Interviews with the former NAID organizers ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Veritech Knight Real Name: William ("Will") Le Age: 22 Will may be the youngest of the bunch, but he has something to show for it - an almost-2-year-old son named Samuel. He lives with his girlfriend Josie in an apartment on the Montreal island. He is working full time now for Alpnet Canada, a translations systems company. He takes care of their in- house program TSS (Translation Support Systems). "It says Global Information Services on the brochure, which of course means nothing :) Interesting work, actually. Pay is a disgrace but I plan on moving on soon..", VK says. He also sell computer parts in his "spare time". Will's favorite time-waster is his car (90 Corrado G60). Med (95 Neon Sport) and he like to spend Sunday afternoons babying their cars, getting their hands dirty in the engine and dreaming of future "mods".. (I think he means modifications, not modules :). Like the other organizers, VK considers himself a movie buff. He says, "I still rent about 4 movies a week with my g/f. We don't have much time to relax (Baby+work(me)+master's at Uni(her)=no time) so we enjoy sitting in front of the tv for a few hours (even though sometimes we don't get to watch the movie- we fall asleep ;)". Will doesn't follow the scene anymore ("I blame this on 1/ the death of BBSes 2/ not having a computer at home anymore ;) "). Actually, he gets his news and tidbits from Mr. Khan, who he says is trying to build up an "old" machine, to be able to watch demos again. "I wouldn't call the demo scene 'dead'", VK says. "I know it is out there, and it will always be, as long as people will keep using their computers as tools for expanding their minds and fufilling their curiosity, not only as tools for work. There is of course, the unique "spirit" that is carried around by our "generation" of demosceners (I talk particularly of those from the naid era), that cannot be passed to new generations, but that does not mean that the passion for demos is dead. Think of it this way: how did *we* get the "bug"? Some of us stumbled upon demos on BBSes some 7 years ago, some of us had friends show us this thing called a demo, and that was it. I don't think we looked at a generation of people and said "I want to be like them". The passion came by itself, and I think it still works the same way now." Veritech Knight's best NAID experience: "Everything. Naid was my "15 minutes of fame", and I only have good memories of both of them. I kind of regret not participating in the organization of the second, but in a sense, I'm glad the others took the chance to do it themselves and set things straight (people gave me too much credit in the first). I still remember both events like they happened yesterday, and I also remember the faces that were there (the names however, are a different story- you'd think it was the other way around :)). Getting to meet everyone (including some people that I worshiped since '91 , ie the Renaissance crew and the like....) was really great. Meeting the whole same gang *again* the next year was awesome! Alot of people travelled lots of miles just because of their passion for the demoscene. That effort, in a way, was equal to us 4 organizer's showing the world how much we loved the demoscene by making the Naids. I applaud everyone who came to either party or both, they all rank high in my estime, and I'm glad that those are the people who are now on the work market, showing business-minded people that they can twist any boring job into a fun one. My favorite word during those weekends was "wow". I remember saying it everytime I looked in a general direction and seeing tons of people, just doing their "thing". Just a few weeks ago, I had to hire someone to make some perl scripts for our office, and lo and behold it was someone who was at naid (he helped make that demo "Alien" ?). I also brought in one of his friends and it is refreshing to hear them chatting about gaming ideas, or ways to win the Effects compo that goes on on the internet...." What gave Veritech Knight headaches from NAID: "Everything :). What a pain in the arse from day one, when Mr.Khan and I started on the paperwork (2 months worth thank you very much). I failed most of my classes that year (no regrets- hope my mom doesn't read this). Would I do it again if I could go back in time? ...yes. Would I do it again if I could now?...no. :) Don't have the energy for such a big thing anymore. I'd need exterior motivation besides my passion (read- Money :) )." Would you organize another party like NAID? "I'd send words of encouragement to the organizers and maybe some advice, otherwise, no :). My next organized event would have to be something BIG... The 4 of us have "talked" now and then about something that would really rock, but we havn't connected yet on the actual "Let's do it" (chemistry is 90% of it all, the other 10% is time and hard work)." VK's final words: "Nothing comes easy. Work hard for what you want and earn what you get. oh, and have fun :)". Sound organizing advice, I think. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Struk Real Name: Laurent Gauthier Age: 24 Laurent, like Mr. Khan, works at Exchanges Market Systems as a Unix systems/security admin. He lives in downtown Montreal. Some things Laurent enjoys in life are music (he plays little bit of bass), movies, and the camping in the great outdoors. Struk doesn't follow the scene much these days. He checks some web pages to see what's happening, that's about it. He believes there is still a North American demo scene out there, but it needs to be promoted. Says Laurent, "demo freaks need to see what's out there to get them on their own project. Maybe a little compo over the net once in a while could help." Struk's best NAID experience: NAID '96, at the end, when every body stood up and thanked the organizers Struk's biggest troubles from NAID: - trying not to fail his courses - trying to get all the money - trying to get all the