An Interview with Peter Mörck

I’m afraid I’ll have to stick to the common stuff. I like the Sanxion Loader, Wizball, Parallax, Armageddon Man, Zoids, Comic Bakery… But in general I like strong, sad melodies.

Galway and Hubbard. Even though I’m afraid the most famous composers will (because of their reputation) have their music exposed to a bigger audience and thereby increasing their popularity even further, I’m sure they deserve to be the most famous. Sometimes just being a pioneer will make you famous, but these guys are really, really good.

To me? I’d say The Dead Guys. I’m never really happy with my own remixes, just because of the fact that they sound like a straight-forward synthesizer conversion. Sadly enough that applies to lots of others too. The Dead Guys however manage to create something modern that isn’t just sampled SID with drum-loops. Their songs might be easy to create, or they might take weeks. I don’t know which and I don’t care. They are really creative, which is not equivalent to radical and different. I reserve the rights to really enjoy ordinary synthesizer remixes too, of course 😊 DhS/TsW and o2 are good examples of guys who make great remixes I just love.

At the moment it’s not much. I had a friend’s gear over at my place for some time and if needed, we can pool our resources. That’d be: Yamaha SY-77, Roland JX-3P, Roland JX-8P, Oberheim Matrix-1000, Novation Drumstation, EMU ESI-4000, Behringer 2442 (24-4-2) mixer. My friend recently bought a SID-station, so I might try that one out sometime too.

I’ve always wanted a Roland Jupiter-8 or MKS-80, but today I wouldn’t have been satisfied with only one. Maybe a Novation Supernova or similar. A synthesizer always seems to lack some detail that keeps it from being the universal synthesizer, like ring-modulation or band-pass filters or anything. It’s all got to be there 😊. I’m really not up to date with the latest, but last I checked I’d say a Supernova would keep me smiling for a couple of months 😊

Not much. The only music I even remember is to Icewind Dale, and I recall being impressed by the might of Baldur’s Gate II music. I just get the impression it’s more arrangement than talented melody-writing today. Especially with the ease at which you can create decent techno-tracks.

I wouldn’t go as far as to say a lot more, but a few more tunes I guess I can (and will) manage before I go into creative hyper-sleep again. Different circumstances in my life inspire me to do music, or draw my attention away from it. I write my own music too (or used to), and that might seem more appealing at times, which of course lets the c64 remixing suffer.

Uhm, the music I guess. The C64 scene for me is C64-music. That’s the only thing worth enjoying about the C64 today. There have been some great games and innovative game concepts on the C64, but I can’t say I enjoy it today.
However, music lasts.

I’m afraid not. I’d really like to, but it feels like it’s too much trouble getting there from Sweden. Not that it’s that far but still… I’m a lazy guy 😊. Maybe if a friend or two decides to join me I’ll change my mind. It’d be a fun thing to do.

Hardly none. One or two messages perhaps. The strangest thing was that only a couple of days after I uploaded Big Deal to RKO, I got a message with the subject Congratulations on a great tune! . Naturally I thought it was feedback on the song I just uploaded, but it turned out to be from someone who had found a song I wrote myself (non-SID) about 4 years ago.

No. Tried Rock Monitor III or whatever the number was once, but I didn’t have patience/interest enough to write when I was younger.

Nothing in particular. Maybe a few remixes that are so boring you fall asleep. I can’t come up with any exampled but I’m sure I’ve heard one or two of them.

I’d really really like to hear the Parallax highscore arranged kind of like the Dallas theme. A real string section doing the lead, with brass taking over after a while. All that 70’s TV-show sound 😊. Unfortunately I don’t have the resources to make something like that, and I’m not going to hunt samples to create an entire orchestra. Also an orchestral Zoids would please my ears and probably give me goose bumps.

Hmm, playing Trollie Wallie I think. It was the first c64-game I played. Other great games I remember are Wizball and Paradroid.

I really liked some of the tunes, and I like synthetic sounds with strong melodies.
I can enjoy simplicity, but sometimes I felt some songs could use a stronger arrangement than what is possible with the SID. Also, I found some General Midi SID-covers long ago which probably gave me the idea subconsciously.

Not really. I think the music market will suck out every possible chance to create a new sound or create new waves, but c64 music in itself is still too computerish, even with new arrangements. Of course there could be an occational hit by someone, but I doubt it will make any real impact. The now (among c64-remixers) infamous Zombie Nation managed to make something of it, but honestly I never heard it until the topic came up on the mailing-list. I don’t listen to radio much and think it’s hard to find good new bands.

The joy and endless hours of fun, but I guess that’s part of a 9-14 year old boy’s life.
I am another one of those maniacs who recorded the music from some games (parallax in particular) to tape and listened to it sometimes just because I liked it so much. I don’t really I think I miss much about the c64 in itself. You weren’t picky with the graphics because at the time there was nothing better and, well the sound is still great.

Actually I’ve already started on Armageddon Man, but I’m having a hard time deciding in what style I’d like it to be. Currently it’s something like Rendez-Vous, but I’m having other thoughts. Maybe I’ll just make 2 versions so I won’t have to choose, but then I fear I’ll put less effort into it. We’ll see. I guess I have to find some other tune to arrange when Armageddon Man is done. Master of Magic perhaps.