Interview with Mount

In the past few years, there is written about almost every editor or article writer in the scene. That's why I wondered how a really interesting and nice guy like Mount/Polka Brothers, who also was the maineditor of Upstream, never saw an Interview of him published in a diskmagazine.

The Danish Mount of Polka Brothers, or Tage Majland which is his real name, is involved in the scene since 1989 which obviously is a long time. His age today is 23 years, and he just moved to his new home in Skive.

In his scene years, he has been a member of Orion 5, Cult and Parasite to finally be a member of a marvellous group: Polka Brothers. Mount spends his computer time with drawing some pieces of art for the Polka Brothers and previously managing the Upstream magazine. Meaning writing, editing, but keeping contact with the other editors aswell. In the past, Mount also was an editor of Stolen Data, the infamous magazine which got released under the Anarchy label. With this information already at my side, things can only get better.


	

		
RAW:
		
Since the beginning of the scene diskmagazines have always been around! I remember the menu of Stolen Data issue 1, only a few articles and a selection of 3 demos, which corresponded with the top 3 demos in the Stolen Data charts. And when you look at diskmagazines now, anno 1995, you can say that scene journalism and diskmagazines reached their highlight! Could you give your opinion about this?
	
	

		
Mount:
		
The scene is such a strange body when you sit in your room and actually have the window open to the whole Europe. If you don't get any demos or read diskmags, are you then not in the scene? I don't know.. but what I know is that when reading the mags you get a very good view of what is happening in the scene. A good friend of mine, who is not that much into the scene anymore, was very happy to get the last issue of Upstream I sent him. "Now I know what's going on in the scene" he said. I guess that explains a lot... Some might say diskmags have too much power in the scene but I doubt it. Quite a lot don't even read them and many don't believe all that is written (the latter is a problem).
	
	

		
RAW:
		
It looks like the diskmagazine scene is also dying a slow dead. Only Rom, Raw and Upstream were released frequently this year. A lot of magazines like 42, Thing, Headline and Sledgehammer who "ruled" 1994 have suddenly disapeared.. How come?
	
	

		
Mount:
		
I'm not too sure that all the mags, you mention, ruled. Anyway, there will surely be more new mags, hopefully with higher quality from the start like we saw with the coming of RAW and ROM - mags based on quality, not quantity (unlike most other young mags seem to hope that people won't mind the quality). Three quality mags is enough, I think. Then the creative magpowers could be concentrated on those instead of them being often wasted on mags that can't hold an overall quality in the long run.
	
	

		
RAW:
		
You are studying journalism for 2 years now, do you have to study journalism, if you don't want to stay behind the other magazines?
	
	

		
Mount:
		
Not at all, but you do see things in a different way and have some good models for writing something worth reading!! And not only worth writing for the credit hungry editor.
	
	

		
RAW:
		
Who has been of big importance for scene journalism as we know it today, and why?
	
	

		
Mount:
		
It seems stupid to me to sing out a handful of mag heroes since they where all a product of their time who maybe just thought a little bit further. The Eurochart has through the years been a major factor in the art of "selling" scene news. Zine introduced a lot of new things and made people give big attention to dismags. The first issues of RAW gave a new way of presenting the stories where action spoke louder than words. Whether this is positive I don't want to judge here - at least several other mags followed.
	
	

		
RAW:
		
Describe in 5 sentences what Upstream was about, and why you think it was different of other magazines.
	
	

		
Mount:

	

		
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Upstream took the scene seriously but also thinks that the scene is a funny place.
	
	

		
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Upstream never lied.
	
	

		
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Upstream didn't bore the readers with a longer article than is needed to tell the story.
	
	

		
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Upstream wanted to go under the skin of the obvious stories, no matter if it takes long time and hurts to release what we find.
	
	

		
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Upstream would always try to be as accurate as possible though it takes extra time to research and check the information.
	

	
	

		
RAW:
		
The last question. As you told me, you are really a scene veteran, how long will you be apart of the scene, and don't you think a man has to know when to quit?
	
	

		
Mount:
		
I would certainly not like to know when I quit! Imagine a magic ball saying that I will remain "scener" for e.g. the next four years. How frightning.... ;-) Like all others I sometimes have these down periods of varying length but I always return! Surely because I have so many good friends there. So it's a natural environment for me but not just because of the computers! The easiest thing to say about my future life in the scene is that I will keep on as long as it's funny and I don't find something else that can take away my attention...