Ymgve at 14:58, 21 June 2007

2007-06-21T14:58:18Z

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<pre>
interview i
-------------
done by pharao

well, after many discussions who we
should interview, iopop, came up with
the idea to interview tchad. he accepted
to be interviewed only if we interviewed
tjost, too. so here you'll get the two
interviews. the one with tjost is in the
second chapter.

if anyone would like to contact me for
some hip-hop tape swapping or anything
else. then write to:

PHARAO/FAIRLIGHT

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

? pharao

! tchad

? please introduce yourself to the
readers!

! hmm, for those who didn't notice:
i'm TCHAD of JAM and i'm supposed to
be our contactman. my physical char-
acteristics are:

height : 191 cm
weight : 92 kg
hair : brown
glasses : yes
haircut : no!
wearing : always black jeans and some
lousy sweat-shirt and of
course white socks!

birth : 14th of august 1975
in söderhamn/sweden

interests:
----------
discussing, mathematics, philosophy,
physics, politics, singing, playing
indoor bandy and maybe computers...

yeah, that's me!

? how did you get your handle?

! it's a long story... and to be honest
i don't know if anyone but me knows
about it... well, a long time ago
maybe 1982-1983 or something, i lived
in källby, a small village in the
northern part of scaraburg/sweden.
as there were lots of kids in this
area, we often played together. this
was the time when no one had a comp-
uter or video-game, so we always
played outdoor. among other games we
played something called "land & rike"
(swedish). in this game you are supp-
osed to play a country of your choice.
everyone had his own favourite-country
except me. i remember that the others
always chose usa, canada, china or
the soviet union, just because their
big land-area (even if that didn't
make sense in the game). i never
played the same country twice, i
always chose countries with strange
names. i.e tahiti (if that's a coun-
try) haiti and kuwait. once i played
tchad (which is a very poor country in
the middle of the world). after that
time everyone called me tchad, my
school-mates and somtimes even some of
my teachers. they kept my name for 6-7
years (and everybody still keeps it)
and then, i bought my first computer
and formed my first group and called
myself TCHAD. that's it. (i have also
been called thailand, tchad from thai-
land, taikon, storematte, nyematte,
fete, sjunkas, flum, LAME, pucko to
mention a few examples. my new friends
here in umeå usually call me mattias.)

? what is your function in jam?

! as i mentioned, i am supposed to be
the contactperson in jam. some prefer
to call me leader, but i think that it
is a misguiding title. furthermore i
reckon that the expression "leader" is
kinda lame. a group isn't any military
device or power-sucking company. a
group is a group of friends, doing
whatever they feel like. this def-
inition doesn't fit many groups nowa-
days. no more comments!

? when did you get your first c64 and
what made you start to code?

! i bought my first c64 (128d) on the
1st of march 1988. and in the middle
of 1989 (july, august) i coded my
first m-c-routines like :

c000 inc $d020
c003 jmp $c000

well, if i knew exactly why i started
to code, i would be a master-psycho-
logist. i thought it was interesting
and fun and i was impressed about
those old pimplesqueezer-routines.

? what makes the c64 so special compared
to, for example, the amiga and pc?

! first, its history! well, i think that
there is a special spirit over the
c-64. the c-64 was also many guys'
first contact with computers. this
implies a strong feeling of nostalgia.

? which was your very first demo?

! i received a couple of small science
451-demos from my friend xaw/jam and
of course pimplesqueezer iii and also
our style iii by starion... my first
real mega-demo was triad/immortal.
this was the best i had ever seen. i
got it from my first contact ever,
daniel bränn... something...
triad/immortal was good, until i saw
channel 64/flash. it was almost like
amiga!! (haha, what a jerk i was/am!)

? when did you join jam and what has
changed since that time?

