PAiN Menu
At a Glance
current issue
issue 12/07 (59)
download

next deadline
not set


mailinglist
subscribe

errors?
read the faq!

Barock/The Silents
by Ghandy/Scarab^Vantage [issue 11/2002]


Alreay a long, long time ago his scenecareer began. In case of him we were speaking with somebody, who could be easily called a true scene dinosaur. After buying himself a US Robotics 14.4 modem, trading & phreaking like hell, and getting his first experiences with the graphics program Deluxe Paint, he joined the legendary Amiga demogroup Rebels in the year 1990. Some months later he left because of their lazyness and began to build up the german devision of The Silents. In 1992 he formed the wellknown TSL-subgroup "No Soul Production" and took part when the "Static Chaos" Trackmo came true.

After the release of "Static Chaos" all members of "No Soul" became more or less lazy. Barock and his closest friend Flaxx, with whom he's still in contact with, lost their interest into the slowly downgoing Amiga demoscene and joined the illegal consoles related crackinggroup "Censor" before they left the stages completly.

In the year 2001 he made his first steps again into scenish directions. And then surprisingly everything happened in a rush. First he was responsible for the design of the well running oldschool scene forum and modulearchive Total Kaos, which was originally found by his friend and former sysop Sargor. (http://totalkaos.de)
Shortly later he decided to open the gates of TSL again, began to work on many things at the same time - like the design for Worldcharts, the new outlook of Diskmag.de and countless other scenerelated projects.
Since they have set up the official site for TSL (http://thesilents.de), since their announcetro for the Worldcharts and their victory at the PC democompo at the Remedy party with their first demorelease, which was put together in a hurry, their popularity began to grow up again.

TSL, only kings and better - was back for real!

We had a long chat with this scene grandpa as we were curious if he still would know about his own roots, which plans his group would have for the future. And generally, if TSL would be able to keep the high level we were used to enjoy in the past.

Turn page for more!
Ghandy: Hi Barock, welcome to our interview!
To get started: According to Chaos of Farbrausch (ex-Sanity) TSL is the best Amigagroup ever. That's what he said to you at the Mekka&Symp 2002 after discovering your TSL sign at your neck. How came that this group became inactive some years ago and what's the story behind the new found SILENTS?
Barock: Hi Ghandy! Yes, I agree with Chaos... at least I think The Silents was one of the top 3 Amiga groups in the early 90s. Because of the fact that I left The Silents in 1994, I can't say anything about the inactivity after my active time. But if my infos are correct, the former leader of tsl "Animal" closed the group in the middle of the 90's...

Ghandy wants to know more about the story behind the new founded TSL...
I reactivated myself in the end of the year 2000. I was really surprised how many old friends were still more or less active. In the end of 2001 I got the idea to rebuild my beloved group I was a part of for some years... I reactivated some old tsl dudes and got some new ones also... that's all... :)

Ghandy: So we can call you the leader of TSL now, right?
Barock: No, I wont call me leader... I just founded the group again and I'm doing the main organising like I did back in 1991 for the german division of TSL.

Ghandy: So, which people came and gathered? Who from the good old times and which newbies?
Barock: Old TSL dudes are Bass, Flaxx, Foxx, Lynxx, Marillion, D-zire, Skreen, The Master, Laxical and myself. Jesper Kyd is no active member anymore but he is supporting us with music from time to time... lifetime member :) New ones are Flood, Zack, Lug00ber, Gemini, Falk, Satus, Sagat, Serge, Thuglife and Sparky, but most of the are sceners for many years now...

Ghandy: Good old Jesper Kyd, what is he doing nowadays?
Barock: Nowadays he owns the JesperKyd productions, a production company specializing in music and sound design for Interactive Media, Film and TV. He did lots of music for famous games on different platforms... http://www.jesperkyd.com/

Ghandy: So how comes that a group which has its roots deeply in the Amiga scene is now only planning to release stuff for the PC?
Barock: Guess it's because of the fact that nearly nobody of us has got an Amiga anymore :( So we will continue on PC and will try to reach a high level of quality on this platform soon... like we did back in the 90s.

Ghandy: But better rethink if the topical PC scene is really WORTH your high amount of work you plan to spend.
Barock: It is :) Ok, scene is not like it was back in the 90's but I really enjoy it nowadays. I am really impressed and give big respect to some groups which did really great demos/intros on PC... I never was a friend of PC but I changed my view lately...

but (...)

Ghandy interrupting him: I mean, you can compare it in an efficient way: You know how the friendship really was between Sceners in the early 90s and how in comparism it is today. Isn't it harder to get people work for you and help you with projects? At least that is my impression... PC Sceners are nowadays quite lazy, they are more consumers than sceners. Way back everybody was willing to support a good running mag with something. And now? Maineditors like Adok, Zito or Unlock have HUGE problems to fill their mags!
Barock: Hmmm... ok, there was real friendship in the early 90s... but don't forget all those "scene-wars" hehe... So we see there was not only peace & love in the so called good old days ;) I think it is as hard as it was in the 90s to find good&motivated members, especially coders ! But one thing is for sure... I met lots of friends and we already did and are working on many coop projects... ;)
So - many non-tsl dudes are helping us... thx to all !

