Hugi #34 - Behind the Music
Written by Magic of Nah-Kolor
With Chromag, Traymuss and Siatek composing the music quality is guaranteed! In this article you can read about all three musicians and about their five tracks which are included in this issue of Hugi!
Featuring:
Chromag of Rebels
with 'Starchild'
Traymuss of Futuris
with 'Delicate Blowing of Sky'
and 'Dream of my Angel'
Siatek of Nah-Kolor
with 'Journey to Bali'
and 'Monochromatic'
Prologue
The Hugi Staff wants to thank Chromag, Traymuss and Siatek for composing some really, really great music! Talking about quality music for a demoscene magazine I don't think you can have more to wish for with these three composers in our humble opinion. Before we will turn over to the three musicians in question perhaps some nice anecdotes are at place. You have probably heard the 'Welcome to Hugi issue 34' voice by now in the opening track by Chromag. This was not really intended. In the very first preview of this track Chromag inserted 'Magic is going to wank' for fun. :) So Magic thought why not change it to 'Welcome to Hugi issue 34'? And like a leap of faith so it happened. The contact with Traymuss was always spox (cool). Though he basically can't write English, in one way or another the contact was quite understandable :) And last but not least: Siatek. He has kind of become our regular 'in-house' musician here for Hugi as we now used four of his tracks within a year :) Thanx mate! Oh, Siatek, get more active, the contents on your harddrive deserve this :) Thank you, all three of you, once again.
Magic:
You already introduced youself to our readers in issue #33. Please tell us something again about yourself for the sceners who might have missed it.
Chromag:
I am a 32-year-old musician and originally started composing on an Amiga 500 in 1989. People who have been involved in the
Amiga demoscene might remember some of my more famous productions called Chromagic (a musicdisk by Dual Crew-Shining) or the soundtrack
to Switchback, a demo by Rebels. Most of my stuff has been released around the mid ninetees, but recently I have started to become
active on the PC demoscene as well, now using more professional audio equipment. Honestly, I have just come back to my roots and
have started to compose
4 channel tracks again, even though I do that on the PC, not on my - still working - Amiga 1200. In real life, I am working at the University, teaching students of special education and writing my doctoral thesis which deals about language development. I am a father of a gorgeous little daughter and enjoy being married for almost five years now.
Magic:
Can you tell our readers about the making of 'Starchild'? (Where did you get inspiration, what programs did you use, how long did it take you to make it etc.)
Chromag:
Actually, Magic gladly asked me to do a track for Hugi again and I sent him the track that was later used in Rebels' New World Demo, which wasn't so certain to be released at all. After we managed to release it at Kindergarden '07, I immediately started to compose another relaxed track, only a bit more suitable for a diskmag. The track is called Starchild, which now features various parts, took me about a month to finish, since I had to work on some other projects as well at the same time. Luckily, Magic revealed to me that Starchild would be the opening track to issue 34 and that it was going to be released at Breakpoint '08. Basically I have used a sequencer tool and vst-instruments, also some drumloops I got from a sample-CD. The voice is actually a synthesized girl from AT&T labs.
Magic:
How did you choose the names for your track?
Chromag:
Well, that's a stupid story to be honest. I was looking around for track-names of bands which I liked in the past, for example Sisters of Mercy or Fields of the Nephilim. The latter band's most famous track is Moonchild, so I named this one in honour to that great track.
Magic:
What do you want to tell the readers who are listening to your track in Hugi #34?
Chromag:
Since we are all around here on Breakpoint, watching, reading and listening to this, why not share some beer? So feel free to invite me. Else I'd like to send some massive greetings (golden elite style) to all the organizers of this year's Breakpoint. You just kick ass!
Traymuss
Magic:
Please introduce yourself to our readers.
Traymuss:
Hi, I'm Traymuss. I live in Poland. I was born in 1979. I started my adventure on the demoscene in 1991 with composing music on the C-64. I changed to PC in 1993 and I stayed on the PC until today. My groups on the demoscene are: Addict, Futuris, Moonflow and Vague Records. Since 1994 I really started to compose and I have been active until today. I am a comprehended electronic engineer (electronics) but I have a very varied music style. I am the founder of the music group called 'Implexy'. My main motto is: 'The SCENE RULEZ'. If anybody wants music for a demo, intro etc contact me at traymuss@wp.pl. I never decline because composing music is my passion.
