Interview with Volatile/Lo'Profile
Publication: The Ascii Charts March/April 2000
Publication: The Ascii Charts March/April 2000
NOTE: In the interview the word "oldschool" is used several times. It is used at its meaning in the PC asciiscene, meaning just "Amiga-style ascii". "Newschool" means the PC-typical asciis with "$"- and other chars. - diP
Dipswitch: Tell me about yourself !
Volatile: well my name is peleg i'm 19 years old, i serve in the israeli army (two years left, yay!), i've been known in the scene first as human vox (early 96) than as volatile hamster (don't even ask) and after awhile i dropped the hamster and just stayed volatile =).
Dipswitch: What was developement of your ascii career till now ?
Volatile: well, when i first started to draw ascii, i was basiclly a pc artist who used aciddraw with a pc font, after awhile i started drawing my shit on 80x50 mode instead on the normal mode, that made me change my letter style to something smaller, my mate squish always tried to talk me into using afs.com (amiga font simulator) and at start i thought it was a bad idea, but after couple of tries i realy got into it. i guess you can say i had alot of style changes, some was for the bad, some was for the worset, i do think i made major developement since i started doing this ish.
Dipswitch: When did you draw your first ascii ?
Volatile: i started fooling around with ascii sometime around 95' but i started my real ascii career at early 96', back when i was still known as human vox, i had alot of help and feedback from necromancer (ex-leader & founder of the pc group remorse) even though i sucked realy bad back than he told me something i tell new artists all the time - "keep practicing and you'll be good" i do belive that art is a learning skill like everything else, sure emotional art needs more than your regular skill, it need its special touch. but as for oldschool i think the longer you draw and exprien the better you develop yourself.
Dipswitch: Your collies are floating through Amiga boards, but as I know you were part of the PC "oldschool ascii" scene from your start. Do you nevertheless feel yourself as a part of the Amiga scene through your artform ? Do you deal with the Amiga scene besides ascii ?
Volatile: well since i started my romance with amiga ascii it has taken a part of my time no less worth to the time i put on the pc scene, for me both scenes at the bubbling time (when pc group serial had feuds with every group around) i enjoyed quiet moments in the amiga scene #ascii channel (ircnet) when i also enjoyed my competetive motion in the pc scene that lacked from the amiga scene. i consider myself a complete amiga artist this days, my style, my influences are all amiga, my machine is pc sure, but i consider myself an amiga artist definitly. as for other aspects of the amiga scene, i don't take much part of other parts since the deased scene of israel was all pc, and i never even had an amiga
Dipswitch: Why you have chosen Amiga ascii and not pc(block or $-Style)-Ascii/Ansi or pixel gfx as your artform ?
Volatile: well basiclly because nothing attracted me like ascii, i can't tell you the reason, i have tried ansi and $ style ascii but i just didn't had the patiance, it takes alot more time than to draw an oldschool logo
Dipswitch: What are, in your opinion, the advantages and disadvantages of the PC-scene style of releasing (big archives with single logos instead of collys) ?
Volatile: i personally think it depends on the form of art, oldschool ascii (amiga kind of ascii) should be in a colly or at least some kind of cluster if its like 5+ logos, but if your talking on less than that, the advantage of archives is you don't have to have like... 15+ logos to show a sign your alive, or to wait 6 months till you have enough ascii.
Dipswitch: There were times (around 1998, as I remember) when some pc-"oldschool"-asciiers (some guys from Noname, am I right?) made joke-collies about you being "oh-so-amiga", while, in fact, you had more clue of Amiga-style ascii than them. I just have this collies in memory... At the same time you were almost unknown in the real Amiga ascii scene. What did motivate you, in that difficult time, to move on and develope yourself ?
Volatile: well personally i had support from lots of people around both scene at the time. i was an easy pick for some guys back than since my english was horrible and i was easy to upset, my biggest feud with an artist named mjay. who has made two hate/joke collies about me, he accused me in ripping mogue, a thing that was so far of reach. and tried to knock me out of some groups, by making deals with them that if he joins they will kick me. he had big fame back than, and i was considered mediocre so they were nasty and kicked me. and than he would quit the group and they were to beg me to stay, i won't mention names but it was a rotten move. anyway the only thing that left me in this game back than was the support of couple of people including nmancer, c4nn, horizon, folar and some others i don't remember (sorry mates been awhile). sure it helped me develop, i was intrested back than in fame and respect. and that feuds changed my prespective, i said fuck that i'm here for the ascii, if people likes it than its good. but that shouldn't be my motivation so it has proven its success
Dipswitch: Tell us the story of your group "Phunk" !
Volatile: well phunk started on 96' but it was planned than to be a all forms of art kind of group (ansi, ascii, gfx), but than i decided its gonna be a oldschool only kind of group, in the start we released a package of collies made by squish, me and... uhhhhhh arlequin i think, but after releasing the pack i got an idea, to unite the best artists of both scenes in one group, and than the real phunk was born. in the years we had alot of members who today shines el nino (back than dataflower), brane, native, el talo and arl. not to forget the loyal and valuble member i hear from once a year don rappelo . phunk was unite than into wax a pc group, but when wax died phunk continued.
Dipswitch: Now you managed to land in Low Profile. How did it occure ?
Volatile: well i tried to apply once but i was told they waren't accepting new members than after awhile rdm decided the group needs some fresh blood so when daeron joined. i tried again and was accepted.
Dipswitch: Do you think it is important for ascii logos to be more readable ?
Volatile: well as one who his oldschool is sometimes considered unreadble i guess it depends, my shit is pretty readble for me, but than again i can even read most newbie ascii and some artists never had troubles reading my own , but it realy narrows down to style, if a newbie makes an ascii and its unreadble and has no certain skilled style to it, than i think its bad, but if a skilled artist who knows what he's doing tries to be more stylistic and risk is readbility for that. than i think its fine
Dipswitch: Who are your alltime-favourite artists ?
Volatile: well thats an hard question, i guess desoto, chrombacher, tango, horizon, crusader and uhhh many more, i just can't list like 20 people, those are my top all-time fav's.
Dipswitch: What do you think about the relationship between ascii and bbs's ? Can the one survive without the other ?
Volatile: well i think it can, the pc scene is the proof, since bbs's has pretty much died, sure its not as good as it was. but its still ticking and thats something, but i think only time can tell...
Dipswitch: You live in Israel. Are you the only one Amiga-ascii artist there or are there some other hidden talents on that platform ?
Volatile: well i realy think squish was a good amiga artist (he was in pk's group afluance design), as for amiga i'm sure i'm the only one. as for pc newschool, theres a couple of artists but not as many as were in the past.
Dipswitch: What are the words of wisdom you would say to a newbie starting with Amiga-style ascii, especially if he is PC-based ?
Volatile: keep practicing, don't give up, the amiga scene is not like pc scene. there aint realy something like a realy easy start, being a good artist needs credibility, and the name of the game in making a name for yourself is keep at it, and your there.
Dipswitch: Wanna greet somebody ?
Volatile: well all my friends, you know who you are, if you don't ask me for anyone who enjoys my ascii, i realy give respects to you and you dipswitch, and make sure to release tac already
Dipswitch: THX for the interview !