Jonatan "macx" interviews Andrew "Ne7"
www.jonatanforsberg.net
Published in Vandalism News issue 47, www.onslaughters.org

Andrew also known as Ne7 is a guy that resides near Greenwich, London.
Now, that is one hell of a place to live in and he can take a tour with
the Docklands Light Railway any day of the week. I guess doing just that
is what motivates him to build his audial landscapes to travel through on
a rainy day. Like with Wonderful Feeling released at all favourite
brittish Sundown 2005. When he passes down under the Canary Wharf he feels
just like surfing on the waves in Hipship. Ne7 got his big breakthrough in
my world, I believe, with Beatnick and 78-80. He seemes to like to
collaborate with iopop and has had a few tunes in previous issues of
Vandalism News. Ne7 is one of the corners in the way active Music Triad
(see At MO7). Other than that he is quite a new name in the c64 music
business, at least to most of us. He has come strong though, with some
mental usage of the old chips. Too strong to be passed unattended in any
way. Let's see if we can get to know the guy behind the weirdo handle any
better. Interview conducted over e-mail and irc in May and June 2006.

Set the stage, what kind of person are you and what do you do besides
juggle the tac2?

Well i'm a good person... i think :). I'm self employed as a freelance
musician in the computer games industry. Which means I get to sit around
in my dressing gown writing tunes which is always nice hehe.

I also do the odd bit of music for TV/Showreels and Films...

How long have you been working with that?

about 8yrs - and about 5yrs with my own company - god has it been that
long... had'nt thought about it before :)

Where can we hear your work?

You can hear commercial music stuff by me in games like StarX and iNinja
on gba, The c64 DTV, various tv-game joystick things like the Disney
Princess's (the big pink joystick ruled!) and lots of mobile phone titles
amoungst lots of things :)

Where did you live before you moved to Greenwich?

I've lived all over the place but mostly in the South of the UK, near to
Brighton for the past 10yrs but recently moved in with my fiance in London

Brighton has a decent music scene, hasn't it?

oh yes - friends of mine run nights there, it has a wonderful vibe to it.
In the summer the free party and outdoor-rave scene is tonnes of fun :)

Ne7, what kind of name is that really?

well :) its a long story hehe :)

Tell us!

no its more fun to make stuff up as to why that is my nick - haha i am
evil *Grin*

I thought you just said you were a good person ;-). Nese Ven (nose
friend), Nes Even (8-bit nintendo)? Am I close, is it an abbreviation?

closeish :) hehe

What is "the scene" to you and what were your first notions of it?

Well firstly the scene to me is a collection of individuals who operate on
a similar wavelength - people who either like to swap data or create
something from nothing :)

My first notion of "the scene" was probably playing a game (i cant even
think of which one its so long ago) on my friends c64 and there being an
intro with some crazy flashing colours...

When was that and how did you later on become involved? Was it c64 at
first or when did the sidchip come to play a central role?

oh seeing the intro -> that must have been 88 to 89'ish if my memory
serves me correctly :)

i got involved on irc after meeting a good friend (quang) at university
and shortly after joined napalm when i was about 18ish doing music for
some random demos and things, but before then i was active in a doing lots
of mail swapping with uk ppl (not c64) - then a year-ish later i joined
rebels as a chipmusician which was awesome fun as we all used to swap
tunes loads - thats prob when i first met dalezy...

i started playing around with the sid quite a bit in early 90's and bit
more in the late 90's but that was just messing around on friends machines
making random sounds or in emu's... heh i should apologize for my terrible
memory at this point :)

How old are you?

28

Rumours (Taper, that is) say you have a lady also deep into this mess?

yea :) she is lovely! hiya glittermouse :)

It is true then! Someone named Glittermouse is your fiance? Who is she?

i met her at breakpoint last year (05) and she is a damned good artist ;)
we actually did a tune together for the mp3 compo at BP but unfortunately
it didnt get thru the bloody awful preselection process :)

What did you do before Triad released borderline?

this and that - i have been in napalm and rebels and scoopex for many
years doing music for various prods on different systems - most fun i had
before c64 was probably doing gameboy music and helping write the
documentation for paragon5's excellent gameboy tracker :) lo' pyro!

