An Interview with Oj Oscillation
What are your favourite C64 composers?
This answer is gonna surprise nobody. Rob Hubbard at the top of my list and of course Martin Galway. I think noone is going to disagree that Rob is a real genius for the tortures he did to the sid (god bless his madness). He created amazing tunes. Also did Martin. He made the sid sound creamy when using pad sounds. Also his melodies were fantastic. I wish I could get even a little close to their creativity. Mark Cooksey did cool tunes, too. And I have to mention David Whittaker for his own style to tweak the sid (hear Trantor for example). There were more superb tunes that I've heard from others, but I can't remember them all.
What are your favourite sids?
There are so many. To name a few: * Master Of Magic
- Knucklebusters
- War
- Parallax
- Ghouls 'n' Ghosts
- The Tube
- Alleykat But in the 1st line of my favs there would be mainly Rob Hubbard and Martin Galway stuff.
What other arrangers do you like?
Fat respect goes out to the Soundwavers, o2 and The Dead Guys. These persons are the ones that come to mind first, for their various styles and mixdowns. I think there would be more, if the remixers could produce their mixes with better equipment. Because for me it's the whole components (ideas and sound quality) that counts in the music. Although I have to admit that my remixes aren't always what I've imagined sometimes. Some might have really good ideas, but the sound is the first thing I take care of, if I take the preview before downloading it on R.K.O. I don't want to hear 90% sid sounds and a beatloop merged together. For me this kind of remixing becomes boring and i return to the real sid-tune.
Have you ever worked on the original sid?
No. I tried it once with the soundmonitor of Chris Huelsbeck. But I was too stupid to use it and I never had creating music on my mind. This came on later when I listened to acid music in 1988.
Your music is heavilly slanted towards dance/techno - why?
The key is in the answer before. When I first heard acid (dancemusic), I felt so deep with the sound that I decided to make such music by my own one day (if i got money to buy equipment). Look, I'm listening to club stuff over 13 years and it kicked me hype and set me into trance at the clubs. This was the kind of music that I could imagine I was able to do. After 7 years of doing this I just began to make more melodic tunes. The inital start was the sid music. I didn't know that anybody else was doing sid remixes. In fact I did c64 remixes for myself. I thought of it as an experience for me to expand my skills on making my music. I finally got internet access in August 2000 and realised that there are other people doing remixes. But I was not surprised that they mainly used the techno art. I think it's the influence of the comercial charts. But for me it has always been my own No. 1 flavour. I try to get away from this sometimes and want to make something different (listen to war-subtune 5 of my remix).
What are your likes/dislikes about the scene?
There are no dislikes that I can see. Except that some mixers are using sid sounds, which mostly don't fit to the drums. I like that everybody still reminds themselves and others of the good old days when we were young and addicted to the c64 (in my case). And for making the efforts to give good sid tunes a new and better soundquality what they deserve. I'm still wondering what the sidtunes would have sounded like, if the composers had had the abilities of today's technology. I'm afraid that Rob would have killed me only with sound.
If the was a tune that you wish you could claim as your own, what would it be and why?
Hard to answer, but overall I think Master Of Magic. It uses a lot of different instruments and the groove is never boring.
Your music shows some very original concepts, how do you get your ideas?
Actually - I have no idea. My imagination mainly comes from the original groove of a sid. Then it's getting over to: What kind of style - techno or funk alike or 2step, etc… ? The rest is developing itself, either by the sounds I am searching or the whole sound of the mixdown. My last remix (Space Harrier) was planed as a 2step version. But after a few hours of getting the melody played in, it sounded too awfull for me and I just decided to use a 4 to da floor beat added on with a few loops. I would say this is my concept: making a sketch of my mind and looking what is going on further.
Do you think c64 music should be heavilly remixed?
Yepp, why not? By this you can get close to a version of your favs SIDs that fits to your ears.
What type of feedback have you had?
Only got one private eMail by LMan. It was positive. The rest you can read for yourselves in the reviews on egroups: c64 at the yahoo newsgroup.
Who do you think gives the scene the biggest boost, and why?
I think it`s the memories, we all have of the former days, and of course it`s the voodoo of the songs themselves.
What would you say to the purists who prefer there remixes to be intouch with the original sids?
A friend of mine gave me the HVSC collection 4 years ago and I was amazed by the songs once again. While i was already making music I remembered that I always wanted to hear them in professional quality or like: what did it sound like when the composers started their songs in their mind ?
What equipment do you use?
The midisequencer is Cubase. my external devices are: Yamaha sy99, Emu e6400, Akai s3000, Deepbass nine, Lexicon mpx 1, ensoniq dp4 , soundcraft studio lc-1 and some other hard and software processors.
Is there a tune that has not yet been converted that you would like to hear?
Mmmh. I don`t know if TRAP has been covered yet. Some tunes of Michael Winterberg would be worth remixing and there are sure some i don`t remenber now.
What do you look at when remixing a sid?
It has to get me emotional. As everything in life it must be of interest to you. This can be only a groove or only a hookline of a song. I try to reach my aim by searching the right sound or to include an idea coming up by remixing. It has to be recocniceable.
What non c64 music do you like to listen too, and does this reflect in your remixes?
Mainly i'm listening only to undergrounded music (dance area). Also I listen to ambient (fsol, the orb), hiphop, triphop, d&b (ez-rollers, ltj bukem), house (cabinet records), experimental (mouse on mars), etc… There is much stuff. Sometimes my remixes are influenced and sometimes not. It depends on my mood. I don`t hear top 50 crap. It`s not interesting to me. But sometimes there are really good songs in the charts.
Lastly, what next for Oj Oscillation,and what are your future plans?
I'm planing to make a remix or should i say cover of Master Of Magic. Alleycat is a hard one for me to make, but not impossible. The Miami Vice loader is very challenging and sure some more. I have to see if i can work them out or not. I would be glad if i could make my way as a musician and earn money with my own compositions for living, so I can combine my hobby with work. Infact i have to get out of my stupid job and create the life that I wanna live. Dance… More dance, and even more dance,
Hey and why not! Oj has a creative head on his shoulders. He has made some quite unique remixes. Not sure if everyone would enjoy his music, but if you like dance/Techno then you on to a winner with Oj.
- Neil
