| Propaganda: |
Could you tell us a little bit about Astro - The Man? |
| Astro: |
Astro the Man? Hehe, Ok. Well I'm Astro (Really?) and I tend to be trapped in a group they call The Movement. I was also given a name when I was born and that name appears to be Casper. (You know, from the cartoon 'Casper - The friendly ghost' :) .. I'm 19 years old TODAY! (9th of March) so this actually is a special Birthday-Interview! Jippiee! I also HAD a pair of glasses but thanks to modern technology I'm now the proud owner of a pair of contact-lenses so I'm crying all day long. Great fun! I'm in my last year at school and after that I plan to go to the school of Journalism. (boring?) and that's all I think you wanna know. |
| Propaganda: |
So how does it feel to be in Movement? What makes Movement a group you obviously never want to leave? |
| Astro: |
Movement is in one word BRILLIANT. Why? Well it's just that really ALL members are really good friends with eachother and really know eachother quite well DESPITE the fact that we have members in 6 countries. When we left Rebels we were quite sick of being in a big, unorganised and unpersonal group. We started Movement, together with some friends with the goal of having loads of fun and making productions in a motivated way without any pressure. Lemon. was also born with that concept but they made the BIG mistake of taking in too many people and I think everyone knows what was the result. Luckily we never made (and never WILL make) that mistake. I would never EVER leave this group simply because most of my friends (in the scene and some outside the scene aswell) are in this group and I really can't think of any group I would want to be in other than Movement. Above all, I'm still having a really FUN time in Movement. |
| Propaganda: |
How can you describe the style of the group? |
| Astro: |
Hmmmm. Difficult. I think our style is mainly based upon the great design by Alex and also by the funny John-Style by Toastmaster. Recently also Corny, Codeman and Soul joined and I'm sure they'll add a whole new aspect to our style. However, if we combine those different styles the result is also quite positive I think. Just look at the UKU-Intro and you'll see what I mean. Pure Alex-Design with the finishing touch by Toastmaster. (or maybe it's the other way around? that's for you to decide) |
| Propaganda: |
What makes Movement more than just an average group? Is there a kind of philosophy behind the whole concept of Movement? |
| Astro: |
Well.. I think it's mainly the 'fresh' design which makes Movement more than an average group. The concept behind most productions is also quite original. If you want to hear philosophies you should consider talking to Alex since he definately is the master of philosophy! Behind all of his designs, logos or pictures there is a kind of 'story' I think. Take my new packmenu for example (not released yet at this point of time). Alex did the design for it and he had a complete philosophy on almost every aspect of the pack. Simply BRILLIANT! I'm not going to reveal anything about it but be sure to look forward to it as it's gonna be REALLY Movemental! |
| Propaganda: |
Name one event you experienced with Movement members that made you think you never wanted to leave the group? (Positive event) |
| Astro: |
At The Party III we had some organisatory problems which I'm not going to talk about specificly here, and this party was also the first time I met some of the members. When everybody knew about the problems I was simply astonished to see everyone discussing them and REALLY trying to solve them. That's the way it should be done but I also was in groups where everybody just kept his mouth shut and nothing happened. There were some REALLY 'hot' discussions but nobody EVER mentioned leaving the group or whatever simply because everybody likes the group too much for that. GREAT! |
| Propaganda: |
Name one event you experienced with Movement members that made you think you wanted to leave the group? (Negative event) |
| Astro: |
Before leaving Holland to visit The Party III, Anthony (ex-Magician Lord) finished the trackmo NUMB and 911 (you :-) ) picked it up the day we left for Denmark. Anthony said it was 100% finished and so we were planning to release it in Denmark. (Anthony himself didn't come along). After testing it on A LOT of 1200's the demo seemed to crash every second time. Logically we decided NOT to enter the Demo-Compo with it as that would have been VERY lame and embarrasing; to see your demo crash on the big screen. When we arrived back in Holland and told Anthony about the facts he was really PISSED at us and blamed US for not releasing the demo as it was 100% working! (that's what HE said) Well... It was released 2 weeks later and then he left to rebuild Axis. Ofcourse this didn't make me think about leaving the group but it's just a negative event as it was his VERY OWN fault. Looking back I'm only GLAD he left for Axis. |
| Propaganda: |
A lot of swappers change groups as often as they change socks, why do you think this happens? Is it true after all, that swappers are not that comitted to a group like other non-trading members? |
| Astro: |
It seems like most swappers find it more important to be in a famous group than in a group with their friends. I'm not sure why this is the case but it surely is a fact. Maybe they think to gain more 'famous' contacts if they are member of a famous group but is that what it's all about? For me it surely isn't. I think it's absolutely true that swappers tend to do much more group-switching than non-trading members. But why? I'm afraid I can't give an explanation for that. |
| Propaganda: |
What is your opinion about the statements people do about packing? |
| Astro: |
Recently there has been quite a lot of articles in various diskmags about the question 'Packs - Do we need them or not?'. I'll give my point of view on this subject. We all know there are a lot of small intros being released lately. Intros are also becoming better and better and are getting more and more important in the scene. So they also have to be spread by the swappers right? Imagine there were no packs at all! Then you would receive all 40k (or smaller!) intros seperately on 1 disk! That's a REAL waste of diskspace and (stamp)money isn't it? For this we have packs. Isn't it easy to watch all the intros on a disk using an easy selector? Just click your mouse, sit back and enjoy the intro! Besides, there's really some selectors of very high quality released nowadays so it might also be a real joy to watch the menu for a few minutes. If there's some really quality music and gfx included, I find it VERY enjoyable to watch a pack-selector! |
| Propaganda: |
How important can swappers be for a group? You see groups turning big without the help of own swappers (MELON), so why is there a need for swappers? |
| Astro: |
Like you already stated in your interview for Raw #6, swappers can give people an idea of the concept and 'feeling' behind a group. If a swapper is nice for his contacts, writes a quality letter every now and then and tends to often send some new (preferably home-made) productions, his contacts can really get a good idea of what a group is like. If a swapper does his job well, people really start looking forward to getting new productions from the group the swapper is a member of and when the swapper eventually sends a new production from his group then people already put the disk in with a positive idea of what the production is like. If a swapper always sends rotten, broken and old sendings with standard letters in every send and then finally sends you an own production you already insert the disk with a negative feeling. This is the way I see it. Not that I always send quality letters, etc. but that's a different story. Don't forget that good mailtrading is something NOT everybody can do. You really need a great deal of perseverance (DICTIONARIES! hehe) and, not to forget, MONEY! |
| Propaganda: |
I hear you are pretty active nowadays concerning RAW and EC? Howcome? What made you interested in things like this? |
| Astro: |
Yes it's true that I'm collecting and spreading loads of votesheets for The Eurocharts in the last few months. Why? Simple! Because I still see The Eurocharts as the one and only chart and want to do everything I can to help them continue it for a very long time in the future. Keep up the good work Static Bytes!
