| Jester - Musician Review: | Projects: |
Would Sanity ever have been so successful without Jester's brilliant tunes? I think no. Since Sanity's beginning Volker Tripp, aka Jester, has composed excellent and melodic tunes for their great demos, of course in his typical own style and many people are thinking, that he was the best.
Unfortunately he has left the scene, but unforgettable are demos like Roots 2.0, Terminal Fuckup, World of Commodore or Elysium, for which he has composed the music. Another highlight was also his music disk Jesterday which was filled with many music pearls.
He also created the music for famous demos of other groups like Anarchy's Flower Power or Extension from Pygmy Projects, which I think is the best music he ever made.
Meanwhile he has a new name - Oddjob. His style has changed, but it's still a pleasure to listen to his music and he has released meanwhile four CDs with his music. So don't hesitate to visit the homepage of Oddjob and listen to his music!
But wouldn't it be interesting to know more about Jester/Oddjob? This is the reason why he has answered us some questions... | 
Roots 2.0
World of
Commodore
Hospital
since friday |
| Interview: Volker Tripp aka Jester with Bobic, February 2000 | Projects: |
Bobic: Hello Jester! Please tell us something about yourself. How old are you, what's your real name?
Jester: My name's Volker and I'm currently 27.
Bobic: On which computer systems have you made your first music experiences?
Jester: The first computer-music excperience must have been the C64. I remember being hooked on some of the game musics on that machine. Rob Hubbard was (and still is) one of my faves. Then, on the Amiga I tried doing music myself for the first time. Starting out with Sonix, I soon got hold of Soundtracker. After that I couldn't help using tracker programmes, only, for creating music.
Bobic: And which sound tools on the Amiga have you preferred for creating the typical Jester style? What was your favourite tracker?
Jester: The one I finally got stuck with was Protracker. It had basically everything one needed, especially an implemented sampler with numerous sample modification options. Most of my Amiga mods have been done with Protracker. For music with external sound-devices I fall back on OctaMED, a tracker-style tool which nicely supports MIDI. On the PC, Fasttracker seems like the tracker of choice, even though I haven't used it much (since I don't do too many computer-based mods anymore).
Bobic: How did you discover your music talent? Did you play a music instrument before using a tracker or did you start using a tracker just for fun?
Jester: When I was a kid, I had recorder/flute-lessons. And yes, you're right - this doesn't matter at all, musically. I began to take a liking in making music when I started using trackers because it was a very direct way of putting down musical ideas. Without being a technically good instrumentalist you could create music. *Anyone* could create music. This thought was probably a big impulse for pursueing music.
Bobic: Which of your Jester tunes is your favourite and why is it the one, which you like most?
Jester: This is hard to answer. Favourites in general shift all the time. Right now, I think a little mod entitled Wirehead is nice because of the atmosphere it has.
Bobic: How did you find the demo scene? What were your reasons to compose music especially for scene demos?
Jester: I got into the scene more or less by chance. A pal of mine (Diddle - Hi Marc!) was into demos. He joined Treacl one day and I was kind of dragged along. After some spiteful experiences I first lost interest in the scene. Diddle then joined Sanity and included some of my mods with his letters to other Sanity members. They liked the music and since the guys seemed okay, I joined them, too.
What I liked about doing music for demos was the idea that creative people were working together for the sake of a project. There were no commercial interests, just the goal to have a nice production in the end. And since this object was linked with a personal creative process, it meant that demos were entirely things of the people who made them. They were *their* thing. As a musician, it is also nice to think of demos as a kind of visualisation of the music. This adds new aspects to listening to the tunes. Heck, replay your favourite composition in WimAmp and run Geiss and you'll know what I mean.
Bobic: Especially with the demo group Sanity you have released one demo highlight after the next until the mid nineties. Why is it so quiet about Sanity since the release of Roots 2.0 until today?
Jester: Roots was released in 1994 and at that point I wasn't really in touch with the scene anymore. Other stuff took priority and so I finally left the scene altogether. I dunno what happened in and to Sanity after that but I suppose the coders started working commercially so there was less time for scene productions. I haven't heard from them in ages.
Bobic: Your current handle is Oddjob. Why did you change your name? "Jester" was such a famous name. Could you please explain this a little bit.
Jester: For me, Jester was a scene handle. When I switched from doing mods to making music with external gear I simply felt that Jester had nothing to do with that. The music's all different from my mod-stuff and Jester (as a name) wouldn't fit the tunes. Then again, I keep changing my handle all the time. Sometimes I do tunes as Bazooka Joe, sometimes as Zyankali Cola, sometimes as Jack Resin, sometimes as ... well, you catch my drift. But Oddjob is the constant outside handle.
Bobic: Meanwhile you've released 4 CDs as Oddjob. Could you please describe with some words, what's the difference between the music from Jester and the style from Oddjob?
Jester: The sound is different, I guess. This is partly due to the fact that I use gear other than the Amiga these days. The music itself, though, is also more sound-orientated than my Jester mods used to be. I have also parted with regular song-structure (verse-chorus-bridge) and prefer having elements morphing and floating around freely, recombining themselves all the time. Sometimes, though, I have done more structured tunes but the other stuff is more of what I'm focusing on right now. Jester pieces were in the Amiga demo style of the early nineties, Oddjob music is more experimental, ambient. Oddjob is less composition and more sound.
Bobic: What about the Amgia. Do you still use one or did you lose the interest in it like so many other people?
Jester: Yeah, in fact I'm running OctaMED on the Amiga. I'm using it to control external sound-bits via MIDI. But that's about all I do with it - I don't follow the demo-scene, I don't run either applications nor games.
Bobic: What do you think about the Amiga community today? Are you interested in what happened lately?
Jester: I don't have the slightest clue what's going on in the Amiga scene these days.
Bobic: Are you still interested in the demo scene today?
Jester: I like demos when I get them but I cannot be bothered to actively look for them or have contacts and all that jazz.
Bobic: Meanwhile we know that you've released CDs under the name Oddjob. But what else are you doing? I'm sure many people want to know that.
Jester: I studied law and graduated in early 1998. Since then I have worked for a local law firm and have been busy with writing a dissertation on legal aspects of digital signatures.
Bobic: Is there anything that you want to tell our visitors?
Jester: Support BTTR since it's one of the nicer sites around. Read books by Terence McKenna. Puff up little fluffy clouds. Be nice to your parents. No, I don't think there's much to tell.
Bobic: Hehe, ok Volker. Thank you very much for this interesting talk. Hippie2000 and myself wish you all the best for the future. Take care!
Jester: Best wishes to you. | |
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