Auxcide Interview

In case you didn't know, Auxcide is this really cool dude on CM.O. I met him on the forums, and we've been chatting it up ever since. He writes some really really cool 2xLSDJ stuff with SPs, and he's got an album coming out soon! Also, I have a copy early, suckers! ;) Expect a review soon :)
Anyway, I interviewed the dude for your pleasure. Enjoy:


1. Why SPs dude? Why not DMGs like all the cool kids?


Hahaha you know, when I first started delving into LSDJ, I used a DS because I already had a card for it. But when my cart from kitsch (shameless plug) got here, my custom DMG from Loomis (shameless plug) was going through some UPS backlog screwup. So for the time all I had was an SP. And I was traveling a lot with it. I guess I just got used to it. There's several plus to them that I just love. TL;DR: SPs are compact (perfect for x2lsdj work) and are rechargable. I'm mastering having one in both hands for writing dual lsdj songs. On a "I still got street cred" note, I have a custom DMG and another in progress and 2 MGBs that I prosounded as well. I'm still cool.


2. Any hints for the upcoming album?


Hints? There's an extra track (or two) that I did after I released the preview. A lot of the songs are connected. Both through their titles and through the actual audio. I like to include little codes or puzzles with my music. Here's an example: the three songs Helios, Selene, and Eos are all named after the greek gods for Sun, Moon, and Dawn respectively and all transition into each other. Another connection can be made between the songs Aphelion and Ellipse, ellipse being the shape that a planet orbits in. That being said, Aphellion is the point a planet is farthest from the sun, so maybe there'll be a song about the point closet to the sun??? (hint hint)


3. You integrated into the community so nicely, basically skipping the entire n00b phase. Any tips for other newcomers?


Haha yeah. I've joined forums where any new member is instantly flamed until they give up. What I did at cm.o to avoid the whole "I'm a new name" phase was to act like I've been there before. It's surprising how well that can work. This is a plea to N00bs coming to cm.o: please lurk for a while. Use the search function and common sense. We have a lot of members who will eat you alive (myself included) if your first post is "wut is chipmusic lul??? How do you lsdj?". I think that if you look around a little and try to find your answer by yourself first you'll see we've already answered it. I lurked and figured out almost everything by myself before I decided to post. It works a lot better.


4. What turned you on to the scene?


Sigh. There is no chipscene here in Sacramento (Yet). I get so jealous of everyone in NY, NZ, Aussieland. . . But it's okay. What turned me onto the scene was how inviting it is. That's the greatest thing about chipmusic, wherever it is, it's still at your fingertips. I was bummed about [not attending] Blip, but listening to those streams I felt like I was there.


5. What's the most emotional song that you've ever heard? Has it influenced any of your pieces?


I love Bjork. She has some very emotional songs if you can understand her (lul). She has a song called "Pagan Poetry" and just the audio was emotional enough, but I watched the video and there's a part where you can see the emotion on her face. She didn't act, she was just herself. Feeling her own music, it was beautiful and I was bawling my eyes out. I don't think the song has influenced anything, but that emotion has. Maybe not in any of my chiptune stuff but definitely in my other stuff. (electronic music and piano)


6. What are your main influences or other tastes?


I actually write all of my music on piano first. My piano influences everything. Granted, they sound a lot different on it. I just sit down and whatever comes out, comes out. I have to record on my phone huge improv sessions where I just start with ideas and let them expand. Anything dancey. I've been described as a dance pianist and honkey tonk. I do a lot of four-on-the-floor stuff. But I listen to almost any type of music and I bet it just all get's jammed into what I do.


7. What kind of a guy are you? Party-man? Workoholic? Artsy out-there dude? Skateboarder? Old?


Hahahaa Well actually I'm a hybrid party-man workoholic. I was actually at a party recently with my friends, writing a track on both of my AGSs and with a melodica a friend gave me while dancing and drinking. My friend comes up to me and says "You know, we were always wondering how you had the time to program so many songs!"


8. How do you feel about recent politics? Are you a liberal or conservative or whatever? Does it affect your creative abilities?


I try to stay away from politics. Too much headache. But I make fun of all sides.


