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An exclusive inteview with Space Walk |
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| roncli: | | First of all, who is Space Walk? |
| Space Walk: | | Space Walk is Arash Donattelo Ghods, mother Swedish, father is from Belgium, but has his roots in Austria and Italy. So I'm kind of international, which makes my 1 year old daughter a universal beauty since her mother is German. I have my own business within the import and export industry. I import dairy products from Holland to Germany, and export them from Germany to Sweden. I'm 2 years past my mid-20's and closing in on 30.
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| roncli: | | 27 years old and running your own business, that's not too shabby! How did you get into this line of work?
| | Space Walk: | | I have a much older friend who worked in that industry. At first we were partnered, but eventually I bought it from him, so it has been my own business for the last two years. As I was becoming a father, I thought it was a good move to make and prepare better future for my daughter Elena. |
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| roncli: | | Is this business something you plan on running ten, twenty years from now?
| | Space Walk: | | Hopefully a much expanded business by then, but as long as it gives me that little time to spend with the family, sure why not? |
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| roncli: | | It sounds as though family is very important to you. Tell me about yours.
| | Space Walk: | | They are everything to me. My wife is the most beautiful thing in the world, she's a great mum that does a tremendous job with Elena. She's caring, loving, and almost like an angel. My daughter Elena is simply indescribable, I find no words roncli. Every smile on her face makes my day, when I look into her face I'm in heaven. My wife worked with a digital/electronic repair staff in a store that sells electronics, but is now a full time mum. |
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| roncli: | | Is your wife supportive of your music, or perhaps involved in any way?
| | Space Walk: | | hehehe, I'm glad you asked. She wasn't in the beginning. According to her, I spent lots of time with the PC than with her, but slowly I got her into it. She's now together with me and comes up with ideas and stuff. She is even featured in my music as a choir. Starting with Memories she was featured as a way-back background, almost not audible. But in my next project she will feature fully as the main voice or lead vocal/choir. |
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| roncli: | | That's wonderful! How long have you been making music now?
| | Space Walk: | | I started with Commodore C-64 programming "noises" in BASIC language. When Amiga came it was like a sensation for people like me. Music trackers revolutionized the music creation and suddenly you could compose somewhat proper music. The PC just modernized the matter, and today one can almost have an ordinary music studio right there at home in the PC, producing professional music. A while after TiS went down for the first time, I, too, stopped making music and instead started to understand it, not that I wanted to learn to play any instruments but to gather information about all music instruments that exist. As for music creation, I went for the far eastern style at first. Japanese and Chinese music sounded interesting to me, but I soon lost my interest composing it as it was too damn hard. Next, I went for Indian music (Hindustani & Carnatic) but to compose such music you need a much deeper level of music understanding. I simply wasn't skilled enough, but as I was battling with it I came across Arabic and Middle East types of music, and loved it right away. Before even starting to compose, I read a lot of books about their way of life, music, sound, their musical culture, and musical history. The next step was to enter that realm of sound, which I think I've been somewhat successful in. At the moment I'm working on how to blend Middle Eastern music into our own west in a form and shape of symphonic-orchestral. But as the years pass by, and Elena becomes older, my music learning process will come to an end. I have to be a dad and won't have as much time. I'll stop making it, but will always be listening. I also have my memories with me. |
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| roncli: | | What music programs did you use on the Amiga, and later on the PC, to compose your music?
| | Space Walk: | | ProTracker on Amiga... on PC started with Fasttracker II, MadTracker, ModPlug Tracker, and then moved into sequencers like Magix Music Maker, and eJay. Today: Cubase SE3 and Cubase 4, Cool Edit Pro [ed. This is now Adobe Audition], and loads and loads of VSTi's, most of which I don't use. I also have two synthesizers, Ensoniq MR61 and Ensoniq MR76 with MR-Rack 64 voice expandable performance/composition keyboard. I also use Silk Road Middle Eastern Instruments sample library, Swar Systems Instruments, the Sonic Implants Complete Orchestral Collection, Sonic Reality world traveler, and the Windelberg Musical School sample library Platinum Edition for choirs. |
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| roncli: | | Moving on to your music, the most notable presence in your collection is the series called The Tale. Can you tell me about this series and the ideas behind it?
| | Space Walk: | | The ideas are simple, as I learned and discovered about the eastern way of music and sound I wanted to share, but I had this passion to blend eastern music concepts with the western way of sound. Guitars for instance are Spanish, while the main themes are more Arabic influenced. To make a series also made me improve and evolve as musician, as I tried to improve after each song I released. And the other reason was that it was plain fun to make music. |
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| roncli: | | I understand that The Deep was written for a short film, but didn't make it. What was this song going to be used for in that film?
| | Space Walk: | | The film was about being reborn. As the winter slowly decays, the ice melts. Melted ice makes a small river of water, and the green starts to come out. Flowers eventually come out, the sun shines with rays of heats and beams of life, and everything is reborn. I didn't finish the song in time, so it was excluded. The nature of the song may not be suitable for a film like I described earlier, but this one actually would do fine. We'll never know. |
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| roncli: | | That definitely gives me a new dimension to that song. Is there any particular song of yours that you enjoy most?
| | Space Walk: | | I have 2 songs which are special to me. Strings of Serenity: thinking of Elena, she was the main source of inspiration for that one. Lots of times I went to her room looking at her small, but beautiful face while sleeping. The other one is Sound of Seduction, which is a work in progress, but my wife is featured in it as the main vocal/choir, and the music basically is piano and violin making love to each other on a bed of strings. It's music about love, peace, and harmony, and also my feelings for my family. |
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| roncli: | | I can't wait to hear that one! Any last words of advice to other aspiring musicians?
| | Space Walk: | | Well, I myself am one that gets inspired by others. But upon making music I always think that the impossible can be possible. I give an example... I believe the blind can also see. You want proof? When the lights go out, the blind one always finds the candle and matches first. That's a way of seeing. Thinking like this has made it possible for me to blend different styles from different parts of the world in relative harmony. Last, I would like to mention some other artist at TiS whose work I enjoy very much. First of all T.Kuusniemi is absolutely my favorite, I like to see him score some major movies soon, I wish him the best of luck. You, roncli, are one truly amazing musician when it comes to games, I would love to see you compose for some big time game. The two brothers Eyspire and Libris are great musicians both they have a great way of presenting their sonic. slammy is another artist who needs more attention as his works are awesome, he has special skills, he inputs his emotions into his sounds. You can actually hear what he went through in that time of his life emotionally. Last but not least, Mooma is one hell of an artist, in my opinion he's the one and only artist at TiS that truly understands the concept of ambient music. And my absolute two favorites, Matt Hartman, whose infinite music knowledge I've had access to, and djtrancendance or Spectra. He's the cutest character on TiS, and one with lots of good and positive ideas. |
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| roncli: | | Thank you for the compliment, and thank you very much for your time, I look forward to your future releases! |
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