vous with Tommy! Germans are very good and very nice, but how the hell can they eat some sausage sandwiches at 7 in the morning?!

N.r.t.h.: Let's come back to you, it's what an interview is for, no? So it seems you moved on PC?

Djam: Major X continued a bit with Mars on Falcon, Eko's members worked on different projects, and we switched to the PC demoscene. Maxx and E.t (a friend of us who helped us a lot) kept on working on video games. I continued to compose modules there for some friends we had already had on Atari, such as Arrshock, Patapom (ahah!) as well as Zappy, and the Flirt was born at the Saturne Party. I have also made tracks for Igloo and some other groups. Then with Mercure, we founded Sunlikamelo-D, a music-group (n.b.: some of the members besides Djam are Lluvia, Alexel, Mercure, Hornet). Unfortunately, we all have our duties, our respective jobs take us lots of time so Sunlikamelo-D is not very very active.

N.r.t.h.: You're a kind of free-lance composer, a Statix-like scener!

Djam: Ahah! That's not all, I am also a member of KFMF, the Kosmic Free Music Foundation, and I continue tracking again and again, for Bomb, Nomad, and some other groups.

N.r.t.h.: Something about your non-scene job, you are working at Club- Internet, aren't you?

Djam: True but don't tell it!

N.r.t.h.: Now the whole world knows it, however it doesn't move you apart the Internet, your sites are so numerous I need my toes to count them!

Djam: Actually yes, I can't stay on a sole site because as soon as it is more than a month old, it looks obsolete to me. But this time I promise, tuner.com and my homepage will stay as they are!

N.r.t.h.: Few words about Tuner.com, is it doing well? Is it only a "for French" site?

Djam: Yes, yes. Recently, I haven't found the time to update and maintain it, but it's starting well. It's a compo-site, one imposed sample-pack and go for it! And everybody can submit his module.

N.r.t.h.: By the way, what is happening to your Modarchive site? It also seems that you have many homepages.

Djam: Well, I deleted this site! There were not enough hits for this one. In fact, I did have a lot of homepages, but now, they're all moving to the one and unique http://www.error-404.com/djamm.

N.r.t.h.: I think it's now the time to ask you the usual "stupid" questions. Did you come with your parents? Favourite colour? Who was (is) the musician of the scene impressing you most? Favourite coder? Group? Pixeller?

Djam: Ahah, no, this is too much stupid (smile). Still I can tell you that my favourite colour is blue. Concerning composer, it's Nuke! He is still, and forever, my idol. The only one! He is the guy who forced me to track. Extasy is a great coder, for my favorite group... well, it's mine! And the pixeller, I ought to say Made but since everybody answers that, I choose Niko! Not always the same!

N.r.t.h.: Can you tell us if you've got any projects for the scene right now?

Djam: We are working on new demo projects with Bomb and Nomad (smile).

N.r.t.h.: Have you got more "professional" projects in music?

Djam: Yes and no. Well, let's say that I'm focused on my job for now but I'm also working on some audio tracks actually. They're ready for the most, but they stay hidden in my hard-drive! For now...

N.r.t.h.: Good luck for that. It was nice to interview you, a last word?

Djam: Yes, a Mega-Greet to Mercure who found a new job I can't talk about yet. Go for it man!

N.r.t.h.: Thanks Djam.

- N.r.t.h./Headcrash/Trebel