Interview with Big Jim/Valhalla

Big Jim : HI
Sleeping Dog : Hi there... I think we can start right now ;-)
Big Jim : Ok
Sleeping Dog : So ... the best thing to do is start with the usual stuff... who are you. .. what group are you in... what did you do before etc..
Big Jim : Right... Big Jim (James Storer). I am in Valhalla and F.M. I'm 19 year s old and I study Computer Science at Bradford University, England
Sleeping Dog : Try this question... Where did you find your Handle... are you Big or did you think you were big when you started using it.. ;-)
Big Jim : Haha!! Actually I've been using the handle for ages! I think since I w as about 14....
Sleeping Dog : What's the ida behind it... ??
Big Jim : At that age, I was very small compared to the average height, so it's kind of a joke (though I'm about average heightt now!)
Sleeping Dog : big_jim: and nowadays you also are one of the Biggest musicians in the Eu ropean scene...
Big Jim : well.... thats the first time Ive heard anyones say that actually...:) I could think of a lot bigger names....
Big Jim : sd: I would say that I am still way behind the likes of PM, Skaven, Me llow-D and Jogeir Liljedahl, in terms of the standard of my music an being well known :)
Sleeping Dog : btw what's F.M actually... I think lots of people do know Valhalla by now but F.M might confuse them..
Big Jim : sd: Ok
Big Jim : Well, it has caused a lot of confusin since Valhalla realeased Fluid M otion!!! but....
Sleeping Dog : maybe you were behind on them at the Party but wat do we hear from them ? ? You are one of the most active musicians...
Big Jim : F.M. stands for Five Musicians.... it is a kind of music band comprisi ng of Myself, Puprle Motion, Mellow-D, necros and basehead
Sleeping Dog : big_jim: the 'top Five of the World ??
Big Jim : sdog: Hehe.. well i dont know about that!!!
Sleeping Dog : bigjim: it is true that those names show up high on almos every chart ... so...
Big Jim : sdog: I would say Five freinds who appreciate each others music really ... it's just a way of doing some music 'together'... the main idea behind it is to to try and produce some co-operative works between us
Sleeping Dog : bigjim: when did you actually start to work for Valhalla ?? The first thi ng I saw from you guys was Visions Of Light..
Big Jim : Yes.. V.O.L was first presented at ASM 94... I joined shortly after Pe ripheral Vison was releases at TP 4
Big Jim : Valhalla were formed in February of 94
Sleeping Dog : Were you in F.M. before that already ??
Big Jim : sd: No I wasnt. FM was only formed very recently. ABout a month or so ago I think
Sleeping Dog : What was for you the music where you actually made your break with ??
Sleeping Dog : I mean... you must have started like anyone else... and became better.. a nd better..
Big Jim : Oh yes, that is certainly true... my first release was an entry in MC2 - the rookie section - called Mindwash. it placed 40th!!!
Big Jim : I would say my 'big break' in the scene was Hangover, I got a lot of p raise for that, which really encouraged me
Big Jim : Although, my break for me personally.. would have to be Cold Fear, whi ch i wrote shortly after Mindwash... the difference in quality of those 2 songs is unbeleivable
Sleeping Dog : Did you release it on a compo or in between ?
Big Jim : Hangover was just released after I wrote it. i just uploaded it to hor net
Sleeping Dog : What do you think if you compare your style of music to that of other com posers... Is it different ??
Big Jim : Hmmm... thats a toughie!
Big Jim : I dont really know.. a lot of the stuff I write can be experimental... but the experiments don't alwayts work so they are left to lay around on my har d disk :)
Sleeping Dog : give it a try.;-)
Big Jim : I am influenced a lot by other composers... for example the other memb ers of FM an also Skaven who's music I really like...
Big Jim : I would say that my my style is really based around strong melodies an d chord sequences.
