Mamba 08 ch02 The Interview
From C64 Diskmag Wiki
the interview
-------------
yes u see right! this time we offer
you only one interview, because a guy
called jch has send us a book about
his life (he,he,he, just a joke).
well i will lean on his introduction
and let him simply go like this:
hi! actually i got several offers
from different mags for an interview,
but after seeing mamba i'm convinced
that u are the one that ought to get
it. i hope u'r aware of the fact that
i have been interviewed once before
in 'lethal news no.2', anyway those
questions they asked me there was
standart questions for all types of
work (a little boring) so i thought
your questions were a little funnier!
anyway let me get on with the inter-
view. i hope it won't be too long for
mamba! (eg.we love writing books,...)
m:mamba
j:jch
m: yo jens, tell us something about
your person and where do you live.
j: ok, here we go: i'm jens christian
huus, maybe better known as jch.
i was born 26/2-1966 and therefore
must be 24 today and i live in
denmark. i can't tell u my weight
and height as i haven't measured
it recently and sure as hell won't
fuzz down after the rule now!
anyway i'm quite normal looking
actually. as i told one of my con-
tacts a few days ago (he asked me
the same question), i don't miss
any legs or anything!
m: what's your group, your task in it
and what are your abilities?
j: i'm a musician in vibrants (sur-
prise, surprise!). i also did all
the music tools we use in the
group, like players, editors, re-
locaters, packers and stuff like
that. i know a great lot about the
sid-chip if i may say so, but i
don't think my demo coding abili-
ties is anything to write home a-
bout!
m: when was your group built,why,how
and who is in?
j: well, the group vibrants was actu-
ally the result of a craze that
once went around, you see every
musician seemed to create a music
group. in the beginning i thought
this was not for me but then link
the first to get my editor, sug-
gested that we should create a
group too, and fast! reason was
that i was going to the pcw-show
in england and we wanted to have
it already by then - so, we tried
to figure out a good name for the
group. on the phone, link and i
went through names like 'dudes of
volume' and stuff like that but i
thought most of them were either
too silly or sounded like 'maniacs
of noise' - in the end i came up
with something upon 'ants', you
know, the small thingies crawling
around on yer shoes when u walk a-
round in the forest!?!...
'audio ants' was then the best
shot until then, but somehow link
didn't quite like it. then i came
to think of some of the mechanics
in a music-player like arpeggio,
slide, pulsating and vibratio!
suddenly i just had it! we just
spliced together vibratio and ants
and had - vibrants!!! later on i
discovered that the word vibrant
actually existed too, but that
just makes it even better. so, in
the beginning we were just link
and i, and i think it was in au-
gust '89 or somewhere. but while
we were creating this group, drax
had by then got my editor a long
time ago and so had metal. they
created a group called unitech,
but as drax got even better and
better we decided to let him enter
the group - needless to say, he
was more than willing to enter
vibrants - so there you all have
it!
m: (just an interview in itself, eh?)
anyway, you got famous! do you
care? how was yer career and where
id u start?
j: well, i must be, obviously as i'm
on the top of most disc-mag charts
all the time! i don't think this
is quite fair though as i can
think of at least 5 people who
ought to be higher than me, but it
unfortunately also depends on how
active a person is. tim follin
rarly releases musics in in games,
still he should be on the top. but
of course it sometimes makes me
smile, i'm a human afterall! i do
not like boasting around though, i
always keep in mind what my limi-
tations really are and how i can
improve both, my music and my rou-
tine. let me see, where did it all
start... yes, if i should take it
from the absolute beginning i
think it started when chris huels-
beck released his sound-monitor
for the very first time. now that
is a long time ago! anyway, at
that time i was very much fond of
rob hubbard, i simply thought he
was the best and i wished he would
stay on the 64 for evermore. as i
heard his music through all the
time i more and more wanted to
create my own music-routine. i
dreamed of it a lot without really
pulling myself together and when
sound-monitor then arrived i
thought, "yeah! here is the music-
editor i've been waiting for!"
- but when i saw how much time it
took and especially how much memo-
ry it ate i suddenly exploded and
and thought "never!" - i became so
angry that i sad down and coded my
own routine. in the beginning it
took 11 chars of rastertime(!) but
it was only 18 blocks or something
and that was what mattered to me
most at that time. okay, later i
then, through my (at that time)
lousy contacts got in touch with
excell who joined the group i was
in, 'new men'. later he created
jewels together with fletch, doc
and gandalf and i joined them as
well and they also used some of my
very bad, musics i made. but what
the heck, i had my own routine and
was really special at that time!
but it was first in ikari (which i
never joined, but was still good
friend with excell and co.) that
my music began to improve and they
used a lot of it in their intros
infront of their crax. this way,
people began to ask who this jch
was anyway and then it just went
in one direction... in the begin-
ning of 1989 i then created a mu-
sic-editor we use today, which im-
proved my music even more as i
never got 100 per cent used to
composing in turbo-assembler!
