Interviews
Interview with Lloyd Rosen
Published in Vandalism News #30
Performed by Jazzcat
Welcome once again to the interview section of this rather special edition of Vandalism News.
Over the years sceners have left and some have joined, the story unfolds in this interview. Portraying the return of an old scener into the modern age of the legendary C64.
We gladly welcome back Lloyd Rosen/Megastyle!
J)
Welcome to the media, could you please introduce yourself to the audience please.
L)
Hi media. I'm the artist formerly known as Drumtex of MSI. Today, it's Lloyd Rosen of MSP. I'm 22 years old and am a musician in MSP on the C64 and organizer/coder of the Amiga group Seasons.
J)
Musicians have developed their own editors and players. Did you code your own editor or use others?
L)
I never coded any music editor on the C64. As a matter of fact, I didn't code anything at all on the 64, since I had no clue what coding was about. However, Scroll took the opportunity to code me a custom editor, known as Audiomaster - based on the M.O.N. replayer version using in Stormlord. I was more into the old GP + FE production, Soundmaster, at the time, but when I look back at it now, I wish I'd used Audiomaster more since it is superior to the other.
J)
Hope you enjoyed the newer editors I emailed you also 8) Well, you have been on several computer platforms spanning over a few years. Please give the readers a history on when you first started and what has happened up until present day...
L)
I began my computer career in 1987 after receiving a C64 for Christmas - I managed to convince my parents after visiting my cousin, who had a C64 running two games from tape deck; Bruce Lee and Mr.Robot (of which author I got my nick's "surname"). Then followed two years with ?load errors and trying to copy entire tapes using a double-deck tape player (which of course wasn't particularly successful).
In the beginning of 1989 I got an Action Replay and started fooling around modifying bytes in some of Michael Winterberg's promotion music (from around '85 or so) - my first experience with musical tones. I had discovered the SID chip! I got hold of Rocket Ranger from a friend and started swapping (with limited success in the beginning; I sent a letter to one guy in Reflex and threatened with war if he didn't reply. He never replied, but there was of course no war). Anyway, I got hold of Sound monitor and began experimenting with my own music. In June 1989 I got one of my first demos, which I think was "I'm Norwegian".
I contacted MSI and asked to be a member of their group. Returned was a friendly letter from them, announcing I could actually BE a member of their group. I was sky high, and my nick at that time was 'Flashman'. I also received Soundmaster, which became the first (for me) useable music editor. The story goes on easily; composing (ugly tunes let me add) and swapping, and sometimes writing silly scroll text. I left the C64 scene in 1990 to buy an Amiga. The Amiga story is a completely different chapter - but then I bought myself another C64 in 1997. In April this year I rejoined Megastyle.
The all-time favourites of Lloyd Rosen:
C64 game: Bruce Lee
Amiga game: Amazing Spiderman
Demo group: Megastyle and Black Mail
C64 musician: Martin Galway
C64 graphician: Kelly Day (Game), Sparkler (Demo)
C64 programmer: Ron.J.Fortier (Game), Scroll (Demo)
Music group: Pearl Jam (real), Maniacs Of Noise (C64)
Movie: many... but Alien is one of my favourites
Food: Any food that's good
Drink: Coke, Beer
J)
What musical/computer equipment do you own?
L)
Musical equipment: some guitars, an ancient Korg DW6000 and lots of hairy cables. Computers: 2 A1200's (lotsa extras), 1 A600, 1 C64 + 1541 II and AR6.
J)
Which musicians do you respect and for what reasons?
L)
Martin Galway for his beautiful, timeless melodies. Where is he today? he could've done real versions and beat the shit out of Jarre. Maniacs Of Noise (that's CD and JT) for their funky stuff and stunning melodies. Also my respect to John A Fitzpatrick for his incredible Bruce Lee music!
J)
On C64, how much time did you spend on an average sid? What was your longest tune and which was your personal favourite?
L)
Ohh... I don't think I spent more than an hour or two on a sid (that you can hear), my personal favourite from the old C64 days was the tune used in one of the Piece Of Cake demos; a catchy melody and a very simple structure.
