[2013] #52 | Trey Frey - Resolve

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WT: What was your first introduction to the chiptune scene?

Trey Frey: Around 2007-08 I was starting to get into electronic music after getting bored with the hardcore/punk music I had been into at the time. A friend introduced me to a band called Slagsmalsklubben, a Swedish electronic group comprised of several members playing live synthesizers, etc. I immediately fell in love with the warm analog sound that early synths could produce. Something about simple wave forms especially struck a chord in me. Naturally I spent many hours surfing the internet looking for similar artists to listen to, and came across a YouTube video of the chip musician Maru playing on a street in Japan. (I believe it's the first video that comes up on YouTube when you search "Gameboy music").  Upon seeing this I immediately decided "this is something I have to do." I purchased LSDj and a flash cart in the winter of 2009, and 'the rest is history.'

[2013] #51 | Jay Tholen - Oh, Come On

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WT: What was your first introduction to the chiptune scene?

I used to download chiptunes from MODArchives to use in my terrible games when I was active in the Klik community as a wee 13 year old. From there, I got into tracking and the rest is history.

WT: You’ve got a huge back catalogue of releases, could you talk us through some of your favourites and why?

Oh man, that's a really difficult question. There are like 25 releases now, and I think they were all pretty necessary for my growth as an artist, even if I'm embarrassed by some of them now. My favourites are The Low Drone of Earth, Epidemic Deluxe, and Control Me. Low Drone is my most recent album, and I feel like it works well as a cohesive work. Epidemic Deluxe is a revamped version of an album I released in 2008. I think the Zombie association is holding it back a bit, but musically I feel it has a few of my strongest tracks. Control Me is close to my heart because I worked tirelessly on it. So many hours put into recording that one.

[2013 ] #50| Alex Mauer - kittensaw

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WT: What was your introduction to the chiptune community?

Alex Mauer: I have told the story about how I was introduced to chip music... so I'll give you one about my introduction to the social, "real life" aspect of chip.  In 2005 I stumbled onto a message board for Gameboy music where I met Dino Lionetti (from Cheap Dinosaurs).  We both lived in Philly, so we met up IRL and hit it off... Not long later, I was selling my midiNES to a guy I knew online... Joey Mariano (Animal Style).  We also met up in person in a Sam Ash parking lot and made the exchange.  About a year later we all got together to perform an early Philly chip show w/ Don Miller (No-Carrier) on visuals... that's where I met Don for the first time.  Before all that, I had never met anyone in real life who was making chip music.

[2013] #49 | Maxo - Chalktopia ~Chipmix~

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WT: What was your first introduction to the chiptune scene?

Maxo: I've always loved 8bit music, ever since I've owned a Game Boy, but playing shows with Anamanaguchi and Starscream (now Infinity Shred) with my band in high-school really introduced me to the DIY chip-scene.

WT: Who influences you musically?

M: I grew up around a lot of prog rock and jazz fusion records, so many of my influences reflect those styles.  I really try and listen to a wide variety of music, so at this point influence can come from almost anywhere.   I always try and keep up with video game music however, so that's one thing that remains constant!

[2013] #48 | HunterQuinn - Final Selector

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WT: How did you first come in to contact with the chipscene?

HunterQuinn: Well this is going to sound pretty cliché, but the first introduction I had to the ‘chipscene’ was sabrepulse when I was a wee high school lad. Later the same fine gentleman who showed me said ‘first chip experience’ showed me “Reformat the Planet”. This fine gentleman was my long-time friend Andrew (who ended up becoming AndaruGO). He and I had spent a long time trying to find out how to make music that sounded reminiscent of old school systems like the Gameboy. He showed me this fine film and blew my mind. I’ve been changed ever since. Later I ended up finding out about Pxl-bot who released one of my first collections of chipmusic.

[2013] #47 | Vegas Diamond - Vampires of Dirt

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WT: What was your first introduction to the chiptune scene?

Vegas Diamond: I've always been interested in making "lo-fi" or experimental music with lots of distortion and bitcrushers and what not. I used to play in a 2-piece (bass and drums) rock outfit and I was always busy experimenting with effects stompboxes and feedback. I don't recall when I discovered that making music on old hardware was a thing. I knew about demoscene music from cracks and hacks of popular games but I never really connected the dots. In 2005 I tried to make some sample-based hiphop in Milkytracker but failed miserably (I can provide the .XMs). I then quit making electronic music for a couple of years. Late 2011 I bought a nanoloop cart out of the blue and I just started tinkering and making simple tunes.

I guess what attracts me most about the Gameboy is the 4 channel workflow and trying to make a lot out of very little. In a DAW you have so many options that I get swamped and usually end up doing nothing musical at all. My involvement in the scene basically stems from me being a chiptune musician myself. I really didn't listen to a lot of chiptune before I started making my own music but I am VERY glad I discovered it. There's so much great music to listen to.

[2013] #46 | EGR - ANON (Faith In The Faceless)

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WT: What was your first introduction to the chiptune scene?

EGR: The first time I listened to music that I knew had been made using video game sounds and hardware was when someone started linking Saskrotch and Sabrepulse chipbreak tracks on ihatebreakcore.com where I used to spend an enormous amount of time.  I loved that stuff and started looking around for more but the easily discoverable cutesy chiptune that I found didn't hold my attention at all and I pretty much forgot about it.  Later I got into circuitbending and started seeing links to modded Gameboys and whatnot and began searching around for music made with such things.  This time I dug a bit deeper and found a lot of high quality chiptune that I actually enjoyed beyond the simple novelty or "tech demo" surface.  That would have probably been mostly 8bp stuff, Unicorn Dream Attack, and contemporaries.  I really haven't been involved with chip for all that long, 2008 is when I signed up on 8BC so I guess that would have been my "official" chip love date. :P