Sleeping Dog : Jeez... you just grabbed my next question right out of my head... I plann ed to ask you who your great examples were ;-)
Big Jim : A good point that I have been told about my music is that it is very m emorable
Sleeping Dog : Damn server ... still there ?
Big Jim : I think so... If you want me to round off the answer, I would say that my style is really not that different to a lot of other composers, although i d o have my own little ...
Big Jim : ...little trademarks :)
Sleeping Dog : maybe you can now finnish the list of your big examples...
Big Jim : big examples?
Sleeping Dog : people who inspired you... both in normal en computer music...
Big Jim : Oh I see...
Big Jim : Well In computer music terms I would have to say the other members of F.M. and Skaven. Particularly Skaven. When i was beginning to track a lot , I sa t down and analysed a lot of tracked music, to see exactly how particular sounds and effects were acheived
Sleeping Dog : and in 'normal' music... (if we can make a that difference...)
Big Jim : In real terms... Hmmm.. I dont actually listen to an awful lot of tape s and stuff. I dont have a CD player :(((((((((
Sleeping Dog : So you don't have real favourite groups which inspire you ??
Big Jim : I guess the bands Nirvana, Faith no More, Therapy stick out as favouri tes, and little traits of theirs may pop up now and then in my music...
Big Jim : Alos, classical music inspires me too
Big Jim : also
Sleeping Dog : little traits, do you think 'grunge' is more difficult to make on compute r or didn't you try it out yet ?
Big Jim : Well I havent really tried a grunge track! I did a dance mix of 'Smell s Like Teen Spirit' (But then who hasnt!). When i say traits... I meant like cho rd progressions, or samples
Big Jim : brb.....
Big Jim : back
Sleeping Dog : do you think it's possible ? Guitar music on computer i mean...
Big Jim : Certainly... listen to Reflecter by Zodiak. Although it does use BIG s amples!
Sleeping Dog : you mentionned the word twice now... so I feel almost obliged to ask you. .. where do you get your samples ;-)
Big Jim : I think that it is possible to achive good sounding guitar music witho ut using massive samples like that! It just takes a bit more hard work
Big Jim : Right.. well I have to admit that the main source of my samples is cur rently other composers mods :( (i know I'm gonna get slated for that!!)
Big Jim : I am starting to do more and more of my own samples now though...
Sleeping Dog : why should they not everybody has the amount of money to buy huge profess ional equipment to sample... and why should you reinvent hot water (or resample cool samples..)
Big Jim : I get my own samples from tapes, borrowed synths and most of all, my g uitars
Sleeping Dog : using a Gravis ?? with ??
Big Jim : sd: Quite, although using your own samples does make the song feel mor e 'yours' if you know what I mean
Big Jim : sd: Yes I use a Gravis (not a MAx) with only 512k of memory, which is good in a way
Sleeping Dog : any particular software ?
Big Jim : Yes I use .. shit forgot what its called!.. Goldwave!
Big Jim : Although, if Psi of FC is reading this.. PLEASE make Digiplay for Gus :) I always used to use that when i had my Sb
Sleeping Dog : hehe ;-) I think there's one thing the readers also want to know... what Tracker do you use .. and why do you use that one ?
Big Jim : I always track using Screamtracker 3.2
Big Jim : I use it because I like the interface more than anything. I dont like using a mouse to track.. it slows me down
Big Jim : Fast Tracker 2 has some excellent features, but I cant get used to sus ing it becuase of the interface
Sleeping Dog : We've been talking about almost everything of the musical part of you... what do you plan in the future ??
Big Jim : I would really like to do music for games. Ideally that would be my ca reer. But very few people can make that their full time job.
Big Jim : I would also like to make a CD.. I hear of all these people like Maelc um & Lizrdking doing them, but I really wouldnt know how to start! I dont know i f its any easier to get CDs pressed in the staes or over on the continet that in England.
Sleeping Dog : Is there that much place for a .S3M composer in the game development ? Do n't they use other types of music (don't kill me... I stopped playing games 2 ye ars ago...)