J)
Which skills have you improved over the years, improvisation? music theory? techniques?
L)
Improvisation, theory, techniques. You name it. I think I've improved some thousand times, hehe.
J)
What is happening in Megastyle for the future? Getting active again? What are the plans?
L)
The future of MSP is uncertain. However, Scroll is and will ever be the magic Kloakkcoder and will always keep it in breath. He informs me that he has been doing lots of little gadgets when coding concerned. Also our German member Shok'ray is a skilled graphician which want to breathe more life into MSP again; like me. But plans are uncertain at this point. I think there'll be some games at least, but I honestly believe more demos will show up as well.
J)
What are the members up to these days? are you in contact with Scroll, Cycleburner, Shok'ray, Spaceroy etc?
L)
I am in frequent contact with Scroll, Shok'ray and Spaceroy who are still active members of MSP. As far as I know, the members - and former members are up to:
Scroll - coding the C64 as usual. He's also working a lot in his 'real life' which sometimes eats time from his coding-activity. He's been doing several games that are almost complete, a music routine that uses less rasters than your grandma, and also the longest scroller ever (which he of course has not written text for yet). He's also recracking and fixing lots of old games to have saveable high scores and all kinds of improvements. He collects disks and has over 2,000 disks and 20 CD's of pure C64 madness – in addition he owns 10 C64's (even a SX-64 to code in motion!)
Shok'ray - an active member, doing graphics for projects and writing for The Crest (I think that's the name). I don't know him too well yet since he joined after my time.
Spaceroy (Crockett) - his job takes lots of time, but he's also writing for The Crest and doing some graphics every now and then.
Sparkler - he left a long time ago to become a professional graphic artist for a game company called Innerloop, which are mainly into PC games, but also Playstation I believe (His previous companies were DMA and Funcom).
Lizard - left for Amiga and created a new group in 1996 called... surprise: Megastyle Productions -- a name he isn't allowed to use, really.
Drumtex - you know the story. I've been asked by Shok'ray to write music reviews for The Crest, and I'm picking up music again of course. Possibly I will be involved in some game projects by Scroll in one way or another besides the music. I'm also constantly exploring things on the Amiga which relates to the C64 (music routines, 6510 ->0x0 converter etc.)
The other former members - I have no idea what they're up to, but I suspect it's nasty as usual, hehe.
J)
What annoys you most about the scene?
L)
The people of the so called 'elite' who still not see any signs of the ground.
J)
Do you think, when a musician or talented person becomes famous, that it interferes with their work? or does it make it better?
L)
It interferes; I believe (of course I have no real experience in this). I have one example, which I witnessed in the Amiga scene, about two Swedish musicians who became extremely famous after doing nice music in the right group. Their ego grew extremely balloony in an extremely short period of time that inevitably made them look down on anyone 'smaller'. After a great deal of rude comments and statements from their side, they found themselves having more enemies than friends - which resulted in a bitter farewell to the scene. Moral: stay on the right side of the atmosphere folks.
J)
What are your goals in real life and musically? Tell the readers what you hope to achieve...
L)
My main goal in my 'real life' is to make a living of my 'real' music. In the computerised world my main goal is to have plain good old fun, and also keep the spirits of the C64 and Amiga alive. These two wonderfully designed machines go hand in hand, you know.
J)
"Seal of Focalor" (AKA 'Digital Messiah') was probably one of MSI's greatest demos, which do you think are the best productions from your group? and in general with demos, what is the key factors that are need to be included to make them a 'classy' release?
L)
In fact I have never seen the later demos by MSI (91++), due to my laziness in building a new hairy cable for the 1541 <-> Amiga, but of course I intend to, hehe. My favourite MSI demo will have to be something like Piece Of Cake (can't recall which), though it's probably not one of our best. When I quit in '90, the concept of the word 'design' was not fully exploited, making the demos (viewed in today's standards) merely a showcase of the most complex routines - and not as everlasting in beauty as they could of been. I would think MSI demos could be considered as 'classy' releases though, in view of the great and weird humour (maybe it's funnier for Norwegians though :)), the nice sparkling graphics and the techno-coding by Scroll. Ahem.
