an interview by Ghandy of Nukleus, images by various sources.
This Norwegian’s first production under the pseudonym ‘Maniac’ was released 35 years ago. He later became known simply as Jogeir, adopting his real first and later also his last name as his pseudonym. Most people will of course recognise him as Jogeir Liljedahl.
This is not entirely accurate, but it seemed as though he was a member of almost every popular group in the 90s. However, it was his participation in the Amiga AGA demos ‘Love‘ and ‘Full Moon‘ that truly made him immortal. He collaborated with the legendary programmer Dr. Skull from Virtual Dreams of Fairlight on some occasions. Over the years he’s been involved in more than 50 (!!!) scene productions. Not to forget, Jogeir also contributed to several games for Amiga, MS-DOS, Windows and some game consoles. A few audio CDs have also been released over the years. It would be impossible to list everything he was involved in here. So let’s jump to the conversation.
So as promised, here’s the interview with Jogeir Liljedahl. Looking at the many protracker modules and scene productions he created, it seems as if he was hyperactive all those years, but that’s also not true. But wait a second, we’ll ask him about that in a moment.
He took breaks, yes, but he never stopped composing music!
Ghandy: Looking at your Demozoo/Pouet statistics, you’ve been active from 1990 until now. How have you managed to release so much music for scene-related projects without taking a real huge break?
Jogeir Liljedahl: I thought I took a long brake, and in the case of “the scene”, I did take a long brake. But I didn’t stop making music, although I’ve had months of breaks without touching my tracker and/or DAW. (editors note: DAW means Digital Audio Workstation. That’s the software to produce music.) The good thing about music is that it can be used/played everywhere, not depending on using a specific type of hardware.
Ghandy: Have you also provided music for other commercial or non-commercial projects that aren’t related to the demoscene?
Jogeir Liljedahl: Yes, I have made music for some games like “Top Gear Dare Devil” on the Playstation 2, way back in 1998/99. A PC cd-rom game called “Wild Life!” in the early 2000’s, some Nintendo DS games around 2008-2010 for Krea Media in Denmark, two Hugo games and a Pixeline (Josefine) game, children stuff, but still paid work. Beside that I have also made some CD’s, been involved in the Back in Time series with many tunes (remixes of C64 music) and to others as well. I have no real overview, just enjoying making music when inspiration hits me.
“We appreciate the friendship first and foremost (…)”
Ghandy: What has fascinated you so much about the demoscene all these years? The friendship? The productions or both? Are you still in touch with many people?
Jogeir Liljedahl: As we all get older, we appreciate the friendship first and foremost. I still go to some parties yearly, like Revision in Germany. The thing I look forward to the most, is meeting up with friends again, and of course to greet and speak to new people, share stories and just have a good time. I am in touch with many people, many I’ve known for decades and sometimes I even get to know new people and we have contact afterwards by mail, discord etc.
Ghandy: I’ve seen lots of crack intros on various computer platforms and gaming consoles. Did you provide the cracking groups with the tunes, or did most of them just take and use them without permission? How did you feel when this happened?
Jogeir Liljedahl: This happened all the time back in the days, and usually they just took the tune(s) they wanted. I didn’t mind it, it spread the music so I tried to focus more on that instead of what it “promoted”. In any case, there wasn’t anything I could have done to stop them from using my music.
Ghandy: Which of your tunes is the most well-known? Perhaps ‘Guitar Slinger’? Or ‘Nearly There…’ from the fabulous Virtual Dreams demo ‘Full Moon’? Or the final tune from ‘Love’ from Virtual Dreams?
Jogeir Liljedahl: I guess Guitar Slinger is the most well-known tune if I had to guess. We all have different tastes, so someone might disagree with me though.
“I’m not really in love with any of my tunes.”
Ghandy: Which tune do you love the most?
Jogeir Liljedahl: Hmm…I’m not really in love with any of my tunes. I can appreciate some of them more than others, but that’s because it’s tied to memories, or events that happened around the time I composed a module. One of my happiest memories was when I was composing ‘Variations‘”, life back then was so innocent, no worries, no real life problems, just enjoying making mods when the scene was peaking (1992).
Many years ago Dr. Skull invited him to join Virtual Dreams by calling his landline number.
Ghandy: By the way: How did you come to work with Alien and Dr. Skull of Virtual Dreams (VD)? That’s strange somehow. Everyone knows their productions, but nobody knows the people behind them.
Jogeir Liljedahl: I got contacted by Dr. Skull by phone, and we’re talking land line here. We had no cellular phones back then. He saw my number in a mod and contacted me, inviting me to VD/FLT. A couple of weeks later, I sent him my newly composed “physical presence” mod, and we had some hours of chat on the phone about it and all the ideas he got from listening to the tune. The rest is history as we say, and the Love demo became a hit! We met at The Party in Denmark in ’92 or was it ’93?! So we had some hours of chat face to face, mostly with Dr. Skull. I can’t remember all the VD guys I met back then, it’s all a blur since there were so many people from various countries.
The internet has changed the scene a lot.
Ghandy: The Amiga scene was far more active in the mid-90s than it is today. Do you miss those days? What is your opinion of the scene nowadays?
