Interview with NO CARRIER, Blip Festival Europe 2009

N-club question: What started it all for you?

NO CARRIER: I started doing 8-bit visuals a few years ago, and I was mainly interested in doing visuals because I have always been interested in chip music and demo culture, and I wanted to experiment with programming anyway, and I thought it would be a good application for it. And I wanted to approach it from a hardware level. As a visualist I figured I should go out and use hardware as well. So I started programming for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

N-club question: What are the biggest challenges in doing 8-bit graphics?

NO CARRIER: The biggest challenge I think is a lack of proper documentation. So you’re working on systems and consoles that are 20 years old, and maybe even older. So I have programmed for the ATARI 600, Comondore 64, and the Nintendo Entertainment System that I liked to use. There’s not a lot of information out there, so you’ve rely on people and to learn on your own.

N-club question: Modern programming interfaces often have very bug free interfaces, how about that in your case?

NO CARRIER: When you’re coding for a lot of the older systems, you kind of make your own tools, and if you use the tools that are available, it might not the best. But at the same time, there are small dedicated communities that are there if you need them, most of the time. And I think a lot of musicians have pretty neat software. Most of the DJ’s and musicians on the 8-bit scene make their own hardware or make their own software, and there’s a lot of visualists that are pioneers on that aspect.

N-club question: Did you start out with more traditional programming?

NO CARRIER: On the first gig or two I did, I used a laptop. But my first experience with coding was on the Nintendo, it was a long and slow process. I started out simple, but now it is a lot more complex.

N-club question: Do you think about what the visuals do to the music?

NO CARRIER: Yeah, of course, it’s a big thing... And many times we’ll contact the musicians and talk to them "what type of software are you playing?", or listen online and get a good feel of how their sound is. I change the speed, the code, the pattern so I match the field of the music… And the software has to be written good enough so that you can perform live, "you not just hit a button and "go"", you’ll have to stay in time with the music. I can’t think of any visualists from the 8-bit that doesn’t customize their sets. They try to change the color schemes and just even the style of the visuals... You hear the music and you see the visuals, and it all comes together.

N-club question: Have you ever had any experience with the 8-bit consoles, as of playing them?

NO CARRIER: Yeah of course, I grew up using an Nintendo Entertainment System. As a kid I was playing it all the time. It’s probably one of the reasons I started with that console. And even now I get into the Comondore 64, and it’s kind of hard for me in a way, because I’m more comfortable with how the Nintendo looks and how the control is. I know here in Europe, everyone grew up with a Comondore 64, and it’s much different in America. It was the familiarity with the colors and the graphics I liked from the Nintendo, the controls – everything just felt right.

N-club question: How about favorite games from the 8-bit consoles?

NO CARRIER: I just remember certain parts of games that stuck out. A lot of my work involves color cycling. If you look at Mega Man 2 for instance, in the bubbleman stage, there’s a waterfall. And the waterfall isn’t moving. The colors are just cycling. And that effect of color movement with just color cycling is important when you are coding for older consoles, because it kind of saves your time and saves processing power. So there might not be a certain game that sticks out, but with certain part of games I say "wow, that’s a good trick", and I think I can use that. So some games defiantly inspired me to do certain coding effects.

N-club question: What do you think about the Blip festival being in Aalborg, Denmark?

NO CARRIER: I think it is great. I was really excited, also to do the workshop, where about forty people or more came and also gave great comments, and maybe get other people to do 8-bit visuals as well. And I think it is great to come over here to play for a new audience. It is great to come out and play, but also to do workshops. I used a couple of years of working hard on it, but I started out coding for the Nintendo, so you can start from not having any programming experience, if that’s really what you wanna do.

N-club question: Have you been in the situation as with the ones who do 8-bit music that people come up and ask what game you are playing?

NO CARRIER: Yeah, that happens all the time. People are always confused about the visualists. Some time they think you do the music, and sometimes they think you are a DJ. There are a lot of misunderstandings about doing visuals. A good think about doing the visuals is you’re in the crowd, and people can come and see and watch what you are doing. There’s not the same barrier as with the musicians that are on stage.

N-club : We’ve say thank you very much for the interview.

Artiklen er skrevet af Matthias Aurelian Onsdag d. 5. august 2009 klokken 13:02

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