An Interview with Jan Lund Thomsen of remix.kwed.org

SID remakes, the more innovative the better, Keeping R:K:O running, self-published writings, both on the web and dead-tree editions, Redefining what websites can do in terms of providing content, Photography, Books, Comic Books, Music, Movies, Playing the Didgeridoo (still learning, I'm afraid =))

R:K:O got the host name it did for two reasons.

a) I already owned the kwed.org domain, so adding the Remix.Kwed.Org subdomain was a piece of cake. The remix prefix was inspired by the great http://Remix.Overclocked.Org site.

b) Using a subdomain I have made sure that Kwed.Org has etched itself onto peoples retina. Believe it or not, webwise R:K:O is not my greatest ambition.

kwed.org is an ongoing experiment for my various creative outlets. In the past it has held poetry, fiction, rants, and a photo gallery. For the months until the R:K:O launch on November 23rd it held nothing but a strange collage hinting that some major change was coming along. =) There's no telling what direction I will take the kwedOrg site in in the future, but rest assured it'll be exiting.

The origin of Kwed is that it was one of the ways fellow sceners pronounced my scene-handle Qed back when I was busy doing copyright infringements for a major cracking group in the early 90s. I still use this handle when I pop by IRCnet #c-64 so feel free to say hi if you spot me on the channel.

In short: to recreate the Triad MP3z site the way I thought it should be done - a one stop site to all C64 remakes freely available in the MP3 format. No more hunting around various arrangers homepages to see if they had created any new material - something I spent a *lot* of time doing back then. =)

Back in June 2000 people on the C64rmx mailing list started talking about a potential replacement site for Triad MP3z. I followed these discussions with great interest as that site was what really opened my eyes to the Remix scene.

However, I didn't participate in the discussions I thought most of the volunteers were all talk and no action. (sorry if this offends anyone.)

Thus the idea to do it myself was born. I started learning PHP and MySQL and worked many long hours to get the alpha-version of the site running. Markus Wobbler Norsted supplied a kick-ass design early on in the process. I also showed the site to a couple of people and without exception they were very much impressed with it. At this point I would like to publicly thank Linus Walleij (of Triad MP3z fame) for telling me that what I had created had impressed him to such an extent that he would close Triad MP3z when R:K:O went public.

My intentions were clear; everyone who saw R:K:O in its early stages was sworn to secrecy. I wanted to hold on to the secret until I felt that the site showed so much potential that it would leave everyone speechless and establish itself as the new one-stop site.

On July 22nd the members of the C64rmx list received an invitation to beta-test the site. The previous weeks I had been dropping hints on the list that somewhere someone was brewing up something that would knock everyone’s socks off. Which was exactly what happened. =)

Mainly one - that the tune is submitted in minimum 128Kbps MP3. Second that the tune should be a remake, rather than just a SID with some drum-loops attached to it.

Needless to say, you'll find some exceptions to these (unwritten) rules on the site, but in general arrangers are a great bunch who take even greater pride in their work. Thus, very little regulation is needed from my part.

I have turned down a few tunes in the past, but when that happens I always make sure to tell the arranger my reason for doing so.

Yes.

Although I have had a few people ask me about MOD/XM/etc I have felt right from the start that MP3 coverage was my one aim. Especially when people like Torben Bjerregaard (http:///www.bluenine.org) and Chris Abbott (http://www.c64audio.com) are doing such a great job on collecting those other formats. MP3 is a great format and you can safely assume that everyone who stops by the site is able to play them.

I am pleased beyond belief that not only that R:K:O was popular not just with the C64rmx patrons but also with the general public. I receive the occasional fanmail from people I have never spoken to, thanking me for making it all possible. Something that brings a smile to my face every single time.

What I still haven't got used to is the apparent weight my words carry among the C64rmx patrons. I once mentioned that I would really like to see a cover of the Max Headroom SID - within a couple of weeks 3 people (including two of my favourite arrangers) had created some rather nifty covers. Awesome. =)

And the winner of the Impossible-to-answer-question award goes to… Neil Carr of Remix64 for What are your top3 composers on the c64, and why? =)

Seriously, I have had so many great moments listening to SID music that boiling it down to naming 3 people would be disrespecting everyone else. You guys all rocked my world, and for that you have my eternal gratitude.