About Raw: My first article I did for a diskmag ever was the interview with you (911) for Raw #6. After it was published I got SO many positive reactions on it and I also really liked making it AND, above all, I want to make my living later as a jounalist, I decided to become an ACTIVE article writer for future issues for RAW. Nowadays I really have a lot of fun writing articles and doing the research for it so you'll surely see some articles written by me in next issue of RAW. I didn't send them to Lord Helmet yet so I really hope he'll like them! (hehe) |
| Propaganda: |
Where do you get your ideas for making usefull articles? Do you think the usual articles in mags are too boring? |
| Astro: |
I usually get my ideas from reading previous issues of all kinds of diskmags. Also many article-ideas pop up into my head while watching a demo or intro. It's really a challenge to come up with more or less innovative variations on existing rubrics. Just read next issue of RAW and you'll know what I mean. However, the ideas haven't been published yet so I'm really interested in what people think about them. Not that I really care because you shouldn't change your style because other people don't like it but it's still nice to read what other people think about it. Both Positive and Negative reactions are great fun to read I guess. That's what I like about RAW! Everybody seems to dislike their 'agressive' and 'arrogant' style but does Lord Helmet care and change anything? NO WAY! Brilliant!
I don't really know what you mean with 'usual' articles. But if you mean interviews with questions like 'please tell your previous groups' or 'please name your 10 favorite ...' (BLURK!) .. Then I'd say yes; usual articles are too boring .. |
| Propaganda: |
What is the first emotion that jumps into your mind when hearing these words... |
| Astro: |
| Silents: |
Used to be quality but nowadays pure SHIT. |
| Speedy: |
No.1 swapper (like he and his 150 lame contacts claim) |
| Party III: |
MAJOR FUN! But Assembly rules? |
| Somewhere in Holland 2: |
Promising, still to be held Party in Holland. GREAT HALL! |
| Finland: |
THE NUMBER 1! COUNTRY INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE SCENE. Perkele? |
|
| Propaganda: |
Howcome you have this big love for Finland? What makes the Finnish scene so special? |
| Astro: |
It must be the people. ALL the people I know from Finland are REALLY insane and utterly talented aswell. Above all, most of them are VERY friendly. INCREDIBLY COOL BOOZERS! The Finnish scene is really special since it seems like EVERYBODY knows eachother. I'm really looking forward to this year's summer-holidays as I will then visit Finland for the first time in my life and will ofcourse attend the great ASSEMBLY 94! But what makes me REALLY love Finland must be the language .. Wooooooow .. A dream really! I want to learn it but it seems like it's quite hard to learn .. We'll see! |
| Propaganda: |
What is your opinion about the Dutch scene? |
| Astro: |
Right. The Dutch scene. Is there any? Well .. Yes I guess, but it's really small. There's the Spaceballers (JA Michiel .. Hier je tekst: NAO IS COOL) .. Then we have Mirage doing nothing else but their Chitchat which is quite good actually. Then there's the reborn Axis (no comment) and some more groups. The legal (demo) scene in Holland is really quiet but on the other hand we have a really good modemscene with some REALLY fast boards. I don't know too many people in Holland and I really don't care ... That's all. |
| Propaganda: |
Anything you would like to add to this short interview? ( + greetings en misschien je adres? neeeh... ) |
| Astro: |
Well yes I do! First of all thanks to Propaganda for giving me the space in their nice mag for this interview. Also thanks to you (911) for the quality questions. Yeah! Furthermore I'd like to add that I DON'T want or need ANY more NEW contacts for mailswapping! So PLEASE stop sending me contact-letters as from the moment this interview is published I WILL NOT answer them anymore! SORRY!
Finally Greets to all members of the Royal Movemental Family and to all my friendly swap-mates! Keep up the good work mates!
Watch out for my soon-to-be-released NEW packserie. It'll be MOVEMENTAL! |