Interview with Jeremy Kolosine/Receptors re 8-Bit Operators for Japanese Club & Music magazine “LOUD” February 2009 issue. Q1 How did you start this project with 8-BIT OPERATORS? Why did you decide to make this compilation album “The Music Of Kraftwerk? A: I was amazed it hadn't been done yet because it was another poetic culmination of everything Kraftwerk and pioneers like them had predicted. It's an exploration of the nostalgia and human fondness for faithful old machines that served us well and don't deserve to be called obsolete. I also noticed the similarities of live gameboy shows and the Kraftwerk 'Pocket Calculator' asthetic from '81. So I tried to include as many of the new wave of chipmusic composers, the 21st century retro-futurists using these hardware platforms by choice for the sheer love of the sound. This collection hopefully represents as many of that crop of neo-chiptunist like Johan Kotlinski(Role Model) and Oliver Wittchow, creators of the LSDJ and Nanoloop respectively. Q2 I think that we can tell that original Kraftwerk songs are already 8-bit style.What did you tell each artist to pay attention to making cover tracks? A: The main aspect of the collection is that they had to pay attention to the gaming platforms 'limitations' cand how to translate the arrangement of the song they chose into the oftentimes more minimalist palette. My only influence was encouraging the artists to sing in their own languages, like many of the multi-lingual Kraftwerk versions I'd heard.Other than that the artists used their own magic, many with theit own programs on platforms such as gameboys of course, but also 8-bit Atari computers, Nintendo Entertaintment Systems and Commodore 64. So exlploiting the unique aspects of said hardware and firmware are the point too, i expect. Q3 What type of system do you use when you actually play songs by gadget e.g. Gameboy? I feel that it looks simple but seems to be quite difficult system nowadays. A: Like a majority of gameboy artists,I use mostly 2 old grey 4-bit GameBoys running a LittleSoundDJ and/or Nanoloop cartridge plus Sidstation on some recordings (which uses the Commodore SID chip). I also use some handheld midi stylophonic devices as vocoder controllers mostly. Lately I've gotten heavily into the touchscreen/stylus controlled GameBoy NDS and its programs like the Korg DS-10.Any of these systems are easy to master after a slight learning curve. If one starts playing around in the making of a loop or song, you can't help but learn.Plus instrumental adeptness is a moot point with these controllers, so a non-musician can punch on 5 or 6 buttons in various order and eventually communicate their musical thoughts too.Just it is motivationally more difficult for me on more purist systems such as Atari 2600, Commodore 64 and NES systems. Sometimes It's like you've got to love the engine of the car as much as the drive and don't mind spending 30 minutes under the hood each time before you drive kinda. Also the accumulation of certain hardware/firmware is getting harder. Q4 How were you into 8-bit music? What made you feel that it was interesting? A: I had always been more of an analog synth purist instead of a digital one, but in the late 90's onward I started to appreciate digital noise textures more. Eventually in 2002 or so I found chip-centric sites that had been going a while, like Micromusic.net where I found the musical styles beautifully mechanical yet melodic and methodically programmed .The artists that were involved in it turned out to be great guys too, like Glomag and Bit Shifter and many more.It had a feeling of having a somewhat level playing field, and still does, a gameboy wizkid can appear online at 8bitcollective.com one month, and a few months later be doing a mini world tour.Encouragingly, the audience seems to be there for what seems to be a flood of new chiptunists from almost every contintent as is evidenced with the many 8-bit festivals popping up, with the NYC Blip Fest in it's 3rd year. Q5 To you, what is the biggest attractive element of 8-bit music? A: I was always interested in cheap handheld music gear and it eventually led me to the Nanoloop and LittleSoundDJ cartridges and other Lo-bit micro-chip driven platforms in 2003.I ended up on the old Game Boy mostly. There is some nostalgia to the sound, but to me in the context of experimental dance music it sounded new. Also to me part of it is becase i enjoy the focus of working with monophonic synth voicings from scratch and adding more structure to my music.What at first seems to be limited is the exact opposite with the ability to access infinite sounds and thousands of commands and arrangements with a couple of button pushes that all fits in your pocket. Q6 How will 8-bit music scene be in the future? What do you think of its development? A: In cultural terms it brings more glory to the idea of decision making automaton at the switch, but with that new intellectual machismo, the 'I can can out program GMoroder with only 8-bits and one and one hand tied behind my back' sort of cybercryme competiveness. On the purist front, because it spawned from the ModScene/Hacker talent pool originally, this scene may always represent where it might be a few years from now.As far as on the pop music front and its off-shoots, we'll continue to see the more recognizable 8-bit flourishes used across various genres, more in hiphop as we have seen, but more in rock and of course all dance music.Eventually the sounds will be present more so in the form of emulation as we are seeing.But there will always be hardware purists that want the real chip sound! Oh btw I should mention that the next 8-Bit Operators various artists release is already finished and it's called "wanna hld yr handheld" and it's of course Beatles covers and will blow your minds! Jeremy Kolosine / Receptors - January 2009