Interview with Mr. Man

The Norwegian musician in Andromeda is famous for his ballads in Mirror and various diskmags. Is he really that soft guy you might expect him to be?


	

		
Name:
		
Ronny Nordeide
	
	

		
Handle:
		
Mr. Man
	
	

		
Group:
		
Andromeda
	
	

		
Former groups:
		
Absence
	
	

		
Function:
		
Musician
	
	

		
Age:
		
23
	
	

		
In the scene since:
		
1985
	
	

		
Occupation:
		
None, at the moment
	
	

		
Resident:
		
Sandefjord, Norway
	
	

		
Intruments:
		
Roland JV-80, Roland D-70, Boss DR-550, Casio CZ5000, Yamaha QY-10, (The Amiga) and an old acoustic guitar.
	


The man behind the mister
You have probably never read any inside stories or scandalous articles about this shy Norwegian musician which happen to be a member of the famous Andromeda. D'Fence says he knows "As little as it can possible be" about him. Neither do I, so I'll try to lift a bit on this mystic mask of his.

In his so-called "real-life", Mr. Man attends the TBK school of telematics, which focuses mostly on telecommunications, though he hasn't moved the step to buy a modem yet.

Mr. Man is the name of a brand of men's socks. A lot of people might think that this handle is highly unoriginal and childish. But he says that he actually didn't know about the brand of socks at the time he picked the name.
- There was a C64-fellow at high school which constantly addressed me with that name. When I came walking by and he saw me, he bursted out; "Oh, Mr. Man!" I haven't got any comments on the name in particular, but the guys in Andromeda often calls me Mr. Boy, Herman, etc.
The latter is a joke which probably only Scandinavians will understand.

Other musicians change groups from time to time, but Mr. Man says he feel a strong relationship to Andromeda and its members.
- I've only been in Absence and Andromeda during my scene life. Abscence was started together with some of my best friends who live in the same area as I. We've been knowing each other for a long time, and when we joined Andromeda we got a good inside contact between all of us.

Concerning leaving Andromeda, Mr. Man's opinion is clear.
- I have no plans whatsoever to leave Andromeda. I haven't received any serious offers about joining other groups either.

The man and the music
- The most sucessful, or popular module I've made, must either be "Restricted" or "Distant Call". Though the one I'm most satisfied with myself is "Time's the Remedy". It came as far up as the 4th place in the music compettion at The Party 2 in competition with raw techno and heavy.

Though he has entered more music compos than most others, Mr. Man has never reached the no. 1 spot.
- I think there are many reasons for that. My modules are not quite "commercial mainstream"-stuff, you know, which the general Amiga-freak is addicted to from the first pattern. Besides, I've mostly competed with slow tunes which I feel I master best at the moment. Another reason is that there are many talented musicians who make good tunes which sometimes deserve to beat me.

Eventhough all the best musicians in the scene at that moment competed in the music competition at The Party 3, Mr. Man says he didn't think the music was that good.
- There were quite a lot of really strange techno sounds, which is not exactly my style of music. A huge amount of modules were handed in to the jury and it must've been a hard job to pick out the 30 modules for the final. Anyway, I think the jury consisted of people with a too narrow music taste and I think they could have listened more carefully to the modules they were to choose.

During the competition, the only thing which was shown on the big screen, was the number of the module which was played. The names were published on a sheet of paper after the competition was finished. This was perfectly allright and only positive, according to him.
- It's evident that many only vote for the names. This gives all musicians an equal opportunity to win. But one thing that bothers me is that during the parties, when the music competition is running, there are a lot of people who don't listen much to the music at all.
This basically goes for the rest of the compos as well. I think that during this short period of time which the competitions are going on, people should free themselves from the machine (read "Sensible Soccer") and turn down or off the huge loudspeakers and amplifiers which some tend to bring. It'd be nice if they would pay a little attention to what many have worked on for weeks or even months.

