The musical maestros - Rob Hubbard, Martin Galway, David Whittaker, Fred Gray and the late Richard Joseph.
GV : Which track do you think was the springboard to your name being a force with musical compositions within the C64 gaming scene?
FG : Some of my early stuff, as raw as it was, was really popular – Shadowfire, Enigma force etc. The music I started writing for Psyclapse – a bouncy 12/8 number – had a raw power that impressed the bosses at Imagine - I used to get my inspiration from kids TV show themes.
GV : Which composition on the C64 are you particularly proud of?
FG : Mutants is an obvious choice – especially the unsung high score tune - but Madballs I love also, especially as the software house that took it loathed it. Somebody did a hilarious cover with speech samples.
GV : At what point in producing a tune did you say “That’s as good as it’s gonna get!”?
FG : When I usually fell asleep at the keyboard! I would work all night and sleep in the day – became the end of me in the end. Creative people fall into the nocturnal trap so easily don’t you think. I would wake in the afternoon and play it back and decide if it needed more work or sometimes, if I hated a piece, I would just say to myself “what the hell- that will do!”
GV : What were the limitations of the SID chip and how did you overcome them?
FG : My personal limitation was my software. Rob Hubbard wrote the most amazing software as well as music – combined they made for an amazingly original and energetic sound. He used Multiplexing which gave great drum sounds – sounds I never mastered.
GV : Can you please précis what was actually involved in creating one of your tunes? E.g. Hardware used; inspiration for the tune; where the hell did you start?
FG : I had a cheap synth which I used to dream up melodies but I would start work on the backing first as that was the backbone and driving force. I would mess about on the synth with one hand while assembling one tune and new tunes would pop into my fingers (not my head) as I messed about the synth. Emigma Force was a classic example of that – “Where the hell did that come from” I thought when I first played it! It was that simple - although on Mutants I remember swapping the bass line with the melody in places – such an inspired move it turned out to be!
GV : Did you see the other C64 composers at the time as competition/a threat? Or were you all a happy bunch that shared tricks and ideas for the good of the C64 gamer?
FG : I knew how popular the other musicians were from friends and magazine reviews, so I was always a tad jealous but knew they were just musicians earning a crust like me. I think there was more rivalry among fans than musicians about who wrote the best music. As for being part of a happy bunch of composers, the only other musician I ever met during my writing days was Martin Galway. He had his own room in Ocean and we would talk during my visits there. Another room was filled with arcade machines and I would take my kids along sometimes and leave them in there for hours!