Jogeir Liljedahl: I miss the old scene as it was, but when the internet blossomed, a lot of the focus went away from the productions and more into the gaming, multiplayer, sharing cracked games etc. I noticed this first hand when I attended my last “The Gathering” in Norway, back in 1997. I think that the scene got a big boost after Covid, people connected over Discord, planned travels etc. The last couple of years have been amazing anyway.
Ghandy: You’ve worked with many high-class groups, such as The Silents, Razor 1911, Fairlight, Alcatraz, Desire, Pulse (PC), Spaceballs and Pure Metal Coders, to name a few. How did that happen?
Jogeir Liljedahl: It all started with Razor 1911 because of my “real life” friend Stein Erik (Bug) which was in Razor before me. The other groups came kind of naturally, you usually have been in a group if you had friends in a group, almost like a real family. When I moved to Oslo I worked with guys from The Silents, Spaceballs and Pulse. The last group I joined was Maniacs of Noise, a famous C64 group, but since I met and worked with Jeroen Tel back in 1994/5, we’ve had contact and been friends ever since. Geez…that’s a long time ago now 🙂
Visiting Revision was “just amazing“.
Ghandy: You were present at Revision this year. What was it like to attend a major demoscene event again? Did you meet many people from the past? What has stayed the same since the mid-90s, and what has changed?
Jogeir Liljedahl: It was a great feeling – it feels like the good old days again. People invested in the demoscene really knows their stuff, and there are so many beautiful people out there to meet & greet! Meeting people from the past, real life or even “pen pals” from the mid 90’s. I met them all at Revision face to face, and it’s just amazing. I will definitely go back there again!
Jogeir Liljedahl: “We need to enjoy our time when we can and are healthy because we never know how much time we have.”
Ghandy: What do you think about the average age of sceners? You’re also over 50 years old now, aren’t you? 😉 I guess most of the active people have also grown older. So what will happen in 10 years? Or in 20 years, when many of today’s active sceners will be dead? Will there be enough young blood?
Jogeir Liljedahl: Yep, thanks for reminding me, I am 51 now. (which means 17 with 34 years of experience). It seems like many of “our age” have returned to the scene after a long break, but I don’t think there’s a specific reason for it. Quick math suggests that they got married and/or have children that has now turned 18-20, leaving their “nest” so that dad/scener can take his time with his hobby again etc. It can also be just work and real life itself. We are all different and need time to adjust to real life, something that I went through personally.
It’s hard to say what will happen in 10 or 20 years, but one thing is for sure, we can’t do anything about time. We need to enjoy our time when we can and are healthy because we never know how much time we have.
Ghandy: Do you think that the fact the demoscene has been recognised as digital cultural heritage for UNESCO in some European countries will help ensure its survival?
Jogeir Liljedahl: It can help of course, but I think younger people need to be interested in knowing about the scene, experiencing similar events etc. I met a lot of younger people at Revision this year (around 20 years old), and it looks promising if this continues and grows like it has for the past several years.
Ghandy: Could you tell us about your two music albums, ‘The Wanderer’ and ‘Out of Silence’? Are they still available to buy? Are you planning to release any more albums in the future?
Jogeir Liljedahl: Nothing much to say about my released albums, they are all sold out years ago. You will find them on Spotify and other streaming sites, perhaps some shops may have them physically, but I don’t think so. I am planning on releasing some new albums in the coming years as well, but I can’t disclose any details at this time.
Jogeir Liljedahl presenting the multi platform game Roguecraft on his t-shirt. Source of the image: private.
Ghandy: Did your experiences within the demo scene help you in your job and career? Have your experiences being helpful working together with completely different characters? Communication was a problem as mailswapping was extremly slowly or else you had to make extremely expensive phone calls. Or did Fairlight provide you blue boxing frequencies or MCI or AT&T calling cards – so you’ve been able to call for free world wide?
Jogeir Liljedahl: It did help me when I first started working in house at Funcom in Oslo. This was back in 1993 though, so not much help after that. Mail swapping first, then the BBS’ helped a lot later on. Blue box?! Ehrm…. no comment. 🙂
Jogeir Liljedahl: “I wouldn’t be alive without music!”
Ghandy: Sure, it’s wise not to comment on this matter. 😉 But something else: What role does music play in your life nowadays? Do you still earn money from it? Or is it just a hobby?
Jogeir Liljedahl: I wouldn’t be alive without music, so I will keep doing it as long as I enjoy doing it! I still earn some “pocket cash” from my old CD’s actually, and I recently did music for Roguecraft, a new Amiga game that has been very well received by the people! It will be ported to Evercade, Switch 2 and PC. You can actually wishlist it now on Steam (PC) and read about it there. Still, I would call it an amazing hobby, and that’s how I prefer it to be at this time.
Ghandy: What will you do when you retire from your job? Will you live in a house by the lake with your family? Will you keep the computer off most of the time? Or would you prefer to spend time with your wife, family and grandchildren somewhere?
Jogeir Liljedahl: I will deal with that when I get there. There’s so much to enjoy right in front of our noses, meeting new people, creating music and just enjoy life.
By the way: Some other sceners played also a role in assembling the new Amiga game Roguecraft. The graphics were painted (in 32 colors) by Henning Ludvigsen, who has been formerly known in the scene as Bridgeclaw of Brainstorm (ex-Gods, Iris etc.). The other musician who took part was Hofman of TBL.
Would you like to download some of his Protracker modules now? Go ahead — don’t hesitate!
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