Ghandy: "Only kings and better" by Fairlight (another oldskool group) + TSL was the first step to give your baby new breath. What are your further plans?
Barock: Yes... this demo was made in a real hurry together with our friends in Fairlight! We are working on several stuff, hopefully our chipmusicdisk will be out really soon... next to this there are the Worldcharts, which we are doing with Scoopex & Hoodlum, and a big musicdisk... there are some other projects/ideas but can't give detailed infos at the moment. But something is for sure: Expect some COOL coop demos with Fairlight (and others).

Ghandy: The good old Worldcharts. Rumours told me that this will be a multiplatform release like the Assembly2002 invitation was, cool idea!
Barock: Yes it is. First we only planned to release it on PC but TMB of Scoopex got the idea to make Amiga & C64 versions also... so The Silents are responsible for the PC version, Scoopex manages the Amiga & C64 version together with some friends.

Ghandy: What kind of feeling is it for you to work with Windows as an operating system or to paint with a PC app instead of Dpaint like in the good old times?
Barock: I have no problems to use Windows or stuff like that... although I miss my Amiga sometimes ;) To be honest I used a real oldschool pixelprogramm for a long while called Grafx. But I have to look for something else after I installed Win2000... Nowadays I am using Pro Motion (for pixelworks) and Paintshop... I hate Photoshop :) I used to do GFX in the old way and I am still doing it most of the time :)

Ghandy: Yeah, those PhotoShoppers are a real huge problem for all major 2d graphics compos! They scan and rework a picture in a rush and present it as a selfpixelled work. Which are the graphicians you do like and dislike from the past and present?
Barock: Yes... it is really easy to "fake" stuff nowadays... But guess nobody cares these days, so what... sad but true! Graphicians I really liked in the past were REWARD, J.O.E, UNO and FACET... and many others hehehe... Only one I remeber which I didn't like is Cougar. Nowadays I really enjoy to watch at logos from Acet1 and Kenet for example.

Ghandy: The CDE (= Calodox Demo Exchange) was a good place to leave comments to recent PC productions. Later they closed their doors because the average quality of posted comments became worse and worse. What is your opinion concerning platforms such as Pouet? Should everybody be allowed to critisize the work of others, snot regarding what they are capable to do themselfs?
Barock: Hmmm... I really like pouet but it's getting kind of lame lately. Too much silly threads and comments. also it seems to be that many people create fake accounts there to post stupid comments. The pouet staff should keep their eyes on it! But generally I think it's a cool idea that everyone can critize and post positive/negative opinions. I mostly enjoy reading it, although I really can't understand that generall "let us fuck on Haujobb".

Ghandy: What do you mean with fucking Haujobb?
Barock: I have the impression that many people only want to piss on Haujobb and some of their members. The easiest way for people who don't like HJB demos would be to ignore their releases and not watch them... For me HJB is one of the famoust groups which released a hell of major demos. *Big* respect! Really can't understand comments like: "HJB should stayed dead" or stuff like that...

Ghandy: Does your job in real life has anything to do with your scenerelated occupation?
Barock: No :) But I am trying to change this a bit. At least I am working on it together with Thuglife. We are producing homepages... lots of stuff to do and not enough time for it :( Next to this I will maybe do some commercial gfx-stuff, let's see.

Ghandy: Where do you plan to show up? At which parties can other people meet you? Btw: Are the gates in TSL still open for talented people or do you already have enough guys? Anybody you want to greet at the end?
Barock: I will be 100% at Evoke in Cologne. Guess we will release a demo there if we wont manage it in time for TRSAC :) Maybe I am going to visit a Scandinavian party around December... not sure at the moment. But I will be 100% on Mekka next year... this party roxx!
Hmmm.. Yes, Silents is always looking for talented dudes especially CODERS!
Greets at the end... puhh... wrote to much greetings in the last days... just some short greetz to all my homies in TSL, Fairlight & Scoopex! I love you! THX to Ghandy... support diskmags like PAiN dudes! Don't forget to support Worldcharts :)
Ghandy: Worldcharts by the way: How did you manage to get so many votes?
Barock: Hehe... dunno really! I was really surprised. But there were lots of votes we had to delete like double/tripple votes or fakes or selfvotes or whatever... hell of work... I am sure we will reach more votes in the second issue. Thx to everyone for this great support!

Ghandy: Good! Thanks a lot for staying for such a long time here in our private chat and all the best for you mate! See you soon!

Contact TSL at http://www.thesilents.de


News Archive Vote Articles Services