J)
You left the C64 at one time, as did quite a few people when the Amiga was a popular machine. Why did you come back and for what reasons do you think, that so many people return to the 8-bit legend?
L)
The C64 has always been in the back of my head (which can be seen in my (few) Amiga releases)), but at that time I had not much money, and I really wanted the Amiga since all of my friends bought one. So I had to sell the C64 to afford buying it.
When I began with the Internet, I found loads and loads of C64 information, games, demos, docs etc., which inspired me to buy a new one (which I'll never get rid of let me add). The 90's is a mixture of all the decades that have been, and nostalgia for various old stuff is overwhelming - therefore it's no surprise to see so many people on the C64.
On other platforms, there is new stuff out every day, forcing you to keep buying new and expensive hardware etc. to keep up to date. We can safely say that the hardware evolution of the C64 is over, so there's plenty of time to explore it's inner workings -- in addition, it's laid back and friendly feel over both the machine and scene :)
J)
I can agree with you there, although some new hardware is coming out which could change the scene, but only if the majority are willing to support it. Well, here is your opportunity to give some greetings to any old and new friends out there in the C64 world.
L)
Heh, well I'll keep it short. My respects to Scroll, Sparkler, Shokray, Rotteroy, Cycleburner, R0st0babe, Mjk, Nucleus, Kingfisher, Anakin and Pluksel and the guy in Finland who participated in my music compo (see in Sex'n'Crime issue something), where the first prize was half of all the disks that came in. The poor guy got half his disk back.
J)
Thanks for your time Lloyd, is there any last words you would like to say?
L)
Not really.
J)
Thanks again and enjoy the magazine!
L)
I will!
Interview with Lloyd Rosen/Megastyle Productions
Conducted on 30.4.98
Regards,
Jazzcat/Onslaught.
Published in Vandalism News #30
Performed by Jazzcat
Welcome once again to the interview section of this rather special edition of Vandalism News.
Over the years sceners have left and some have joined, the story unfolds in this interview. Portraying the return of an old scener into the modern age of the legendary C64.
We gladly welcome back Lloyd Rosen/Megastyle!
J)
Welcome to the media, could you please introduce yourself to the audience please.
L)
Hi media. I'm the artist formerly known as Drumtex of MSI. Today, it's Lloyd Rosen of MSP. I'm 22 years old and am a musician in MSP on the C64 and organizer/coder of the Amiga group Seasons.
J)
Musicians have developed their own editors and players. Did you code your own editor or use others?
L)
I never coded any music editor on the C64. As a matter of fact, I didn't code anything at all on the 64, since I had no clue what coding was about. However, Scroll took the opportunity to code me a custom editor, known as Audiomaster - based on the M.O.N. replayer version using in Stormlord. I was more into the old GP + FE production, Soundmaster, at the time, but when I look back at it now, I wish I'd used Audiomaster more since it is superior to the other.
J)
Hope you enjoyed the newer editors I emailed you also 8) Well, you have been on several computer platforms spanning over a few years. Please give the readers a history on when you first started and what has happened up until present day...
L)
I began my computer career in 1987 after receiving a C64 for Christmas - I managed to convince my parents after visiting my cousin, who had a C64 running two games from tape deck; Bruce Lee and Mr.Robot (of which author I got my nick's "surname"). Then followed two years with ?load errors and trying to copy entire tapes using a double-deck tape player (which of course wasn't particularly successful).
In the beginning of 1989 I got an Action Replay and started fooling around modifying bytes in some of Michael Winterberg's promotion music (from around '85 or so) - my first experience with musical tones. I had discovered the SID chip! I got hold of Rocket Ranger from a friend and started swapping (with limited success in the beginning; I sent a letter to one guy in Reflex and threatened with war if he didn't reply. He never replied, but there was of course no war). Anyway, I got hold of Sound monitor and began experimenting with my own music. In June 1989 I got one of my first demos, which I think was "I'm Norwegian".