9. Any historical figures influence you as a person?


Hmmm. I don't think so. That's not to say they haven't, just that I can't put my finger on any.


10. Have you ever used Calculus or Trigonometry in real life? Honestly? Jeeze.


Haha nope. I didn't even take them in school. I don't know anyone who can honestly say, "I used Trigonometry today to save the world", so I think I'm okay. ;]




There you have it! Such a chilled out guy. Check out his EP preview right here:
Of Atoms and Stardust

Kedromelon Interview

Hey all! So, I was able to talk to my good friend, Kedromelon. This guy is a beast. His tunes have so much punch, it's really kinda ridiculous! Anyway, he was willing to do an interview for The Vanguard (which is super swick). Here it is, mangs!

1. What started you with Chiptune?

I used to be really into circuit-bending.  So sometime in early 2010, I had stumbled across game boy modifications while looking into all that stuff and liked that idea, so I looked more into the possibilities of bending video game consoles.  Since I didn't know anything about chiptune, it took awhile to come across 8bitcollective and chipmusic.org.  I discovered MIDINES first, and since I couldn't afford to purchase one at the time, I started messing around with Famitracker.  Somehow, that led to my discovery of nanoloop, LSDJ, 8bitcollective, etc.  When I gained interest in using a game boy, I had wanted to use nanoloop because the LSDJ GUI seemed intimidating.  After failing to create anything I liked with nanoloop, I decided to give LSDJ a try and ended sticking with it.

2. What song of yours do you like most? Do you have any patches you're particularly attached to?

Recoil, Titan, and Reveries at Sunrise has always been personal favorites.  I also am pretty proud of Desolate Time (which I'm now actually playing as CHILLBRAVE).  I don't have any particular patches I'm attached to, other than a top-secret WAV kick that was given to me recently by an artist who would like to remain anonymous.  Different songs call for different patches.  I suppose I have a sort of "system" for making patches work better as leads, basses, etc, but I don't have specific patches I program in every time I open a new LSDJ project.

3. What is your strongest influence?

My strongest? Ugh, its difficult to pick just one.  I'm very influenced by other chipmusic.  My earliest influences in music are based in film scores and the Super Smash Bros Melee soundtrack that Nintendo Power sent out to its subscribers.  I'm definitely not influenced by video game music other than that, if that's what you're asking.

4. You loooooove doing covers man. What's your process with that?

I've never been someone particularly good at transcribing music by ear, so I'll generally find multiple references online.  My covers are usually based on a combination of various guitar tabs, piano sheet music, and chord sheets.  I actually just finished something new that I actually had to do mostly by ear myself, and I think it turned out pretty well still.  Once I have all the notes in, I go through and add TONS of L, E, K, V, P, and W commands to try to emulate the way the vocalist sings the melody on the original track.

5. HOW WAS BLIP

SO GOOD. I loved getting to meet people from online in real life finally, and getting to see all my NYC friends one last time for the summer.  The artists were all GREAT as well.  Live Nation ended up being pretty annoying with some policies like no re-entry and all that, but it didn't end up getting in the way too much.

6. Any rumors for the masses?

I heard there might be a CHILLBRAVE album on its way...

7. Any releases that struck you recently? Artists?

I really liked Je Mappelle's Wish and Knife City's EP.  ALSO LOOKING FORWARD TO THAT NEW FROSTBYTE RELEASE.  Outside of chipmusic, I've been listening to a lot of Sigur Rós' Valtari and Knife Party's Rage Valley.

8. On a scale of 1-10, what do you want to be when you grow up?

10… definitely 10.

9. Do you have a favorite super hero?

Nah, but Spider-Man is pretty cool I guess.

10. What makes you write dance music? Do you listen to hi-fi dance when you're not around the gameboys?

I'm not sure really.  I was completely unfamiliar with dance music prior to getting into chiptune… my roots were mostly in post-rock and punk stuff.  I suppose I caught on that the LSDJ tracks that were most fun to play live also happened to be my danciest ones, so I just went with that, I guess.

So that's how THAT went down. Hope you enjoy the read! And did you hear that? There might be a CHILLBRAVE release on the way...Hmmm.

Peace out, folks!