Editorial - September 2003

One thing I'm always amazed by (and which I shouldn't be) is how different people are. In my case I'm now thinking about the SID composers: a motley crew! You've got the musical thinker (Galway), the grizzled veteran (Hubbard), the Mozart-like funster (Fred Gray), etc. I have to deal with all of them for BIT Live, and it's certainly an experience! Some composers I can't quite get a handle on. For example, David Dunn (one of my favourite composers!) wrote me an email once. I replied fannishly (as I do), and… nothing. Follow up emails asking if I'd done or said something to upset him.. nothing. To this day I don't know why the radio silence!

Equally, there are some people who are really easy to get on with, and it's easy to forget they're HVSC composers: such as Waz, Markus S., Thomas D., Marcel D. (who I know better as remixers or scene persons). Ironically distance from the scene in the mid-late 90s has turned people into legends, whereas the people who stayed: well, people have got used to them apparently!These are the unsung heroes!!

I don't know quite what I'm trying to say here, but: if you run into your favourite composer at BIT Live, think of them as a human being and talk to them about now, not then. They've already done enough interviews to shake a stick at (to mangle a couple of metaphors), and have answered most of the common questions. Here's a semi-humorous guide to questions you're most likely to ask, and what it says about you.

Means: I'm a completely uncreative person who thinks ideas come
in a six-pack.

Means: I'm a clever dick who's more interested in showing off
what I know in the vain hope that the composer will like me more.

Means I'm Boz and I'm having to write a bloody cross-assembler for Project: Galway"

If they have wife and kids: means I'm trying to be cool, but really I just want to ask you about Sanxion and sit at your feet a little bit

If they don't have wife and kids, means I know nothing about anything. My brain has melted from being in the same room as you. I'm mistaking you for another composer

Means: If I get him drunk enough, maybe he'll give me FTP access…

Means: You've just met Dave Whittaker!

Means: You're a member of the Xmas Chortles crew…

So, that's that. And remember: