What Is Covox?
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| Covox |
Hakan Lidbo is a very well-known producer in Sweden, although I don't know him personally. But he's very good, very productive. However I've never heard of Panache before, sorry!
--Does Covox come from the name of sound device? What is really Covox? Do you actually use Covox?
Covox does very much so come from the name of the sound device. When I was a kid I used to play games on the PC, and in many of them you would have a choice between which sound card you wanted the music to use. Amongst several options were the "Covox Sound Thing". The name stuck with me, so later in 2002 when I started the project I felt it would fit perfectly with the music. However, I don't use the Covox circuit. It's very easy to build, but it's only a PC sound card able to play sample data, which is not so interesting. I like the limitations using certain hardware brings. It inspires and helps your imagination!
Delete The Elite
--I enjoyed your album "Delete The Elite" very much! Recently I notice Chiptune is becoming more popular. Actually I should say Chiptune Pop since they are pop music leveraging Chiptune. How did you get into Chiptune? Do you like old-style Japanese Game Music?amazon.co.jpにあるCDは、ジャケ写からリンクできます。（amazon.co.jpにない場合、海外のamazonや他の通販サイトへ）
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| Delete The Elite |
02. Summer Fruit Dance Party
03. Your Love Is My Leash
04. Leave Everything/Move On
05. Final Mission
06. Red Robotic Soul
07. Lacking The Necessary Pose
08 Do The Droid (feat. Lo-Bat)
09. Someone Tolds Me It Was Love
10. Dubslide
11. Jets Over Siberia (Live)
12. Lacking The Necessary Pose (Live)
I played a lot of computer games when I was a kid, especially on the Commodore 64 home computer, and many of the tracks were more like a kind of pop than game music, like the one you heard from the Famicom. Because games were loaded from cassette tapes there used to be a intro picture showing with music playing while the game loaded, which made you listen to the music, because you had to wait anyhow. So very much of the songs were written to be actually listened to because the composer knew it would be heard for sometimes up to five minutes. So I listened to a lot of this music, haha!
Later I went on to compose music on the Commodore Amiga 500, when I was 14 or so, but the chipmusic at the time had become very boring, very much about conventions and a certain style. So I listened to other music, like Michael Jackson, Depeche Mode and Kraftwerk. Lately I have come to rediscover old-style Japanese game music however! It's very different from what was heard in Sweden when I was young, so it's interesting.
--I am so facinated by the opening tune "DENSHA". This is a "Chiptune meets Techno Pop" inspired by Kraftwerk's "Trans Europe Express"!! The title also reminds me "DENTAKU"!!
Thank you! The title comes from when I made the song. It was during an early-morning train ride. It was a nice sunny winter day, with the snow shining outside the window. Most of the tracks on "Delete The Elite" were actually made on trains and buses going somewhere. It's my favourite time to make music; waiting to arrive somewhere.
--I also feel your sound is Swedish to me in a very good way when I listen the tune like "Leave Everything / Move On"... a kind of melancholic Chiptune. To me, it is a great blend of two different things. Do you agree?
I very much agree. I don't know exactly where it comes from, or if this streak of melancholy is a typical Swedish thing, but the music climate is very good, with a lot of bands and diversity. One can also suspect that the weather climate is a factor, because winter is long and dark, especially in the north of Sweden. Everyone gets a little depressed during winter. I used to live way up north in a town called Piteå, and sometimes it would get so cold and dark there was no point to go outside. The sun would rise at 10am, and set at 2pm. So one mostly spent time indoors listening to or making music.
