Interview with Psychic Symphony

Cremax/Nothing

Psychic Symphony is a Portuguese coder and main editor of the new newsletter demojournal. Cremax talked to him about the Portuguese scene and Psychic's view of diskmags.

Introduce yourself to the readers, please!

Is this thing on? *tap tap* Ahum! Name is Filipe Cruz but I prefer Psychic Symphony! I code as an excuse to be in the demoscene... I'm the founder of the Portuguese demogroup Label and along with Shock/Xtatic and idiotboy/plastik we have formed the 1st 3 continents wide demogroup! We are still thinking of a name so... I am also the editor of demojournal a sort of clone of demonews with some changes here and there! It's released weekly and i'm amazed it was received so well!

You're one of the few sceners here in Portugal (I mean active sceners). What do you have to say about it?

People in Portugal are lazy! They rather chat on irc than to code/pixel/track, that's why nobody knows Portugal. There have been some people in the past who have done cool things but that don't feel motivated nowdays...

We have really talented people in here. They aren't even aware of how special they are! People ALOT better than what im worth saying demoscene sucks! Its a real pity.

What to you think about the scene in Portugal?

Nowdays it's mainly Dawn3, Nothing and Label! Radioactive Design are still around but I believe they have lost the interest in the things. There are also some younger coders trying to break thru and I hope they can do some good things! That's about it... Let's hope the first Portuguese party (if it comes soon) will change things for the better!

An old demo by Doomsday had an interesting sentence in it. "In Portugal it is so easy to score." What do you think about this?

LOL! I remember that one... "I wish I had a teleport! It's so easy to score in Portugal!" I have talked with MRI and Damaq about that... Seems they have some sort of gardener that hangs around and comes up with these sentences... Dunno if it's true. I actually stated Doomsday sucked on my first ever demo 'Television' but after Boost, Elektronics and knowing 'Stigma' and MRI being such a nice guy... I respect them again! :)

Do you think Portugal is on the 'right way'?

I hope so! I really do! It would be a shame if after Dawn3's efforts to go international people still wouldn't care! BTW: Brain Power (coder of Dawn3) was the guy who got me addicted to this stuff so I respect his stuff a lot! I can't say I contributed much... Since all I did was getting an 11th place out of 14 at Wired98 (12 votes whee!) anyways... I hope things can only get better!

BTW, i know you just started a demo journal/e-mag, is it going ok?

It's released weekly, which gives me lot of work during monday and friday rather besides that, it's been very nicely acclaimed (no flames and all)! Mailing list is growing and all...

What's your idea of diskmags?

Nice backgrounds, relaxing music and nice reading! I like them... Nowadays it's getting better than say one year ago because of the TEN project and all. I have always been interested in diskmags since I don't have a modem at home. I learned coding with a diskmag! I like them.

Have you read Hugi #11? If yes, what do you think about it?

Very good looking... It lacks a little of articles but if you were not used to imphobia you wouldn't tell! :P LOTS of interviews but I guess that's your fault! LOL which is nice... We get to know some people better. One thing that bugs me is that we are forced to hear the same music. I would rather have it running with no sound with modplug playing some mods on the background but... can't have it all know can we?

Do you like skating or eating ice-cream?

Icecream is good... skating no, my sport is shooting hoops (I'm 1.90), it's fun to sweat like a pig for 30 minutes pushing people around and getting into fights to gain the ball possession! :)

I won't ask you who's the better coder/gfxian/musician, but I'd like to know what your favourite demo is!

That's a hard one! I have lots of favourites... Elektronics is good, Square also rocks... Megablast kicks major ass. Also Stereomike because of the memories of Wired98 where I hanged around with Kombat/Immortals and Scorpik/Pulse (not forgetting keyg) :) That was a cool party! Hyperventilation also rules... And Tribes! There are so many... I always forget some!

What comes in your mind when I say (think fast): Money

er...

Girls

I want them!

Portugal

Where is that?

Z

Dragonball?

Jackal

Jackal? Hey man? Are you messing with my mind?

Demos

WIRED98!

pt.party

Soon my son!

Any closing words you want the scene to hear? Anyone you wanna say hello to?

Hello mom because you paid for the trip to Belgium without knowing what I was doing there! Hello to my father who still won't buy me a modem! You rule old man! Hi to Ohad, Scorpik, Jeff, Pitbull and all the rest I met at Wired... Also to all my contacts: Nephoo, Rod, idiotboy, Shock and the rest! You rule! Special mention to Sulphurik because I see in him what I was like 1 year ago... Very motivated coder who doesn't know shit about the scene! LOL.

How can ppl reach you?

ec97104@crazy.fe.up.pt. Feel free to ask for demojournal btw!

- Cremax/Nothing