WE ARE STARDUST
Christian Simpson aka Perifractic catches up with fellow chiptune musician LukHash about his brand new music and its inclusion in an elusive new C64 game.
Christian Simpson talks to LukHash and Roy Widding about the music, and the game it inspired.
As the saying goes, we are literally stardust. Yes, you, me, and the SID chip, all come from the same matter. And even if you take a more religious view then I'd agree with you that the SID sounds like it was created by “God”. I know we all agree.
But now thanks to sublime cyberpunk musician LukHash, that's how the album goes too. But We Are Stardust isn't just a wonderful collection of 10 game-inspired tracks. As New Retro Wave reviewer Mailanka put it:
But it's more than just that, because on secret track 11 of some versions it actually includes a Commodore 64 game too as a tape WAV file recording, marketed as
“something special for the techies!”. I'll leave Paul Morrison to explain how to get techie with that and what the game's like, but I wanted to dig deeper into what brought this old school yet new and original project about.
As you may have too, I first discovered LukHash — real name Lucas — several years ago from his incredible Spy vs. Spy remix (youtu.be/ sVtJGobSZKM) and have been a fan ever since. I was honoured and excited to be invited to interview him for this… and one of the first things he told me via a transatlantic satellite call to his top secret studio somewhere on Earth (presumably), blew me away almost as much as his music:
LukHash:
I love your YouTube channel Perifractic! Very informative and some really inspiring stuff. Greetings to Ladyfractic and the Puppyfractics!
Concluding that this must've been a satellite audio glitch, as such a legend couldn't possibly know about our little channel, I gathered my stardust together and continued!
Christian S:
Er, well, We Are Stardust peaked at #1 in the “All Genres” category
“[LukHash’s] chiptune roots are there, sure, but he’s deepened his mastery and created a refined, nuanced sound that really blew my mind…”
of Bandcamp, as well as #1 in the “Electronic” and “Retrowave” categories. CONGRATULATIONS! What's the inspiration and concept behind such a successful project?
LH:
I wanted to approach themes of death and rebirth — perhaps fitting for a genre so drenched in nostalgia. But more than that, I aimed to lean on science to construct the album's narrative. For example, the opening track “Cyberiad Theory” is a reference to “The Cyberiad,” a series of short stories written by the brilliant Polish science fiction author Stanislaw Lem. The themes of the Cyberiad deal with the “vain search for human happiness through technological means” you see.
CS:
Well somehow that perfectly encapsulates what many of us use Commodore 64s and retro music for doesn't it! On which note (badum-tsh!), can you tell me more about your decision to encrypt a C64 game within this album?
LH:
Sure. I reached out to Roy Widding at Megastyle (who also did some of the graphics alongside Rune (Sparkler)) with a view of doing something cool and C64-related together — an album themed game! It was such a pleasure to work with them. Jamie Fuller coded the secret game whilst Magnar Harestad converted 3 of the album tracks into SID format for the game. Many other talented people were
“We are made of starstuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself,” and… it’s true. We are literally Stardust.” -- Carl Sagan
involved in this team effort!
CS:
Well let's patch Roy into the satellite call now.
Roy Widding:
Hi Perifractic! Well, the scroll routine limited the possibility for how many characters I was allowed to use to make my background graphics, down to just 15. So after a little minimalistic pixeling I managed to make the picture of the city using just 13 chars!
CS:
Wow, unlucky for some, but lucky for us! What about the rest of the graphics?
RW:
Those are all sprites, and the loading picture is a remake of the cover art for the album. Rune made that bitmap picture with his own pixel editor for iPad (Redux Paint) whilst sitting in a café.
CS:
How European. I owe you a coffee. LukHash, were you involved in the game creation yourself, being such a C64 fan?
LH:
Yes! My job was to lay down the obstacles and make sure they flow to the beat of the in-game SID track.
CS:
That's SIDly wonderful! So how long did the game take to produce?
LH:
Jamie coded most of the game in about 2 weeks. We then focussed on little fixes and additions.
CS:
Well it certainly paid off. And how did you figure out the technical side of getting a C64 tape file into an audio album?
LH:
It was great to work alongside Tom Roger Skauen — our tape expert, who taught me tons of super interesting things about audio data, to make that happen. I also used that knowledge to announce my most recent SID album “CyberChip” by posting a video containing a C64 program on Twitter. After loading it a release date was revealed!
CS:
So has the release got newcomers interested in the C64?
LH:
You've hit the nail on the head. I wanted to feature the game on physical versions of the album — because I thought it was a very cool opportunity to expose more people to C64 and generally to some retro gaming. The great thing is that we've managed to get some people who never owned a C64 asking questions about the game and getting interested in this concept of binary audio data. Some people who maybe don't even remember times of loading games from tape were keen on giving this a try on the C64 emulator which is amazing. I think the game has been a great side project and besides releasing a unique and super cool vinyl record it also exposes some new people to the C64 scene, to this beautiful machine and to a great time in gaming history.
CS:
I couldn't agree more. Thank you for your time, and for keeping the C64 in the public consciousness in this way. I am sure it will endure until we are all stardust once more…
LH:
Well said. Wait. Your initials are “CS”. Was I being interviewed by Carl Sagan all this time?!
CS:
Wow. So they are! But no, although he's a hero of mine. And it was a pleasure to interview another hero of mine today.
LH:
Likewise Perifractic, likewise!
CS:
…
LH:
Hello? Ah. Dropped satellite call.
Link: https://bit. ly/3rAbvRg