Interviews

Interview with Ne7

Published in Vandalism News issue 47
Performed by Macx


Andrew also known as Ne7 is a guy that resides near Greenwich, London. Now, that is one hell of a place to live in and he can take a tour with the Docklands Light Railway any day of the week. I guess doing just that is what motivates him to build his audial landscapes to travel through on a rainy day. Like with Wonderful Feeling released at all favourite British Sundown 2005. When he passes down under the Canary Wharf he feels just like surfing on the waves in Hipship. Ne7 got his big breakthrough in my world, I believe, with Beatnick and 78-80. He seems to like to collaborate with iopop and has had a few tunes in previous issues of Vandalism News. Ne7 is one of the corners in the way active Music Triad (see At MO7). Other than that he is quite a new name in the c64 music business, at least to most of us. He has come strong though, with some mental usage of the old chips. Too strong to be passed unattended in any way. Let's see if we can get to know the guy behind the weirdo handle any better. Interview conducted over e-mail and IRC in May and June 2006.


M)
Set the stage, what kind of person are you and what do you do besides juggle the tac2?

N)
Well I’m a good person... I think :). I'm self employed as a freelance musician in the computer games industry. This means I get to sit around in my dressing gown writing tunes which is always nice hehe.

I also do the odd bit of music for TV/Show reels and Films...


M)
How long have you been working with that?

N)
About 8 years - and about 5yrs with my own company - god has it been that long... hadn’t thought about it before :)



M)
Where can we hear your work?

N)
You can hear commercial music stuff by me in games like StarX and iNinja on GBA, The C64 DTV, various TV-game joystick things like the Disney Princess's (the big pink joystick ruled!) and lots of mobile phone titles amongst lots of things. :)


M)
Where did you live before you moved to Greenwich?

N)
I've lived all over the place but mostly in the South of the UK, near to Brighton for the past 10 years but recently moved in with my fiancé in London


M)
Brighton has a decent music scene, hasn't it?

N)
oh yes - friends of mine run nights there, it has a wonderful vibe to it. In the summer the free party and outdoor-rave scene is tonnes of fun :)


M)
Ne7, what kind of name is that really?

N)
well :) its a long story hehe :)


M)
Tell us!

N)
no its more fun to make stuff up as to why that is my nick - haha I am evil *Grin*



M)
I thought you just said you were a good person ;-). Nese Ven (nose friend), Nes Even (8-bit nintendo)? Am I close, is it an abbreviation?

N)
closeish :) hehe


M)
What is "the scene" to you and what were your first notions of it?

N)
Well firstly the scene to me is a collection of individuals who operate on a similar wavelength - people who either like to swap data or create something from nothing :)

My first notion of "the scene" was probably playing a game (I cant even think of which one its so long ago) on my friends c64 and there being an intro with some crazy flashing colours...


When was that and how did you later on become involved? Was it C64 at first or when did the sidchip come to play a central role?

oh seeing the intro -> that must have been 88 to 89'ish if my memory serves me correctly :)

I got involved on IRC after meeting a good friend (quang) at university and shortly after joined napalm when I was about 18ish doing music for some random demos and things, but before then I was active in a doing lots of mail swapping with UK ppl (not c64) - then a year-ish later I joined Rebels as a chip musician which was awesome fun as we all used to swap tunes loads - that’s prob when I first met Dalezy...

I started playing around with the sid quite a bit in early 90's and bit more in the late 90's but that was just messing around on friends machines making random sounds or in emu's... heh I should apologize for my terrible memory at this point :)


M)
How old are you?

N)
28



M)
Rumours (Taper, that is) say you have a lady also deep into this mess?

N)
yea :) she is lovely! hiya glittermouse :)


M)
It is true then! Someone named Glittermouse is your fiancé? Who is she?

N)
I met her at breakpoint last year (05) and she is a damned good artist ;) We actually did a tune together for the mp3 compo at BP but unfortunately it didn't get thru the bloody awful preselection process. :)


M)
What did you do before Triad released borderline?

N)
This and that - I have been in Napalm and Rebels and Scoopex for many years doing music for various prods on different systems - most fun I had before c64 was probably doing Gameboy music and helping write the documentation for Paragon5's excellent Gameboy tracker :) lo' pyro!