m: what do you think about cracking
or simply the illegal scene, have
you got any friends there?
j: ever since the beginning of my
musical experiments i got cracks
floating on my table, especially
from rooze and excell. i've always
loved games but never the prices
of 'em so i've really not bothered
to much about how angry the soft-
ware houses get over it. think a-
bout it this way, the computer
firms won't admit it but i know it
is true, the success of a computer
depends on how many crackers sup-
port the machine.
this is why the atari st lost to
the amiga, because the pricetag on
atari was low enough to blow away
the amiga. all english mags even
supported the atari st most in the
beginnings but all crackers went
to the amiga in great numbers than
the atari. so all illegal software
was easier to get on the amiga,
thus, the amiga was the one people
wanted to buy.
dear computer firm, if you wanna
create a successful computer then
make sure the crackers will sup-
port the machine 100 per cent -
tough luck, tramiel. better luck
next time!
i have some friends who really
care about cracks, like ikari and
talent (dk) and the current group
rooze'n magic are in, called class
(they were in dcs before). rooze
gives me all the 64 games i desire
but i rarely get anything for my
amiga - it collects dust nowadays.
m: why aren't u illegal?
j: oh but i am! if the police ever
would visit my place they would be
in for a very big shock as i have
1900 (!) disx for my 64, collected
since 1985. i've most games since
then (please don't write to me for
"super cycle" or something, i do
not have the time to swap 'nostal-
gic' software!). i don't think i
have ever scratched any of the 64
disx i've received. before i got
into the scene at all, in 1984 or
something i even broke loaders
like 'novaload' and the like. i
can still remember i wrote
"cracked by jch" in the basic sys,
very funny really! today i don't
do anything illegal as i concen-
trate on music only.
m: do you earn money for your musix,
or why do you give them out and to
whom??
j: we've just recently begun compo-
sing for games. when i got to the
pc-show in '89 i tried to contact
8 different software houses and
gave them all a disc but none of
them replied. today we're doing
music for for private people, some
from england and some from austria
i did the music for a danish game
too once, it was called 'oswald'
and i earned a 1.5 mbyte expansion
for my amiga doing it, but that's
all i've got until now - but money
really doesn't matter for me as i
am doing it as a sort of hobby.
drax on the other hand wants money
bad! of course i want some money
for it, but i can't crawl under
anybody if i have to. if people
ask me for music i usually reply
that i'm too busy doing music for
games (but that's the truth,
really!) and just send them a big
collection of some music we've
done through time. perhaps one
here and there haven't been used
and i tell the guy to pick 'em out
himself, judging if he really
haven't heard it before! i also
have a couple of unused tunes
which i put aside if somebody real
cool asks me for some music - now
don't joke it please! it does hap-
pen - i think the last time was
in 1989 - no kidding!
m: (well sometimes it happens, i know
it jens, he,he,he...)
but tell me, what do u think of
other musicians? do u think u are
second best to anyone else?
j: there are some real aces in the
business, some of them have quit
today but might return, like jo-
hannes bjerregaard and jeroen tel.
other fantastic composers are
laxity, tim follin and moppe of
system 6581. i also like chris
huelsbeck a lot. he often uses
some wonderful echo-sounds and his
amiga-player sounds very smooth
too. one thing is saying that "he
is better than me" and "he is
worse" and so on, but what really
matters is does the music sound
good, does it have a good chorus,
is it varied enough and so on. it
is always nice to hear that some-
one likes your music, but what
really makes me happy is when a
musician, in particular a good
musician says you've done a good
tune there. that really warms you
up - because you then know it
really is good. the musician him-
self is the most critical judge u
can find.
m: do u have a favorite tune from ya
group ?
j: well, the best link has done is a
title and hiscore tune he made at
the 2000 ad copy-party. they were
really professional, they had a
great melody both of them!
drax is more like an assembly line
he has produced tons of music
through time so it is difficult
for me to say which is best, but
still i think i would vote for his
'poison' he made for a maduplec
demo once, it was very well put
together. the best i have done was
maybe 'push it' or 'batman'. i've
never ever 100 per cent satisfied
with a tune i've done though.
m: what are your hobbies besides com-
puting?
j: not many. i once saw a lot of vi-
deos but movies are very samy and
predictable these days. oh yes, i
have an arcade machine hooked up
to my amiga monitor and i sometime
gamble on it - i've these print-
cards for it: mag max, super cobra
elevator action, burnin rubber,
xain'd sleena, tokio and tutankham
(drool,drool!) it hurts my monitor
a lot though as i sometimes have
to turn it 90 degrees in order to
play f.ex.burnin rubber.
m: what kind of music-style do you
prefer? what music do u listen to?