Magic:
Please share some information on how you composed 'Delicate Blowing of Sky'. Where did you get your inspiration for it, what programs did you use and how long did it take to make it?
Traymuss:
I don't remember where the idea for this song came from. I sat behind my keyboard one evening and just began composing. From the start it had to be fast and sharp, dynamic and scrap d&b, but later I resigned from this idea and decided that there would be something melodious: a guitar from my colleague 'Remigiusz'. I used Scale tracker, which had a advantage: 'CoolEdit'. I composed the first version within 2 hours. Afterwards it had many transformations and now it is possible to hear it after several emerged days.
Magic:
Can you also tell us about the making of 'Dream of My angel'?
Traymuss:
Composing Dream of Angels did not give peace in my thoughts for a long time. I just had to compose it! The ultimate version of this track would be exactly how I imagined it to be. I have taken advantage in the creation of this track from Reasona, reactor, Cubase vst. Whole. The process has occupied me for one day. I corrected the outcome in the days and also this track went trough different transformations. I composed it because this music is really my passion!
Siatek
Magic:
You already introduced youself to our readers in issue #33. Tell us again something about you as a beginning for people who missed it.
Siatek:
OK so my name is Zbigniew Siatecki, I was born in Poland in 1980 and I am still living here. I'm working as a 3d artist in the game industry. From time to time I made some soundtracks for DS and Wii games as a freelancer. My dreams? Hmm... I have a lot of time for composing and made some songs (for example Journey to Bali) with real instruments and with a real band. Actually I'm trying to get some cash for AKAI EWI4000s wind controller and have this great plan to learn how to play on it :) When I'm not working I'm trying to sleep .. This is hard really :)
Magic:
Can you tell me about the making of Journey to Bali? (Where did you get inspiration, what programs did you use, how long did it take you to make it, etc etc.)
Siatek:
I started to compose Journey to Bali on my Korg MicroX. I started with a bells preset and wrote a 30-second loop. Then I just left it at that and made some other 30-second songs. My girlfriend really liked 'Journey to Bali' and she asked me if I could finish it for her mp3 player. So actually there was no way not to finish it, she is much stronger than me :) The final version was not made on the MicroX because I had to sell it. So you don't hear those bells :( I'm very sad because they sound much better than this plastic guitar like instrument now. For the final version I used: Roland Juno-G (piano, clarinet, guitar and harph), Atmosphere (strings), Trilogy (bass), Session drummer 2 (guess what ;) and one loop in the background. For sequencing I use an ableton live 5. All of instruments are played by myself and are not quantized :)
Magic:
Can you tell me about the making of Monochromatic? Where did you get inspiration, what programs did you use, how long did it take you to make it etc.?
Siatek:
Monochromatic is a one-night song. I just borrowed a moog synthetizer from my friend and began playing, playing, and playing and then recording recording and recording continued by arranging, arranging, and arranging with in between some drinking, drinking, and drinking and having a good time :) Yes, this is really a one-night song :)
Magic:
How did you choose the names for both tracks?
Siatek:
Oh ... this was a very hard and complicated process. For most tracks it tooks weeks or even months (sometimes it took some years). Ok I'm just kidding. :) 80% of my songs are named this way:
- Searching in English dictionary
- Choose some random pages
- Choose some random words
- Try to fit these words to make some sense
On my HDD all songs are named like this:
dji389asd.ALS or dupa138ASD5gfd0.ALS
Sometimes I use more complicated names like:
lksjdflksjfsl.ALS or 4r89udfdj.ALS :)
Magic:
What do you want to tell the readers of Hugi #34 who are listening to your music?
Siatek:
I love music, really. I know I can still learn a lot but if you need a track just let me know and e-mail me. When I read e-mails where you are telling me that you like my music I get much 'power' to compose. In all of my songs you can find some stories from my life. So just use your imagination :)
Magic of Nah-Kolor