    Rawhed interviews Foxx/Freelance

    Rawhed - Morning Foxx :) Mind if I pick your brain?

    Rawhed - Tell us a bit about yourself, and your past presence in the scene.

    Foxx - I was mainly involved in the SA Amiga scene in the early to mid 90's. After that I was in
           a PC group or two, but never got into the PC scene as much as the Amiga one. Now, I've been
           watching demos people have coded for the Nintendo 64! They remind me of the good ol' Amiga
           days! I used to do music and graphics. I used to annoy the  coders and make them do things
           they hadn't done before too. We released a lot of cool demos in those days. It was cool because
           we were very firmly part of the international scene, but also had our own identity. International
           demo lovers enjoyed our productions of out-of-africa', a compilation disk of SA demos.

    Rawhed - How did ya 1st learn about the demo scene?

    Foxx - I was on the international scene since about 1988 or so, I used to trade Commodore 64 warez
           and demos with dozens of people from all over the place.

    Rawhed - When and why did you start tracking?

    Foxx - I started in about the same week as I got my first Amiga, that was sometime in 1989. I started
           it cos I heard some mods in a program called 'Soundtracker' that people had done (actually in
           those days they weren't mods, just songs - you had a seperate sample disk), and I didn't have
           all that many games, so I entertained myself making music. I still have my first attempts. They
           were scary. Soundtracker was the very first mod maker on any computer, ever.

    Rawhed - How do you think your musical talent, style, method, speed etc, of your songs has changed
             since you started?

    Foxx - Well, I don't do much music now, and although its quite sad I don't, I don't really feel the
           need to use a tracker like I used to. I am doing some midi stuff though. I recently tried a
           really cool midi editor called Logic Audio... wow! I think that if I were to do mods now they'd
           be pretty much the same. I've always liked dance music with a tune to it. Also I liked long ambient
           intros to songs and I still do.

    Rawhed - What are you doing now?

    Foxx - I work so I can eat now! :( I do professional web graphics design for a joburg company. I also
           play a lot of games on Nintendo 64, Playstation and SNES (not PC) and thats probably why I don't
           have much time anymore :)

    Rawhed - What do you think about the current SAscene compared to the old days.

    Foxx - Well now, there is one! In the 80's there was no real demo scene, just demo groups with members in
           south africa, for the C64. Then in about 1990 we (and many others) started doing demos for the
           Amiga. The first time I saw a PC demo I laughed. The next time, about 3 years later, I enjoyed
           it and that when I started realising my precious Amiga wasn't the only computer in the world :)

    Rawhed - Thoughts on Optmise98? Are u entering?

    Foxx - I doubt I'll be entering. I love going to demo compo's though. I'll certainly be there!

    Rawhed - Have you been to the sademoscene page? What do you think of it. Possible improvments?

    Foxx - Yep! Its cool. I'd like to see more links to more works on there, and pictures of
           everybody. (Get a digicam and take it to optimise!)

    Rawhed - Have you ever been to any SA democompos? Tell us about it, and what you think rocked
             and sucked about the compo.

    Foxx - I've been to many - what generally sucks about them is that the projector overheats or breaks,
           the sound system doesn't work and there's usually not enough people visiting...Actually, most
           of those things add to the overall feel of the compo, which is great :) Also, those things are
           getting better all the time and not all compos have these problems. I know from personal
           experience how hard it is to set up something like that, so I'm being overly hard on the
           organisers here. No offense meant of course! What rocked was all the cool geeks wandering
           about - its really cool to see everyone IRL... and the standard of the demos and stuff is
           always really good. The atmosphere is cool, wish there were more gatherings a year.

    Rawhed - Whatever happened to the rest of Freelance?

    Foxx - Baroque (Quinton) is still on the scene! He's still making the occasional cool module too. He
           has his own business and is doing very well. Kether (Bradley) lives in Pretoria and writes
           software for a living, he's doing very well for himself and seems to be having fun! Nimrod
           (Demian) lives in Joburg and was working for IBM doing software development the last time I
           spoke to him. He seemed happy with his job. Cinclant/Freud (Michael) lives in Joburg too and
           although I don't hear from him anymore, I believe he is running a DTP business. I have all
           their email addy's if anyone wants to contact them.

    Rawhed - Why "foxx"?

    Foxx - I had a little fox soft toy on my monitor when I decided to change my nick. Also I had just
           played a game on the C64 called 'Fox fights back'. Before that I had some ridiculous names
           most of which I can't remember.

    Rawhed - Where can we find the foxx music archive?

    Foxx - Sadly, there isn't one. I should perhaps get one up on the web somewhere. The problem with
           doing Web pages for a living is that to do a personal page isn't fun anymore. (Same goes
           for graphics)

    Rawhed - How can u be contacted?

    Foxx - Email is the best, richard@is.co.za Y'all mail me now, y'hear?

    Rawhed - Any final words/comments/greets?

    Foxx - I'd like to say hello to Bradley and Quinton and all the other ex-members of freelance if
           they read this :) Also I'd like to say thanks to all the people reading this who ever mailed
           me (slowmail and email) over the years. I really appreciate it! I have a drawer full (a large
           drawer) of letters. I kept every one!

    Rawhed - Thanks for the interview dude!

    Foxx - Thank yew, kind sir!