electricity - trying to get all the needed equipment and human resources Would you organize another party like NAID? "I'll mostly dream of organizing a demo party but that's about it. If someone was really serious about organizing something, I could give him some very important steps to follow for success." ------------------------------------------------------------------------- MEd / Midnight Sun Real Name: Eric Lagac‚ Age: 22 Eric currently lives in Longueuil, on the south shore of the Montreal island - in the same city NAID was held, but at the other end. He's planning to move around a lot. (the rest is unedited - don't have the time to do it anyway :) > How are you making a living? (work, study, drug-dealing etc. :) School is done for now, i finished my science program, and since Naid many wierd and cool things popped up out of the blue... For my part, some guy saw us on tv or something, and talked with struk about meeting me at his workplace... I went there to visit, and he showed me around his sound for cinema company, (my old dream that was turned down by everybody saying i will not be able to make a living out of it), and at the end he showed me an empty studio, (empty of a sound man, not empty of gear! :) ) and said "why don't you go ahead and try some stuff?", read the books, try around, and if you ever end up being good i'll start paying you. From that day, i only missed days of work when the company couldn't let me work for whatever reasons... I was part of a machine cycle of 24 hours a day. 2 guys 12h each or 3 guys 8 hours each... So i have been working there for 4 years now, i started as a Sound Editor, but i didn't love it so much, i tried Dialog Editing, i hated it, i was also trying different equipment, and i started fixing equipment and cables, then bulding little kits and sets of cables and different connections, and maintaining the studio gear. I was completely panicing at first when opening 85 000 $ consoles and other units starting to solder in it to try making sense out of it, i was pretty much guessing and everybody knew it, it was part of the deal :) I blew up many things, i fixed many others, i was known for a while to be able to find the equipment's small problems or weaknesses very very fast :) And then i started assisting the foley process, and two years ago i ended up Foley Recordist. (Foley is live sounds recorded in studio to match picture sounds that cannot be recorded on the set, and or needs enhancement, or to be created from scratch...) A job that i love and enjoy pretty much every day now. Despite the crazy hours and deadlines, everything is cool about doing foley. Crazy hours meant around 100 hours a week at first and 40 - 60 hours now. With a quality control that never gives good comments and you know that the sligtest mistake will not be overseen... So you become a perfection phreak very fast, and you live on antiacids all day all night :) We "can" a new picture every 10-20 days in average... so i did maybe 20 pictures, and it's not a lot... Now i also record what we call ADR (additionnal Dialog Recording), It's the re-recording of the actors' lines when the sound taken during the shoot was low or distorted or bad for any reason. Those two jobs keep me occupied pretty much all the time... Excet summer when i usually get two months without possible work, because everybody is shooting films, so their images are not ready, and like we say, no image for me, no sound for you. > Are you engaged? Married? With children?? I'm trying really hard to get into a stable relationship, but no girl i know would be able to cope with my hours and my schedules, but i guess it'll happen at some point. I am with somebody now, she is called Stephanie, and everything is going along very well. Life is great, i'm very happy when i have a chance to be with her, and we are laughing a lot, and going around the city doing anything crazy that we can think of at the time. > What are some hobbies you like to do in your spare time? Oh my god... my hobbies are very very vast... I am trying myself on the guitar now, i whant to be able to play some good blues to help me through the next years... And to calm down my nerves. :) Music in general will be part of my spare times a lot now.. Harmonica, guitar, and general composing... Anyting related to sound i find very cool, of course, like any sound engineer would say. Another big hobby for me is travelling, i travel as soon as i have a bit of time off, usually alone. But i also like travelling with people. I travelled to many many countries already, something like 16 or so,(mostly Western Europe, Scandinavia, UK and North America) but i still feel i didn't even scratch the surface when i look at the globe, so i will not allow me to stop until i did enough to feel i did a good part of it all... The problem is the more you do the more you need to do :) Another big hobby for me is cars and mechanics, i have a good little passion for performance driving and cars as a sporty thing. I like comparing cars and control, look at tweekings and mods tat can be done to them to make them better than what they were hoped for. I bought a dodge neon 95 at first with the idea of just going around and getting groceries, and with time i started to realise how much power and fun was in reserve for it.. and that's when the money started to pour out of my pockets like sand.... :) So me and william share the passion for race and performance, so we are known for overdoing it a bit... We organise Oil changing parties some times, and car washing events, and mod picture taking and so on :) But it's a lot of fun when you understand it. See it as upgrading. As soon as upgrading shows it's funny happy costly nose... you're done.. :) I can pay a lot to go "ouh man, that is so much better!!" when i get in my car to drive around... :) > What was the best experience you got out of NAID? All and everything. Confidence, realism, experience, general comprehension of how a big event can and can't be done, how much work is needed