Again, lots of favourites - but if I am to mention the tracks that immediately spring to mind when people ask about my all-time faves it'll be these three:

• Max Headroom tune #2 (by David Whittaker)
• Future Shock (by Neil Demon Baldwin)
• Dance at Night (by Chris Huelsbeck)

All tracks are immensely funky, have a great melody, and makes me want to get up and boogie every time I listen to them. Don't let their age fool you, I have listened to a lot of stuff since - but these three always wind up sharing the number one spot.

(In no particular order)

• The Dead Guys - for redefining the word remake
• The Soundwavers - for taking the C64 to the dancefloor
• Kent Trace Wallden - for his Exploding Fist covers.

Amazing!

• Kent Trace Wallden - Way of the Exploding Fist (both versions)
• The Dead Guys - Paperboy (peaperboayh mix)
• N-Joy/Soundwavers - Mega Apocalypse

… a special honorary award goes to Makke for his Ode to my C64 which gave everyone the goosebumps and brought the community closer together - whether people want to admit it or not. =)

Linus Walleij … for paving the way with the Triad MP3z site. And for being a great source of support and inspiration.

Chris Abbott … for pioneering remakes and believing in it enough to struggle against all odds by producing commercially available C64 based audio CDs.

Ben Daglish and Chris Huelsbeck … (who I met on IRCnet #c-64 years back) for considering themselves a couple of regular guys who just happen to have done some work on the C64. Also Chris told me about Dance at Night being a remake of a tune he did earlier - and pleased me no end when he dug out the DAT tape with the original and made it publicly available because I requested him to do so.

The site was publicly announced on Brendan Reids most excellent C=Wire site (http://www.wire.c64.org) on November 23rd 2000. And even with a week of downtime around Christmas more than 60 gigabytes were downloaded during the first month.

My favourite remixes do what I call lift the track into orbit. They are the ones that take the track to new heights. The style of the remix doesn't really matter as long as they stay true to the spirit of the original track. Great examples of this include O2's Zoids and Nemesis the Warlock, The Dead Guys Paperboy and countless others.

Friendly arrangers who take pride in their work. A great online community on the C64rmx list. Receiving the occasional thank-you not from total strangers.

I get a few annoying mails from people who assume that I can sort their non-R:K:O-related problems (everything from How do I play MP3s? to requests for pirated versions of music software) … these severely tick me off for a couple of minutes. Using some ancient sort of Ninja Magick to relax myself I then compose a calm response to their query.

Apart from that - not much. In the past I felt that I had more than my share of gripe with people who seemed unable to grasp the amount of time and energy I have invested in this project and consequently moaned about this and that feature missing or not operating the exact way they wanted it to be - up to the point where I at one point seriously considered closing up shop. Luckily for all of us, I got past this stage.

Apart from the Back In Time, Nexus and related CDs which have a loyal following; not in its own right. I think we might very well see more commercial musicians reaching towards the C64 for inspiration, ala Zombie Nation.

Although the latest outage was due to a compromised nameserver I have no reason to suspect foul play in general. It is true that the database server crashed rather a lot back in the old days. This was actually due to a bug in my code that never showed up during testing, but became a massive problem when the traffic started pouring in.

Quality assurance has always been a major item for me. And I make sure my hosting partners share this belief.

I am happy with the way the site behaves to the end-user.

However, the admin interface seriously needs improvement. At its current it is only useful for approving freshly submitted material. Which annoys me no end every time I have to alter some part of the database. Once I get that part sorted out I might start brainstorming and come up with new features, time permitting.

Which roughly translates to: as long as I can get it hosted freely, yes. R:K:O attracts a *LOT* of bandwidth and there is no way I could pay the bill a regular ISP would charge me. R:K:O has roughly 2 Gigabytes of files and has been generating several hundred gigabytes of traffic since the site went public on November 23rd, 2000. Having said this I am incredibly grateful to Jaymz Julian and the rest of the intrepid folks over at DSPAudio (visit them at http://www.dspaudio.com) for their donation of disk space and bandwidth.

R:K:O is developed for free, using free software, serving tunes made freely available by their arrangers and operating on donations by good people who believe in providing a public service. As long as this remains R:K:O be in operation.

Sadly I will not be attending. During BITlive I am busy working on becoming a Cisco Certified Network Associate. A rather nifty education, a personal and professional ambition, and a great thing to put on my resume should I ever want another job.

Remix-wise I am working with someone to create a partner site for R:K:O. In the future I would love the scene to come even closer together both online and offline, having more events like BITlive. Also I would love to talk my way into the mainstream media and broaden the public knowledge of the remix scene.