j: now that's a funny question, be-
cause that is one of my biggest
problems when composing, getting
the style i want. i often want to
do a,say, fast funky tune but
might end up with a mody song. a
fast song with a good rythm and
chords that'll make it run cold
down your neck is what i prefer to
do. easier written than done! i
did that a little in 'batman', i
thought. as to what music i listen
to, well almost only 64 music, as
i have to keep track of what other
people make. this again is the
reason why i almost haven't got
any real music for the cd-player.
m: do u have enemies in the scene?
j: no not as far as i know. somebody
thinks my music is crap, but that
doesn't nessecarily make them my
enemies. it's impossible to satis-
fy everybody, f.ex. i think the
new acid style sounds great some-
times, but i hate heavy metal!
m: who are your friends then?
j: well i know a lot actually, like
some in buds, class, i+t, crest,
g*p, starion, ^front, bones, 1way
and,and,and (cough,cough!) - too
many!
m: is there still something you wanna
reach?
j: yes, there are some goals i would
very much like to get. now i have
done everything i ever wanted in
the demo/cracker scene, get famous
and well known. most of you out
there have at least heard of me,
but if you turn to the real legal
games-market, which real mags rule
like 'zzap! 64' and so on, nobody
have ever heard of me. my dream is
not only doing music for some
games but also to be positively
mentioned in the mags, like tim
follin was for ghost'n ghouls for
example when 'zzap! 64' tested da
game his name was on their lips
all the time - boy that must be
great!... (sigh!)
m: you make musix,so do u like people
using them in any kind of demos?
j: not at all. i make music for the
crowd! actually i've made my rou-
tine very easy to rip, it runs
like rob hubbards, very straight
forward really. but of course it's
funnier to hear it in cool demos,
wouldn't u say so too?
m: well yep, ahm would you join a
company, that offers u a job and
would u leave the scene???
j: well as i said two questions be-
fore there isn't much more i can
reach in the demo- and cracker-
scene. if a software house did it
i would think twice though, i'm
actually a veeeery lazy man, i do
not think i could forefil their
deadlines if they offered me a job
but it sure would be tempting and
it could hurt to try, could it!?!
m: what r ur favorite demos?
j: world record breaking demos begin
to bore my pants off - i would
like to see some more design demos
like blackmail's 'sophisticated 3'
that was really nice, especially
the graphix. i've always enjoyed
mr.cursors demos too. the best de-
mo crew there has ever been was
upfrunt. when they existed it was
in with these record breaking de-
mos and they made it fun to look
at. now everyone tries to be like
upfront, break a new record with
4857 sprites or something.
m: hey, what about a girlfriend? is
there someone in yer life?
j: no. i would like to try it, but i
think i'm too shy! honestly, i
don't think there is any woman on
earth who could stand my temper!
(he,he!)
m: if u could change the scene,would
you change anything?
j: i wish rob hubbard and martin gal-
way would return. i know this will
never happen but it sure would be
great. no, seriously da 64 should
get of it's dying tendencies. get
more software houses interrested,
more quality games done. it's im-
possible, forget it,64 is doomed..
m: have you ever been a member of the
papillons?
j: that sure is a strange question!
why do you ask? no,when they were
alive i was not very welknown.even
though we lived in the same city i
never got to know any of them at
all. i even remember a scene at
dexion's party once.i then thought
it was too stupid that we, papil-
lons and i, didn't knew eachother
although we were living in da same
city - so, when i met 'lenhart' a-
lone in a class-room, i tried to
introduce myself: "hi i'm jens -
i've noticed that we live in the
same town (etc)" - "so what?!",he
answered, went out and slammed the
door.
nope, i never knew the papillons!
m: by the way, what groups were your
forme ones and the former groups
of the other vibrant-members?
j: phew, that was a tough one! okay
as far as i can remember i started
in new men and then it went along
like this: galaxy,2000 ad,jewels,
wizax,dominators,channel 42,pro-
bably some more too. i don't know
if link has been in any other crew
than cheyens, but anyway he still
is. drax has been in nato and this
music group unitech. today drax is
only in vibrants. link is in both,
vibrants and cheyens. i'm only in
vibrants too.
m: have you ever joined parties? what
do you think about parties?
j: yes, i've been at quite a few da-
nish parties. i love copyparties,
you meet a lot of interresting
people and get a nice talk with em
demo-competitions are great too,
the thing with people clapping and
whisteling together at good and
lousy demos is just a cool feeling
the last one i visited was hz's!
m: who is the best cracking-group?
j: well,here i think i've to say i+t!
(sorry rooze,i can't help it),most
because of doc.there is no protec-
tion he can't break, i'm sure!
m: well thank you jens,(sorry i drop-
ped the last 3 questions because
they were not much of interrest
and i only have this page left!)
a las word u wanna say...?
j: i would like to list all three mem
bers addresses. if you have desire
in contacting us,then write to:
jch/vibrants link/vibrants drax/vibr.
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...thanx for the interview...