to do this and that, how much time has to be givent to what and how and when... And how amny people is possible to do what, and when it's too much, when to panic, when to feel good... Naids were so much to set up and to maintain, that we had to be aware of everything all the time, and we had to know every other alternative to solve everything that popped out every 5 seconds and that absolutely needed to be dealt with within the next seconds... or it would turn bad... There was no way it would not be perfect... It had to be a blast, because it was our pride, and it had our names on it :) So the best experience... i would say mass understanding, but the thing that i will forever be amazed and proud of, is the way people behaved during both Naids. I felt like we had gathered the most respectfull people in the universe under the same roof for a weekend. I could not believe how cool and nice everybody were, and that is something i often think about. The people at Naids were the best people i will probably meet in my life for many things. That i think could be the best think i remember from naids, the people, and how respectfull and friendly they were. Big family. :) > What were some of the biggest troubles for you with NAID? Ouf.. Well... From the first concept to the very end, Naid was one big ball of organising hell that's for sure... :) You know we did it at first because we really wanted to go to Scandinavia to attend demoparties there, but we had no money, so we decided to do a small demoparty to compensate for not going, just for fun... and since Mr Khan had a project to organise for one of his courses, we taked about many things and all of a sudden the idea flashed in our heads and our eyes bulged out... We looked at each other with that old hapy smile of excitement, and we all knew what we were talking about! Naid was born ! :) Then came all the walls and barriers to break, the people to convince, the power of the electrons to summon, the grades to keep, the time to spend, the nights to plan, the equipment to get, the money to find, the medias to control, The people to invite, the fun to have and the coffee to drink :) > Are you still following the demoscene, and if so, what do you think of > it nowadays? That good old question... humm, i would say i do still keep a eye on the demo scene, because it is such a big part of my memory, but i can also say i am not very good at keeping an eye on something :) I look at what babies it did, where it's going to, what good it did, what bad also. But i do not go and download the newest demo or intro like i used to do in the 0 day bbses with my 2400 baud... I used to wait for the minute it would come in... the minute it would show up... Now i enjoy hearing from what the demo people did recently, what big thing was done for the first time by who, and so on... I think the demo scene was a passion for a new idea, like flying... When the first man started to work on his firt flying machine, what he felt must be very close to what everybody in the scene felt during the last years... And since now we are flying in 747s and we are so used to it that we are even able to fall asleep because we have come to be so confident in them, i feel the same way with electronic art. Being part of it's launch with everybody else was the most exciting thing ever, and now that it has grown adult, i feel i need to go back to other passions left aside to help it's birth. I don't think the scene dies, i think it grows to be an adult. > Do you see any hope for the North American demoscene in the future? Enormously yes. Go see antz, and play gran turismo the same day... Then remember the first time you saw Chronologia. These are the babies of the demo scene. The imagination will always be an underground thing. And Creators cannot be stopped. That is what i think... > Would you ever help organize another party like NAID? Help yes, anytime, and needless to say "of course". Do it all, never... Nor could i... Leaving all you have behind and doing only one thing for a year is possible when you are 18, but at some point you have to think about living, and there's no way organizing Naids could even come close to ever be called living :) The wierd part is that it would be so much easier to do it now, but at the same time it would need to be an evolved version, and that version we know nothing about it do we ? :) > What else would you like to say about yourself and your outlook on life > in general? Well, Naids still brings back amazing bursts of memories of all kinds and all levels, and is a reference for many of the things i do now... When i have to think about what can or can't be done, or how big some thing needs to be to be smoothly running on it's own, i think about Naid... And when i need to think about something really cool, i think about you dudes and dudettes having fun with what we had setup with your fun in mind. I keep very high hopes to all and everybody who decided to come and did all they could to be part of the experience, and i think i cannot thank any of you enough for comming and having fun... And for the amazing event you turned the two Naids into. Thank you all again, you made the difference, and i guess see you all at the controls of this big cool planet in a couple of years :) If you read this, you must be a friend! :) Drop me some mail sometime with news from you, anything, i would really enjoy that. See you ppl ! Wishin' you the best, Eric MEd Lagac‚ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mr. Khan Real Name: Etienne Caron Age: ?? Sorry, I didn't receive a response to my interview questions from him.. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you would like to contact the former NAID organizers, you can email: MEd mederic99@hotmail.com med@cyberdude.com Mr. Khan mrkhan@ems.net ecaron@ems.net Struk gauthier@ems.net struk@ems.net Veritech Knight wle@alpnet.com protoculture12@hotmail.com If the first address doesn't work, try the second one. Interviews conducted by email in October 1998 by Phoenix.