Most people remember Mr. Man for his ballads, like "Distant Call" and "Time is the Remedy". But actually Mr. Man has been in touch with techno.
- Yes, I have made techno; A tune which is called "Heavy Industrial Toxic Waste (!) It's not totally raw hardcore stuff, as the name might indicate, but at least something which sounds like techno. But this tune is made in a combination of synths and Amiga-samples.
I used OctaMed and Bars & Pipes Pro to make it. I've got an 8-channel mixer with a 6 track cassette recorder which I used to record several tracks "live", so to say. It sounds pretty good, to be an experiment which only took 2 evenings to finish.
Another techno tune is my contribution to the "Worst module competition" at The Gathering '92, "Der Buut", which came second. I won a ST-01 sample disk signed by Peter/PMC. Really something.

Some refer to Mr. Man as a "diskmag-musician", other as boring, but he isn't bothered by that.
- To be referred to as a diskmag-musician is not something which I look upon as negative. The fact that I often get requests about contributing with music for mags, must be a proof that a lot of people likes the modules I've composed in that style.
Boring? Yes, I can understand that some think so. At least the ones who likes techno, rave and the such. But then again, that is the music I find dull and less varied, so... Taste differs.

The biggest events in his scene career has a lot to do with the reaction from his audience.
- Talking about releases, it must be that "Mirror" got such a high appreciation by the public. The biggest thing to happen to me personally so far, was when "Time's the Remedy" came 4th at The Party 2.

Other people's favorites among Mr.Man's tunes
Cesiums own favorite is definately "Distant Call". It's the clear and beautiful piano sample which does this song. Mr. Man didn't create the melody himself, but anyway it's truly a great conversion. Mmmm... Mr. Man!

Lizard/Spaceballs likes "Sequestrial" and "Beneight Dignity" best. - "Sequestrial" for the way he arranges the instruments and the orchestra in this song. Though there are some small, stupid mistakes which could've been avoided", Lizard says.

- The module I like best from Mr. Man is without doubt the pianotune "Distant Call", Jason of Razor 1911 reveals to us.
- Why, I can't tell, but it sounds very professional, and he is really showing off his strong musical abilities here. Besides, I believe it is not a conversion, and that is something I respect and admire.
Just to teeze you, Ronny, I must say that "Broken Joysticks" is the one I like the least. (so NOW you know that! :-) 
I like quite a lot of his older ones too, but I can't remember any specific titles right now, Jason ends.

About other musicians
- In the scene, I look most up to my colleague in Noiseless, Jogeir Liljedahl. Many of his calm and atmospherical tunes are superb. I would've liked to hear a synth-version of one of these. (Jogeir, contact BLC NHQ to respond) Besides, he's productive as hell, quite different from myself, though I'm trying to improve on that point.
Other musicians I like very much is Heatbeat for his originality and experimenting which actually turns out good.
Dizzy makes good music as well, and Chromag has some good slow tunes.

Mr. Man isn't so negative towards Jester as many others.
- It's good commercial computer disco. But not all of his work keeps the same standard, I think. My favorite is "My Glamorous Life". That one is good.

The usual tricky FOCUS question is which other scene musician Mr. Man would prefer to compose a module together with.
- I think I'd wanted to compose a tune together with HeadX, actually. He's not only a skilled coder, but also a musician on the side. He made some good ones during the time we were in Absence.
We've been talking for a long time about making some music together, but it never turned out to anything more than talks.

Charts
Mr. Man reached his best position ever in the latest issue of The Charts! He was ranked as no. 13 but he doesn't support charts himself.
- Usually I don't vote since I'm not really a scene freak who have any knowledge in who coded what in which intro, who drew the font in part 3 of 3D Demo X, etc.

Music taste
Mr. Man listens to Amiga modules from time to time, but not that often. He mostly listen to all kind of music except speed, death metal and hardcore techno.
- Some of my favorites are Michael Cretu/Enigma/Sandra, Jarre, Enya and John Williams.
My favorite "performer" is Celine Dion - she's got a fantastic voice and sings songs created by a.o Diane Warren and David Foster.