Rebels on the c64? What did you do for them?

we are talking amiga/pc rebels :) hehe and bouncy chiptunes / music is
what i did for mostly chippie collections

It seems like you are active on all kinds of scenes. Is the c64 scene
isolated or different from them other ones in any way do you think?

not really - tho i would say its one of the most fun platforms - probably
due to the abundance of good people involved in it...

Not everyone gets to join the mighty forces of Triad and I guess many
people fill their days with feeling envious about you gettin in. How did
this happen?

basically i had joined creators initially and been working on lots of nice
things for them - but i started working more and more with the guys (iopop
and twoflower especially) in triad on projects. when we did borderline i
was still in creators btw. it was a easy move to make as we had done so
much already. creators kick arse by the way *Waves* :)

What did you do for Creators? Was that on the amiga?

no on c64 - mostly tunes for things like the halloween intro and we were
working on some disks and demos that didnt get finished 100% (there is
still some really nice stuff that may get done one day!)

As you know there is an ongoing battle between Fairlight and Triad and I
bet you have pledged allegiance to the flag you belong to. But is this
true in all parts of life, are you as leftist as the chief inspector
demands you to be? Would you not rather kill a commie for your mummy?

haha battle? really? where? :) i get on really well with the guys in
Fairlight :^) i think i'm probably a bit of a center-leftie at heart
*grin*

You mean that there hasn't been any problems at all?

not that i'm aware of - i've always got on well with the flt lads :)

Besides the sids released at BreakPoint, what do you listen to? What gives
you inspiration?

i've been listening a lot to film soundtracks lately - goblin, morricone,
etc haha theres actually some guy singing traditional african music next
door as i write this and thats pretty damned cool! i'm quite fond of lots
of abstract hiphop and weird ambient music like biosphere too. plus i've
been checking a lot of alt-folk oddness stuff as well.

How do you work with that inspiration? I.e. how is a tune being built up?

well normally its built up from soemthing that i have doodled out on a
little keyboard... i like using something like a casio mt100 to doodle on
- as its super simple ;)

Do you any favourite composers on the c64?

i really like linus and zabutom's newest stuff... jeff and fanta plus
ofcourse drax's new tunes kick nicely, goto80 is wicked too :)

Do you get good feedback from other sceners?

i like to think so - people are generally honest about what they feel
about stuff you do - as long as it is constructive it makes sense to
listen :)

If you had to choose, 6581 or 8580, and why?

6581 - i find 8580 to have a tinny almost too perfect sound. i'd rather
have filthy dirty sounds any day of the week ;))

Tell us of the exclusive tune for this issue. Where did you get
inspiration, how long did it take to finish, etc.?

oh that track i have worked on for a few days - mabe a week or so in
complete time over the last few months ... problem is that sometimes i
have to do music for work so that takes priority over scene fun ;)
inspiration - i'm not sure - i think i was listening to some tape i made
of goblin's music to the dario argento films and also some stuff from the
rephlex record label *grin*

Did you move house just now?

yea :) its much nicer having our own flat

Do you have any future c64 plans you want to share?

Well the sun-ra on saturn music disk is on its way... apart from that i am
sworn to secrecy :)

Name some recent and all time favourite c64 productions.

recent fave products: i really liked hello friend (great feel) + boogie
factor (just so much fun to watch) / fairlight, the last megahawks demo
seriously cracked me up, special greets fly out to MC Mullet btw :) and
obviously deus ex machina / crest and >ALL< the old triad ones are lovely
as an older prods. krill's 4k from breakpoint kicked arse as well and the
latest dekadence prods have been groovy ;)

Where will we be seeing you next?

i am trying to make it to the assembly/boozembly party this year. plus if
i can BFP :)

Anything final to add?

final thing- greetings to all napalm, rebels, scoopex and triad members
and You ;)

Since the interview was conducted Ne7 has released some chiptunes for the pc in a collection called The Alliance: http://pouet.net/prod.php?which=24954