M)
Rebels on the c64? What did you do for them?

N)
we are talking Amiga/PC rebels :) hehe and bouncy chip tunes / music is what I did for mostly chippie collections



M)
It seems like you are active on all kinds of scenes. Is the c64 scene isolated or different from them other ones in any way do you think?

N)
Not really - tho I would say its one of the most fun platforms - probably due to the abundance of good people involved in it...


M)
Not everyone gets to join the mighty forces of Triad and I guess many people fill their days with feeling envious about you getting in. How did this happen?

N)
basically I had joined creators initially and been working on lots of nice things for them - but I started working more and more with the guys (iopop and Twoflower especially) in Triad on projects. when we did borderline I was still in creators btw. it was a easy move to make as we had done so much already. creators kick arse by the way *Waves* :)


M)
What did you do for Creators? Was that on the Amiga?

N)
no on c64 - mostly tunes for things like the Halloween intro and we were working on some disks and demos that didn’t get finished 100% (there is still some really nice stuff that may get done one day!)


M)
As you know there is an ongoing battle between Fairlight and Triad and I bet you have pledged allegiance to the flag you belong to. But is this true in all parts of life, are you as leftist as the chief inspector demands you to be? Would you not rather kill a commie for your mummy?

N)
haha battle? really? where? :) I get on really well with the guys in Fairlight :^) I think I’m probably a bit of a centre-leftie at heart *grin*


M)
You mean that there hasn't been any problems at all?

N)
not that I’m aware of - I’ve always got on well with the FLT lads :)


M)
Besides the sids released at Breakpoint, what do you listen to? What gives you inspiration?

N)
I’ve been listening a lot to film soundtracks lately - goblin, morricone, etc haha there’s actually some guy singing traditional African music next door as I write this and that’s pretty damned cool! I’m quite fond of lots of abstract hip-hop and weird ambient music like biosphere too. plus I’ve been checking a lot of alt-folk oddness stuff as well.


M)
How do you work with that inspiration? I.e. how is a tune being built up?

N)
well normally its built up from something that I have doodled out on a little keyboard... I like using something like a Casio mt100 to doodle on - as its super simple ;)



M)
Do you any favourite composers on the c64?

N)
I really like Linus and Zabutom's newest stuff... Jeff and Fanta plus of course Drax's new tunes kick nicely, goto80 is wicked too :)


M)
Do you get good feedback from other sceners?

N)
I like to think so - people are generally honest about what they feel about stuff you do - as long as it is constructive it makes sense to listen. :)


M)
If you had to choose, 6581 or 8580, and why?

N)
6581 - I find 8580 to have a tinny almost too perfect sound. I’d rather have filthy dirty sounds any day of the week ;))


M)
Tell us of the exclusive tune for this issue. Where did you get inspiration, how long did it take to finish, etc.?

N)
oh that track I have worked on for a few days - maybe a week or so in complete time over the last few months ... problem is that sometimes I have to do music for work so that takes priority over scene fun ;) inspiration - I’m not sure - I think I was listening to some tape I made of goblin's music to the Dario Argento films and also some stuff from the Rephlex record label *grin*


M)
Did you move house just now?

N)
yea :) its much nicer having our own flat


M)
Do you have any future c64 plans you want to share?

N)
Well the sun-ra on saturn music disk is on its way... apart from that I am sworn to secrecy :)


M)
Name some recent and all time favourite c64 productions.

N)
Recent fave products: I really liked hello friend (great feel) + boogie factor (just so much fun to watch) / Fairlight, the last Megahawks demo seriously cracked me up, special greets fly out to MC Mullet btw :) and obviously Deus ex Machina / Crest and >ALL< the old triad ones are lovely as an older prods. krill's 4k from breakpoint kicked arse as well and the latest Dekadence prods have been groovy ;)


M)
Where will we be seeing you next?

N)
I am trying to make it to the Assembly/Boozembly party this year. plus if I can BFP :)


M)
Anything final to add?

N)
Final thing- greetings to all Napalm, Rebels, Scoopex and Triad members and You ;)



Since the interview was conducted Ne7 has released some chip tunes for the PC in a collection called The Alliance: http://pouet.net/prod.php?which=24954

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