Interview
Handle:
JT/MANIACS OF NOISE. WAVE/MANIACS OF NOISE on PC.
How did you come up with your alias?
JT was made up by people in the scene. MANIACS OF NOISE explains itself I believe. WAVE has a lot to do with what keeps me busy: brainWAVEs & WAVEforms (actually a whole piece of music is just one long by a composer organized WAVEform (2 when the music is in stereo)). Factually I like everything that has anything to do with WAVEs, except crimeWAVEs and such. When creditted in games my real name is used.
City/Country/Date of Birth/Place of Birth:
I was born on the 19th of May 1972 in Eindhoven in the Netherlands. I have lived in Helmond (also NL) for the biggest part of my life.
What was your first computer and when did you get it?
I first owned a Spectrum ZX80 (I believe that's what it was called) when I was 10. Funny thing with 1KB (expandable to 17KB). Amazing there were some nice games available. I beeped some 1-channel melodies on it.
How did you get into the scene and what groups have you been a member of?
I "joined" the scene when I was 12. in chronologic order: At 12 I was a member of HCS (Helmond Cracking Service), at 13 HCS formed a joint-venture with MADNESS called THE ARTWORKS. At 14 I joined SCOOP DESIGNS (This year is the 10th aniversary). SCOOP DESIGNS is alive and kicking even today with a lot of members). In thesame year I joined SCOOP DESIGNS I started MANIACS OF NOISE together with Charles Deenen (TMC from SCOOP DESIGNS). MANIACS OF NOISE is now actually still my company! Around June 1995 I joined FOCUS (the guys from Dutch Breeze).
What was the proudest moment in your career?
There have been quite some really nice moments in it, but I think the feeling I had when everybody was playing the CYBERNOID title in their intros when I arrived at a party in Venlo (NL) will not easily be beaten. I still get a lot of appreciation from a lot of people, which I think is altogether a very great honour.
For what specific reason(s) do you think that you are remembered.
I'm sure people remember me for the fact, I came up with a totally new approach toward c64 music, in the beginning mainly in the usage and creation of the sounds. I think I brought some kind of SONG feeling to the c64-music, since I always made up melodies with lyrics in my head, which gave the melodies a non-instrumental touch. After that some people literally copied the style (example 20CC) or were inspired by it to create their own style with it (example DRAX). It's hard to analyse this myself but I think I got pretty close here. Others might have a better view on this.
What would you like to be remembered for?
For my music & sound in general.
What made you stop the scene activity? (and do you remember when?)
I never REALLY stopped being active in the scene, but when I turned 18 I moved to England to work for Probe Software (now Probe Entertainment) for half a year, which made it hard to put time in "scening". After that I've been composing for a lot of projects such as games, tv & radio programs, CD-productions, etc. I'm still going to finish one demo called "Noise of Maniacs" which will feature a lot of my never released music (from 1988-1995!). So basically, I'm still "scening".
Thinking back on the good old days, is there anything you regret?
I don't think I really know what you mean with this (written) question, but if you're refering to "regret" as in "feel sorry something happened back then" I don't regret anything worth mentioning.
What was your favorite:
GAME(S)
The ones I can remember that I played a lot are IO, Starfox, Cybernoid, Speedking, Baseball & Turbo Outrun.
DEMO(S)
I can't remember the names of many older ones I liked, but the Focus-demo "Dutch Breeze" is definately one of my favourite.
PROGRAMMER(S) OR PROGRAMMING TEAMS
Mark Kelly, Nick Jones & Mario van Zeist (for demos and later games), PSI (that's the handle I saw often in credits to some amazing routines in demos).
CRACKER(S) OR CRACKING GROUPS
The one I can remember most is Hotline, though there have been a lot of "good" crackers around. If you would name some I could probably remember which ones were "the best suppliers", if you know what I mean :)
COMPOSER(S)
my personal top 5 :)
1) Rob Hubbard
2) Martin Galway
3) Tim Follin
4) Johannes Bjeeregaard
5) Ben Daglish
5) Fred Gray
These are two composers I like from a much later stage: Drax and Laxity.
BEST COMPOSED TRACK(S)
Rob Hubbard's "Monty on the Run" and a lot of his other tracks.
Tim Follin's "Bionic Commando"
Martin Galway's "Rambo"
Ben Daglish "Hades Nebula"
EVENT(S) (E.G. COPYPARTY) MEMORY(S)
I enjoyed the monthly meetings in Venlo/the Netherlands very much. Also the PCW shows (now ECTS) and the Commodore Show in 1987 were great.
FAVOURITE DRINK
A good beer (special brew ALFA).
WHAT ARE YOU DOING NOWADAYS?
With my company Maniacs of Noise I'm full-time active as a freelance composer / engineer / producer / sfx-creator/editor for videogames, tv & radio-programs and all other multimedia. Together with some other people I'm setting up a entertainment-software-company in the Netherlands called Witan Entertainment.
WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN YOUR SPARE TIME?
I don't have much spare time, but when I have it, I like to go out in town and have a good time with my friends. I also like to pick a movie now and then (my favourite movies till now are Pulp Fiction, Witches of Eastwick, Lethal Weapon II). I'm also songwriting a lot, but I don't have enough time to record them. I started a project (partly in my spare time, partly business-hours) which I had in mind for a long time: Producing a C64-studio-CD with the most popular tracks ever made for c64-games. I contacted Rob Hubbard, Martin Galway & Tim Follin about this and they found it a good plan. (I still have to contact some others too). The album will consist of probably 3 CDs. Some original SIDs will be included plus a CD-rom-track containing SIDPLAY plus the original SID-music. An internet homepage will be set up so people can vote for which SID-gamemusic they'd like to hear on the album. The production will be supervised by the original composers.
IS THERE ANYTHING YOU'D LIKE TO SAY TO THE PUBLIC (READ: ADMIRERS)
I thank everybody who listened to my music for all these years and I really hope you enjoyed it. Some special thanks must go to the people who supported me, wrote me letters, etc. I hope I to keep pleasing your ears in the future.
WHAT IS THE MEANING OF LIFE?
There is none that I know of, but I think friendship, love, music and art in general are getting pretty close to it (for me at least).