Jamaica 12 ch07 Interview I

               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

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? 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!