Big Jim : Well... it depends really. A lot of companys use midi music (I can com pose midi stuff too :) but there are a lot more these days using tracked music I think.
Big Jim : lot more than in the past.. not a lot more that are using midi
Big Jim : than are using midi :)
Sleeping Dog : So you scream out to all producers in the world you want to produce a CD ?
Big Jim : Hehe... well yeah :) That would be very nice! If someone wants to put up some offer :)
Sleeping Dog : Don't you think that one of the major problems with putting your work on CD is that there is no text in it ?? Just plain music..
Big Jim : I don't really know, there's always the inlay card. i never really tho ught about that before... it is nice to have messages and greets in the sample t exts
Sleeping Dog : you can of course also make an extra CDROM track on the CD with the origi nal modules ...
Big Jim : I dont know if my music would stand up as just plain music either.. it 's one thing to get people to listen to an S3M.. but to a CD or tape...
Big Jim : sd: Sure, that is the great thing about CD & CDRom
Sleeping Dog : now we are talking about the future... what about the future of Valhalla ?
Big Jim : Well, hopefully we'll be attending Assembly 95. I'm 99% sure that I pe rsonally will be. I don't know whether we'll be presenting anyhting there. A lot of us have important exams this year, but at least I'll be entering the msuic c ompos :)
Sleeping Dog : You guys are one of the only groups in the world that try to addend al ma jor parties in the world ? And even release cool productions everywhere... What 's driving you guys...
Big Jim : Well, I guess it is becuase we are relatively new. We have in actual f act only been present at 3 parties ever! Assembly 94 , The Party 4 and the Gathe ring 95
Big Jim : at the Party, only xToto was there to hand in 'Peripheral Vision'. I
Big Jim : guess that the locations help, in that we have xToto in Germany for wh om it is relatively easy for him to get to a lot of parties
Sleeping Dog : Then I have to change my point of view and change it to all Major parties .. ;-)
Big Jim : I have only ever been to one party! (TG 95), but try and keep me away from assembly this year!
Big Jim : sd: hehe
Sleeping Dog : Try to keep me away from any party... the only reason why I wasn't at TG was '"cause it was in the middle of my exams... for the rest I did all possible parties starting one year ago...
Big Jim : sd: Its a shame that V.O.L. crashed at ASM 94, otherwise I think that Sandman and Nige would have made a great impact on the scene, just to come out o f nowhere and produce a great demo fro the biggest compo in the world
Big Jim : sd: Hehe cool!
Sleeping Dog : True... but that's was the problem with the whole Assembly... I think you read enough stuff about The Real thing etc.. What about the Future of F.M. are you planning to do something together ??
Big Jim : sd: Coming 15th, i dont think V.O.L got the recognition it deserved.. for a first demo, I think it is an amazing acheivement! (remember i didnt know t hem when they wrote it so I'm not biassed!)
Big Jim : sd: yep.. hopefully we've got a music disk in the pipline, which *coul d* (and only could) contain a song that Everyone in the group has worked on toge ther
Sleeping Dog : Anyone in particular going to do the code for it ??
Big Jim : sd: Not yet, the idea only cropped up this week, but Im sure we'll be sorying details out soon.
Sleeping Dog : I think we'll have to wait and see what happens .. ;-)
Big Jim : sd: yeah, thats right. Its only a glint in the milmans eye at the mome nt ;)
Big Jim : milkmans
Sleeping Dog : Do you have anything in particular to tell to the scene in genreal ??
Big Jim : I suppose I could say check out the Valhalla web page on http://www.br ad.ac.uk/~jestorer/
Sleeping Dog : hehe... I think I even have it in my links..
Big Jim : sd: Ok, I just hope im in the chart - otherwise this interview is gonn a look pretty stoopid! ;)
Big Jim : I'd also like to say for anyone who is trying to compose computer musi c... never give up! You will improve with time (If you dont believe that downloa d Midwash!)