@Aalasteir - @Aalasteir (Q) - Index
Q: I'm only participating in this because the interview was requested by @S3C. Why are you named: Aalasteir?
Yep, I was looking at a list of names and saw "Alistair." I changed it slightly and added two A's to make it look a bit more distinct.
Q: How did you discover NG, and why did you join?
I saw Strawberry Clock V. It was also the first movie I reviewed and favorited on my NG account. I wanted to see if I could start a journey similar to the one the guys from SleepyCabin had, because for a long time, I dreamed of forming friendships as strong as theirs.
Q: Your diet
I primarily eat once a day, and I feel better doing so. That’s what works for me personally. I also don’t keep any candy, chips, or similar items in my apartment. This helps me avoid stress since I don’t even think about eating them.
Q: What do you think about alcohol?
Never want to drink alcohol. I have tasted it.
I'm okay with mock beverages, like alcohol-free beer, but as a personal choice for my well-being, I do not want to drink alcohol.
Q: What do you think about drugs?
Drugs are Bad, Mkay.
And I have never smoked weed, and I don’t want to.
That drug stuff can very easily and quickly destroy your life, and it also negatively impacts everyone around you. Plus, it’s expensive.
Q: Why do you like making music?
I enjoy making music.
Q: Your advice
Build good habits.
And avoid bad ones.
@DeaghlanNG - What's the weirdest thing you've seen on a bus/in public?
Very bold of you to assume that I go outside.
@S3C - What's your background in music and how long have you been making it for? I see you have a knowledge of scales and modes from your audio submissions. Do you play any instruments?
Around 2014, I saw a video titled "How to Make V A P O R W A V E." By FrankJavCee
I probably thought, "This shit looks easy." I think all of my interests are deeply rooted in irony, but sometimes I forget what irony even means, which is ironic.
I purchased SONAR Steam Edition: Musical Cues Bundle on October 31, 2015. I still use Rapture Session and Pro, including Z3TA 2 which I think came out later.
I keep very little track of what I'm doing at any given time. I don’t have a diary, so what I assume is that perhaps I saw Skrillex use Ableton, and that's why I wanted to use it too. Or maybe Ableton came with a bundle of an M-Audio keyboard that I got as a birthday present from my mom, and I decided to use that instead of SONAR.
For years, I would make songs and just delete them, make songs and delete them. This was another habit I had with drawings, where I would make a drawing and throw it out, make a drawing and throw it out. I did this for a very long time. I don't have any music from that time or drawings that I saved.
Yeah, I tried learning stuff from Lynda.com, which is now LinkedIn Learning, and MasterClass. I had a subscription to Lynda.com. The thing is, I'm incredibly bad at learning anything, so it's very hard to stay motivated. I saw that Deadmau5's MasterClass was available, and I think I paid for it with Paper Route, which made some money that I could save for months. The two main things I learned were sidechaining and grooving the MIDI, which I still use to this day.
Lynda.com is where I learned about scales.
And I would improvise at on the piano.
I started making songs and thought a lot about the pipeline. My main goal was to simply try to finish songs, which I did. I think that made me better at making music, just by focusing on finishing songs.
What helped me was studying philosophy. I watched a lot of the School of Life videos. Wu Wei, was one of them.
The principle, as I understand it, is that you put yourself in a position where time is on your side. You flow with the river, not swim against the stream, and you let the natural forces push you in the right direction. Effortless action occurs when you're not forcing yourself to do something, and it happens naturally.
Another philosophy video that resonated with me a lot was one about Charles Bukowski, around "Don't Try," which, if you want to pursue a creative field, suggests that if you have to force yourself to do it, then the creative field might not be for you. I took the principle of not having to force myself to create and made it the meaning behind my approach. I thought a lot about how the principles of creative work are based around habit.
@S3C - Do you live alone in your apartment? How is that working out for you
Yes, I live alone in my apartment, and I prefer it that way because I often struggle with sleep, sometimes staying up very late, and talking to myself constantly and loudly. I would be a nightmare to live with or be around. I also need a lot of space because, overall, I am extremely introverted.
@S3C - Do you have a day-job, if so what do you do?
I package electronics, lots of them.
@S3C - If you weren't at NewGrounds, what/where do you think you would be doing instead?
I would be on Steam playing games, perhaps making video game review videos.
@S3C - would you ever consider leaving Denmark, if not for a temporary period of time? where in the world would you like to visit? what other countries have you been too?
No, I don't want to live anywhere else, but I would like to visit the U.S. for a Pico Day meet. Some of the countries I've been to are England, Dublin, Norway, Germany, and the Netherlands.
@S3C - what was your dream job growing up?
Something.
Enough to sustain me in doing creative things is having the reason why I feel okay mentally. I think it's because I don't have expectations. I always try to keep them as low and non-prevalent as possible because overthinking can easily put me in a negative spiral. I need things to be very simple, extremely simple, concrete, and consistent to avoid things becoming too complex.
I focus very heavily on the habits I have because once something becomes a habit, it becomes a part of me.
OviManic
Now I wanna see an A100 episode that involves you and yourself violently arguing against each other in a Howard Stern-esque format!