! i joined jam in late 1989. it's silly
to say that jam was a group then, coz
we only produced demo-maker-demos.
well, much has changed ofcourse. the
c-64-scene is dying and real life has
developed much too. i can mention that
i and tabasco counted all members in
jam through all times and we came to
the conclusion that 37 dudes, cool or
lame, had been a jam-member. for those
interested i can inlude the list we
counted :

tabasco, terric, red devil, xaw, tchad
tjost, toast, ginger, jack, frock, thb
zatt, nexus, bungalow, tomcat, wolve-
rine, hogiz, hoist, merlin, bogomil,
bumboo, iopop, black samurai, cypher,
drowsy, kaoz, funny, the gee, happy-
maker, french flair, maja, cool mc,
mr.alpha, technoid, static, artic and
dr.turk.

some may be missing

we are only :

tchad, tjost, zatt, merlin and bogomil
these days!

? tell us the history of jam!

! well, i just told a great part of it
but i can also tell you about how it
all started. i have been told that the
first indication of a group was back
in 1984. tabasco and terric formed
a small group with their vic-20:s.
the group-activities consisted of
game-buying and game-playing until
they bought their first c-64:s. when i
joined in 1989, tabasco, terric, red
devil and xaw were the only members in
jam. i started coding and tjost joined
in too. well, we gained some members
here and there and there were some
small releases. crax, small demos,
mega-demos and ofcourse jamaica.
we had our first big break-down when
red devil joined flt. our second was
just before tcc'93. our bbs dreamline
broke down and thus, our status-symbol
towards the rest of the scene. however
the biggest breakdown was when tabasco
left us. there wasn't anyone left who
cared about our activity. thus, we
lost jamaica and now, our only project
is a mega-demo consisting of pure
hard-core-math.

? have you been in any other groups
than jam?

! nope, what's the sense of not being
allowed to decide over your own spare-
time?

? what are your future plans on the c64
and what is the future of jam?

! as i mentioned, some kind of math-demo
project. since i've made friends with
a mathematics-student who is able to
code 6510, i think that he will code
something too.

? if jam dies will you quit the scene
or join another group?

! jam will never die. at least not a
sudden death. the activities are now
at lowest level and since i haven't
left jam now, i never will!

? if you quit the scene will you start
to code on another computer?

! no, there is no sense in starting to
code on another computer. i cannot see
the meaning of coding demos anylonger.
if i started to code games and such
for real, i think that it would be
boring after a while. i am not a
programmer. i want to enjoy the comp-
uter i don't want it to enjoy me and
my despair.

? who are your best friends and worst
enemies on the c64?

! my best friends should be all jam-
members (tjost, zatt, merlin and bogo-
mil), tabasco, red devil, terric,
iopop, bungalow and maybe some of my
contacts like :

pat/agony
tommy backwoods/panic
trillion/impulse
dejan & bojan petronijevic/tempest
zimbo

and some friends i met at herning'94

happymaker/reflex
stan/equinoxe

i won't mention any of my enemies
here! i'm sure that anyone that i hate
already knows about it.

? what are your future plans in real
life?

! i plan to finish my master of science
here in umeå. i study technical
physics. i maybe go abroad for a year
some time. maybe iceland or hungary or
something more exotic and special.

? what will you do in ten years?

! well, if the worst thing happens i
sit on my chair in a big company like
ericsson, abb or telia. that's not my
dream if you know what i mean. i have
a dream that i could combine my inte-
rests into something special. maybe do
research in the topic of life-devel-
oping. i mean, to study why life
exists and so on. maybe also to
develop a nuclear power-system without
any waste at all. that would solve any
environmental problem i think.

? which are your best/worst qualities?

! best:

i am tolerant with other people
i grew up on the countryside.
i have a strong left brain-half.

worst:

i have problems in being understood.
i have a weak right brain-half

? please tell us your favies!

! food : kålpudding
book : hitchhiker's guide
movie : alien
music : front242, kraftwerk
tv : sportnytt
coder : crossbow
graphic : ahh, i hate'em all. they
only digitize.
musician : jch, swallow, rob hubbard

? do yo got any last words?

! yes, i'd like to thank everyone i ever
worked with and everybody else too. i
hope you enjoy this last issue of
jamaica - jamaica dozen!

even the greatest stars

dislike themselves in the looking glass!
</pre>

Jamaica 12 ch07 Interview I - Revision history

Ymgve at 14:58, 21 June 2007