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I think Melwyn and XXX are wellknown enough in the scene. That's why we're going to skip an extra introduction with them. If you don't know them, you must be living on the Moon or anywhere else where no beer is growing. After the last Mekka Symposium, Haujobb announced to stop producing demos.
Let's find out why they decided like this: PAiN: Hey friends, thank you both for agreeing to this interview. There were lotsa rumours about Haujobb lately, that's why PAiN now tries to bring some exclusive backstage informations on this stuff. Let's start with it right away: First of all, please tell me, how was your trip back from Mekka Symposium 2002? Melwyn: Well, for me it was short and comfy. I was taking part with MFX flight trip arranged from Finland and we were back home in few hours. XXX: My trip back was long (not as long as Matti's). Too long. I was quit in a hurry because i wanted to visit the Chemical Brothers concert in my hometown the same night. PAiN: So, Tobi, you arrived in time to that concert? What did you guys have in mind when driving home? Or did you sleep? Melwyn: After this years Mekka I had a feeling that I often have after a good party - tired but happy. Didn't succeed this year so well in competitions but then again BBQ outside and meeting friends was as great as always. XXX: Yes, I did. I came home, i took a shower and went to the concert. on the trip back home i was just tired and perfectly happy. i just spent 4 days with great friends and watched some awesome demos. PAiN: At the partyplace, some guys from Haujobb told me that Haujobb's going to stop releasing demos, since Farb-rausch discovered design and style. I took this for a joke, but then, shortly after Mekka, there was an announcement on www.haujobb.com: our demos suck. we stop coding. we continue boozing. What has happend? XXX: It was me who said that. It was just a funny way to express my respect for Farbrausch's intro Poem to a Horse. Melwyn: Yes. At Mekka it was more like a joke.. But after the party (during the next days) we had some conversations on our mailinglist and we began to wonder wether we're producing anything that can be considered creative anymore. There had been a lot of critisism of several Haujobb demos and that made us thinking if people with comments like "the same old boring Haujobb" might have a point in what they say. It's not like we would be oversensitive to critisism but before that we were already feeling like not going anywhere, stuck in doing the same thing over and over again. The announcement was kept short and simple. We are still family and love partying together. There won't be just more demos from us. XXX: The friendship between the Haujobb members all over europe was always the best thing we had in Haujobb. There was no chance to quit Haujobb. PAiN: Haujobb is one of the most successfull and famous groups in the scene. All famous people are envied, couldn't this be the reason for critisism? Melwyn: Well, I couldn't say so either. There are always two kinds of critisism: Constructive (that's what I just love, even if it's negative) and then the not-so-constructive one. If somebody says just "You suck!" or something similar, he can be envious, stupid, not able to produce anything better by himself etc. and I don't actually even care why he said so. I piss on that kind of comments. XXX: There is always a reason for critisism. It's to easy to take some peoples envy as an explanation for it. Nowadays demoscene is different. You have to face the critisism through platforms like Pouet. At parties the most people don't have the guts to tell you that they don't like your productions and why they don't like it. You just meet the people that tell you how great your demos are. Groups used to live in illusions about how popular their demos are. PAiN: And what about you? Do you think your demos and intros are boring? Melwyn: Some are boring, but most of them aren't. Even though it isn't always a bad thing if a demo is boring or repeatitive - like I myself enjoy watching We Took the Greenpill quite much. In overall I don't think the main problem with our demos was never being too boring (if not counting some exceptions) but more in not evolving into new directions. PAiN: Haujobb is such a big group that there are certainly still undiscovered talents inside which could fresh up the style. Would this be a solution for further evolving? Melwyn: Well. We had an idea worth trying together Visualice and Droid to switch places and evolve that way. Visualice could start doing music (he already tracked one song), Droid is very promising in graphics (you should see his reindeer drawings from 1992) and I could start coding for real (you have seen my massive coding skills already in True by Calodox+Haujobb). PAiN: When is this rearranged team going to release their kickass top-notch demo? Melwyn: Never (even if it would be fun doing such a release). XXX: As you might remember we stopped doing demos. PAiN: It doesn't seem to be possible to bring you back on the releasing paths of the demoscene life - I tried it hard. Don't you think that you will miss creating demos, and don't you think that people will miss releases by Haujobb? Melwyn: If they will miss releases from us I'd advice to go through all of the Haujobb releases starting from 1994 and after watching them all there should be enough Haujobb for quite a long time. But all this doesn't mean all members from Haujobb started suddenly being inactive in demoscene. There's a lot of other projects and groups to work with. You might have noticed several Haujobb members have joined some other groups already. PAiN: Maybe it's the best thing to stop with a good name on the highest point of the success? To get more personal, what are your own further projects without Haujobb now? XXX: We both are concentrating on Slengpung right now. Melwyn already did a great job with the interface but we still have many ideas for some cool new features that we will implent in the next weeks and months. Melwyn: Yes. Slengpung is quite much the top priority right now. Stay tuned for more cool features! I will also continue composing music whenever possible and I've already discussed with Virne about contributing soundtrack to forthcoming Kooma demo. PAiN: That sounds promising. And it's good to hear that you'll continue being active. Have you been surprised by the reactions on your stopping-announcement, for example in the Ojuice oneliner? XXX: We have been surprised and of course honoured. It made our decision even tougher. Melwyn: Though there were few comments where people expressed they were just happy about us quitting. Nice to know we pleased them at least once in our lifetime. PAiN: Looking back to the Haujobb history, what have been the climaxes releasingwise? XXX: For me it was My Kingdom together with Scoopex at TP97. It was the first big success of Haujobb. At that time it was still something special to win the demo competition at TP and for us it was the first time that our productions got the attention of a big audience. Melwyn: I wasn't in Haujobb yet back in 1997 but My Kingdom was definitely the demo that made Haujobb famous. Later on Discloned did the same in PC scene and I was happy to be together making Fukwit Daddy (which won the PC intro competition at TP9). PAiN: And what was the worst point in the history? Where did the group felt like being fucked? Was it at this year's Mekka Symposium? XXX: I think it was when all Finnish members, except Droid, left the group to found Loveboat. That nearly killed Haujobb. PAiN: It's already late and we should make a point here. When and where can we meet the Haujobb posse again to have a beer with you? Melwyn: At Assembly in Helsinki, Finland next August - if nowhere else. XXX: We will stay the regular party visitors that we have been before. This will be Haujobb main task from now on. PAiN: Tobi, Matti, thank you for this interview. It was interesting to talk to you. Is there anything left you want to tell our readers? XXX: No. Melwyn: Just come and talk with us over a beer whenever we meet, because you know the best thing there is... Watching a demo, having a beer. RELATED LINKS Haujobb http://www.haujobb.com Weltmarktfhrer http://www.weltmarktfuehrer.de Slengpung (more pictures from our heroes) http://www.slengpung.com |
