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     SKOL BEATS (Brazil) Interview with Pixelh8 April 15th 2008
   Original English Interview Transcript

      Skolbeats: You mentioned that one of the tricks to extract melodic sounds from those hardwares is to get involved into "reverse engineering". Would you expand
      on that?

Pixelh8: Yeah, on my first album “Videogames Ruined My Life” I used a lot of electronic childrens' toys and musical keyboards, I took them apart and added resistors and capacitors here and there to change what they did, some people refer to it as circuit bending and some people call it reverse engineering, it was predominantly to do with changing the sound properties. I would then take those new sounds record them and chop them up to make songs.

Skolbeats: Tell me about some of the vintage computers that are the basis of your work.

Pixelh8: I am lucky in that I grew up in both America and England so I got to see all kinds of toys and computers. Computer wise I have a ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, TRS-80, Spectrum 2+ and a Acorn Electron which is my current favourite and loads more but they are probably my favourites. I also have loads and loads of electronic toys most of which have been donated to me by friends just to see if I can do anything interesting with them.

Skolbeats: Sure enough, your music is popular among people who are familiar with the soundtracks of 8 and 16-bit videogames. Does chiptunes have the possibility to be appealing to a broader audience?

Pixelh8: Definetely, I can see chiptune music appearing in more mainstream music and culture, I don’t think it will hinder it, it will just make it reach a wider audience, which I feel is important to any type of music, music is supposed to be heard, and the more listeners the better.

Skolbeats: I watched some videos of chiptune music on the youtube. If you're composing a piece in a gameboy or another similar device, can you work on different keys?

Pixelh8: Yes, my first piece of software was very limited in what it could do, it was originally made just for me and to test my abilities as a programmer and to use it as an on the go writing tool, but a few other artists wanted a copy so I made a few. The new version has all the keys and can do a lot more cool stuff.

Skolbeats: I've read in an article that you'd rather tell people to build their own equipments than deal with samplers. Is there many ways to explore the musical possibilities of 8 bit hardware, resulting in a varied palete of sounds?

Pixelh8: Definetely, again this brings up the argument is chip tune music a genre, and I would say no, if you looked at some artists from America who were brought up on American music and you compare it to artists in England, there is a considerable difference is the music and the sound palette they use, it’s comparable to a rock band using a guitar and a folk singer using a guitar. The end result and the genres they are interested in define their sound. Chip tune music is the instrumentation and therefore capable of diversity through playing different genres. Samplers are boring. J

Skolbeats: Let's focus on your latest release, "The Boy With The Digital Heart". What's the audience and critical response, so far?

Pixelh8: It has been fantastic, I knew if I really took the time and put literally blood, sweat and tears into it, I would be able to do it. It took everything I had emotionally, physically and mentally to achieve it, and I think it shows. Quite a few people have said despite the music being played on a computer it has such great emotional depth, and to me that was the whole point of “The Boy With The Digital Heart”.

Skolbeats: How many doors chiptunes music have opened for you?

Pixelh8: Quite a few, it’s allowed me to travel and meet lots of other musicians and to learn from and to teach them. It’s also allowed me to meet lots of other computer programmers and again, to learn from them and to teach them, and that’s one of the best things you can get from any experience, knowledge. Most of my heroes in music are those who not only make music or perform music, but those who pass that knowledge and experience on, it is extremely important for any type of music to do that, whether it be western concert music or Brazilian Samba.

Skolbeats: Do you plan to put some vocals on the mix in the near future?

Pixelh8: That would be hard to say, it really depends on the rules I set for the next album if any, I like setting rules for albums and songs, it gives me a clearly defined starting point, like if I said no 32 bit machines, no circuit bending or no synthesizers like I did on “The Boy With The Digital Heart” I know where I can start from, it gives me a template and allows me to fully explore those set parameters.

Skolbeats: Would you classify your music as purely accidental? I've read on CNN that your younger sister was responsible for chiptunes...

Pixelh8: Hahhaha I wouldn’t be so quick as to give my sister credit for chip tune music, neither her nor I can claim credit for the creation of chip tune music, she was however responsible for destroying several of my toys when we were younger which led me to looking at the insides of them. I don’t know who the first chip tune artist was, it all depends on the definition of chip tune music. If you say the first person to use a computer to make music was the first chip tune artist, some people might argue that that wasn’t chip tune music and it was a video game music, an accompaniment to a video game or piece of software and not a musical form in it’s own right. 

I often say chip tune music came probably at the end of when things like the Amiga and the Atari ST were largely replaced by PC’s. Those people who carried on with making music with those wonderful machines are often referred to as .MOD music and are still going strong. The people who came after that and wanted to recreate those types of sounds are chip tune musicians. Who the first chip tune artist was I don’t know, but chip tune music is most definitely here now.

I am lucky in that I got to experience 8 bit videogame music starting at the Atari 2600 and up, 16 bit videogame music on the Amiga and Atari ST, .MOD music and now chip tune music. There is a lot of wonderful music made on these machines.

Skolbeats: Do you think about developing new gadgets or explore 32-bit stuff musically (are you already working on something like that)?

Pixelh8: For the most part, I’m not that interested in 32 Bit machines because they tend to rely heavily on the use of samples, and samples can be anything they can be a sample of drum or a synth, I’m interested in the machine being itself and doing the synthesis itself, therefore right now I think 8 bits is enough for me, 16 ocassionally, but 32 is just not important.

Pixelh8 "The Boy With The Digital Heart" Out 12/12/07

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