I contacted MSI and asked to be a member of their group. Returned was a friendly letter from them, announcing I could actually BE a member of their group. I was sky high, and my nick at that time was 'Flashman'. I also received Soundmaster, which became the first (for me) useable music editor. The story goes on easily; composing (ugly tunes let me add) and swapping, and sometimes writing silly scroll text. I left the C64 scene in 1990 to buy an Amiga. The Amiga story is a completely different chapter - but then I bought myself another C64 in 1997. In April this year I rejoined Megastyle.
The all-time favourites of Lloyd Rosen:
C64 game: Bruce Lee
Amiga game: Amazing Spiderman
Demo group: Megastyle and Black Mail
C64 musician: Martin Galway
C64 graphician: Kelly Day (Game), Sparkler (Demo)
C64 programmer: Ron.J.Fortier (Game), Scroll (Demo)
Music group: Pearl Jam (real), Maniacs Of Noise (C64)
Movie: many... but Alien is one of my favourites
Food: Any food that's good
Drink: Coke, Beer
J)
What musical/computer equipment do you own?
L)
Musical equipment: some guitars, an ancient Korg DW6000 and lots of hairy cables. Computers: 2 A1200's (lotsa extras), 1 A600, 1 C64 + 1541 II and AR6.
J)
Which musicians do you respect and for what reasons?
L)
Martin Galway for his beautiful, timeless melodies. Where is he today? he could've done real versions and beat the shit out of Jarre. Maniacs Of Noise (that's CD and JT) for their funky stuff and stunning melodies. Also my respect to John A Fitzpatrick for his incredible Bruce Lee music!
J)
On C64, how much time did you spend on an average sid? What was your longest tune and which was your personal favourite?
L)
Ohh... I don't think I spent more than an hour or two on a sid (that you can hear), my personal favourite from the old C64 days was the tune used in one of the Piece Of Cake demos; a catchy melody and a very simple structure.
J)
Which skills have you improved over the years, improvisation? music theory? techniques?
L)
Improvisation, theory, techniques. You name it. I think I've improved some thousand times, hehe.
J)
What is happening in Megastyle for the future? Getting active again? What are the plans?
L)
The future of MSP is uncertain. However, Scroll is and will ever be the magic Kloakkcoder and will always keep it in breath. He informs me that he has been doing lots of little gadgets when coding concerned. Also our German member Shok'ray is a skilled graphician which want to breathe more life into MSP again; like me. But plans are uncertain at this point. I think there'll be some games at least, but I honestly believe more demos will show up as well.
J)
What are the members up to these days? are you in contact with Scroll, Cycleburner, Shok'ray, Spaceroy etc?
L)
I am in frequent contact with Scroll, Shok'ray and Spaceroy who are still active members of MSP. As far as I know, the members - and former members are up to:
Scroll - coding the C64 as usual. He's also working a lot in his 'real life' which sometimes eats time from his coding-activity. He's been doing several games that are almost complete, a music routine that uses less rasters than your grandma, and also the longest scroller ever (which he of course has not written text for yet). He's also recracking and fixing lots of old games to have saveable high scores and all kinds of improvements. He collects disks and has over 2,000 disks and 20 CD's of pure C64 madness – in addition he owns 10 C64's (even a SX-64 to code in motion!)
Shok'ray - an active member, doing graphics for projects and writing for The Crest (I think that's the name). I don't know him too well yet since he joined after my time.
Spaceroy (Crockett) - his job takes lots of time, but he's also writing for The Crest and doing some graphics every now and then.
Sparkler - he left a long time ago to become a professional graphic artist for a game company called Innerloop, which are mainly into PC games, but also Playstation I believe (His previous companies were DMA and Funcom).
Lizard - left for Amiga and created a new group in 1996 called... surprise: Megastyle Productions -- a name he isn't allowed to use, really.