He has indeed let people from the outside listen to his music. Two guys who worked in a music store together with him for a year were playing in bands themselves, one of them had even a background in music production, recording and mixing.
- They thought that a lot of my music was good, that it didn't sound like computer music. They meant that the sound quality itself was poor, but they were quite impressed when I told them what one has got to work with to make modules. 8-bit sampler, only 4 tracks, without the possibility to record properly from a MIDI-keyboard.
One of them then commented: "I see, it's the level right above Nintendo, isn't it?"

MIDI could according to Mr. Man mean quite a lot to the music.
- I think there would be a big difference. I do have MIDI-equipment, a small studio you might say, and I've made music with MIDI.
I'm in fact working on a MIDI-version of "Distant Call", with a different arrangement than the Protrackerversion. I think that common people could have bought my music and not only guys from the scene - at least I hope so. I don't think it'd been something for scene people only, because I try to make my music sound "real" by using acoustic instruments like piano, sax, strings, etc. OK, this is my words and others might disagree.

1994 featuring Mr. Man
There should be something to look forward to in the months to follow if you're a fan of Mr. Man of Andromeda and his music.
- The next half year, you can see new modules in the demo "Sequential" coded by my good friend, HeadX. The whole "soundtrack" is made by me.
I will compete in the music competition at The Gathering 1994 and there will most probably be a module in a coming slideshow.
I've been asked by Nick/Offence to compose a tune for them if they can manage to release a demo in the near future, but...
That's all I can say at the moment. I have a small hope of releasing a musicdisk by time as well.. But somebody has got to code it.

Mr. Man is not going for a professional music career, like a.o Bjørn A.Lynne and Rune Svendsen (Ex. Travolta / Spaceballs) in the near future.
- Well, we'll see. It wouldn't be bad. Several still active musicians in the scene are releasing their own CD in these days. I'm thinking of Lizardking, Vain, Vortex & Trixal. That musicians release their own CD is something which is only positive. They get their music released in a professional format which might lead to more attention and which also hopefully gives some bucks in their pockets.

But the dream is there...
- To release one's music on CD is something which most musicians want. When I worked in that music store I got to know people who run sound studios downtown and the boss in the store, whom I know very well, has a lot of good contacts all over. So if the time comes when I feel ready to release a CD, it should work out well.


CONTRAST - Other people's opinions about Mr.Man

D'Fence / Balance:
- I didn't know what function he had in the scene, and I could at least not have stated any modules which he has done.

Travolta (Ex. Spaceballs):
- Just as boring as all of the other Andromeda musicians.
After listening to a lot of his tunes during almost an hour, he continues:
- Hmm... A lot of diskmag sound. Slow, boring, makes you fall asleep. I'm not really into this kind of music, I've never done a slow tune in my life.
I really don't know what to say. Nevertheless, a nice one for an old Absence demo.

Lizard / Spaceballs:
- Mr. Man has composed a lot of very different tunes, both in sound and quality. He has some originality in the tunes, but many small mistakes draws the overall impression down. He could have done more to improve the use of instruments and the sample-quality, I think.
His symphonic tunes; the slow ballads, are the better ones he's done. His usual style, in my opinion, is "commercial-like" Amiga-music. On the other hand, the music he's composed for competitions vary quite from this. They are originial and good (but perhaps too original sometimes, containing some not so successful combinations).
I don't think he's released anything yet which has really proven what he's capable of. Small details have so far been the weakness of his tunes.

Jason / Razor 1911:
- My opinion of Mr. Man is clear: He is one of the most musically talented persons who ever touched an Amiga. But since his personal style is relatively calm he never gets to the point where he really KICKS ASS! 
I know that he is capable of doing it, but I think he has found his style, and will not bother impressing other people in commercial ways. As person he is a great guy and he has got a deviating sense of humor which I find most amusing. He has also got a great VHS-Camera. heh...

Slide / Polka Brothers:
- Mr. Man is an extremely talented musician who makes very polished songs. He doesn't start his song like others and his passages are very varied. He makes very catchy themes but doesn't seems to dare something untraditional. Nevertheless Mr. Man creates an impressing harmony with only four channels.
After meeting him once I can say that he seems nice and formal but also without humour, actually like his music which can be lacking some wildness.