An Interview with Romeo Knight

Published: 10/10/20


Romeo Knight

Key points of discussion are:

  • Music on the Amiga
  • Red Sector/TRSI
  • Remixing c64 classics
  • The use of real Instuments when remixing


Neil

1) Hi Romeo. Thanks for taking the time to participate in this Interview. Firstly, What was your introduction to computing?

Romeo Knight

I got a C128 when I was 14 years old (1985) which I basically only ran in C64 mode. But I had friends with e.g. Atari 2600 and C64 which actually sparked the interest in computers (and games of course) in general beforehand.

Neil

2) You're known for your fantastic music on the Amiga but did you tinker with any other computers musically? What was the attraction of the Amiga?

Romeo Knight

Yes, I started composing on said C128 using Chris Huelsbeck’s Soundmonitor but all of the about 20 SID tunes I created were lost - this was before I even knew about something called demos or the demoscene. The Amiga was the next natural step to move on to, and its sampling ability promised to open a whole new world of musical possibilities. I mean, it was jaw-dropping when just 2 years before you basically played music-less block graphic adventures.

Chris Huelsbecks Sound Monitor V1.0
Romeo used Chris Huelsbeck's Sound Monitor on the c64
Neil

3) What inspired you to make music on the Amiga?

Romeo Knight

Most obvious answer - other music and musicians, be it on computer platforms or in real life. In those days, I was very much into electronic pop music and being able to synthesize or sample your own sounds seemed to be the most fascinating thing in the world for me. But the actual decision to become a musician was much earlier already during the C64 times, and Rob Hubbard for sure was a major part of the reason. As said above, changing over to Amiga was just a natural step in evolving my creative potential in composing and skills.