Drumtex - you know the story. I've been asked by Shok'ray to write music reviews for The Crest, and I'm picking up music again of course. Possibly I will be involved in some game projects by Scroll in one way or another besides the music. I'm also constantly exploring things on the Amiga which relates to the C64 (music routines, 6510 ->0x0 converter etc.)
The other former members - I have no idea what they're up to, but I suspect it's nasty as usual, hehe.
J)
What annoys you most about the scene?
L)
The people of the so called 'elite' who still not see any signs of the ground.
J)
Do you think, when a musician or talented person becomes famous, that it interferes with their work? or does it make it better?
L)
It interferes; I believe (of course I have no real experience in this). I have one example, which I witnessed in the Amiga scene, about two Swedish musicians who became extremely famous after doing nice music in the right group. Their ego grew extremely balloony in an extremely short period of time that inevitably made them look down on anyone 'smaller'. After a great deal of rude comments and statements from their side, they found themselves having more enemies than friends - which resulted in a bitter farewell to the scene. Moral: stay on the right side of the atmosphere folks.
J)
What are your goals in real life and musically? Tell the readers what you hope to achieve...
L)
My main goal in my 'real life' is to make a living of my 'real' music. In the computerised world my main goal is to have plain good old fun, and also keep the spirits of the C64 and Amiga alive. These two wonderfully designed machines go hand in hand, you know.
J)
"Seal of Focalor" (AKA 'Digital Messiah') was probably one of MSI's greatest demos, which do you think are the best productions from your group? and in general with demos, what is the key factors that are need to be included to make them a 'classy' release?
L)
In fact I have never seen the later demos by MSI (91++), due to my laziness in building a new hairy cable for the 1541 <-> Amiga, but of course I intend to, hehe. My favourite MSI demo will have to be something like Piece Of Cake (can't recall which), though it's probably not one of our best. When I quit in '90, the concept of the word 'design' was not fully exploited, making the demos (viewed in today's standards) merely a showcase of the most complex routines - and not as everlasting in beauty as they could of been. I would think MSI demos could be considered as 'classy' releases though, in view of the great and weird humour (maybe it's funnier for Norwegians though :)), the nice sparkling graphics and the techno-coding by Scroll. Ahem.
J)
You left the C64 at one time, as did quite a few people when the Amiga was a popular machine. Why did you come back and for what reasons do you think, that so many people return to the 8-bit legend?
L)
The C64 has always been in the back of my head (which can be seen in my (few) Amiga releases)), but at that time I had not much money, and I really wanted the Amiga since all of my friends bought one. So I had to sell the C64 to afford buying it.
When I began with the Internet, I found loads and loads of C64 information, games, demos, docs etc., which inspired me to buy a new one (which I'll never get rid of let me add). The 90's is a mixture of all the decades that have been, and nostalgia for various old stuff is overwhelming - therefore it's no surprise to see so many people on the C64.
On other platforms, there is new stuff out every day, forcing you to keep buying new and expensive hardware etc. to keep up to date. We can safely say that the hardware evolution of the C64 is over, so there's plenty of time to explore it's inner workings -- in addition, it's laid back and friendly feel over both the machine and scene :)
J)
I can agree with you there, although some new hardware is coming out which could change the scene, but only if the majority are willing to support it. Well, here is your opportunity to give some greetings to any old and new friends out there in the C64 world.
L)
Heh, well I'll keep it short. My respects to Scroll, Sparkler, Shokray, Rotteroy, Cycleburner, R0st0babe, Mjk, Nucleus, Kingfisher, Anakin and Pluksel and the guy in Finland who participated in my music compo (see in Sex'n'Crime issue something), where the first prize was half of all the disks that came in. The poor guy got half his disk back.
J)
Thanks for your time Lloyd, is there any last words you would like to say?
L)
Not really.
J)
Thanks again and enjoy the magazine!
L)
I will!
Interview with Lloyd Rosen/Megastyle Productions
Conducted on 30.4.98
Regards,
Jazzcat/Onslaught.