GV: During the Amiga years, which groups were you involved in and do you have any favourite memories?
Sarek: I was involved with plenty of scene groups but not necessarily the best groups, but good friendly one's! I started with Doom UK and finished in NeO (1995), I was also in Eoc1999, Nerve Axis, Dual Format and Delight, which I set up myself with some friends. Never really achieved much but had a lot of friends and all was a special experience!

GV: Sounds as though you've had a really cool time in the scene. How long were you involved and what got you hooked?
Sarek: I started around 1990 and used to swap with a guy in Preston called Alex. One time he slipped in a jiffy to me, Grapevine 7! I was totally in love with this and proceeded to join up to one of the groups as they weren't too far from me in Garstang (Lancashire, Nr Preston!)

GV: What would you say was your biggest achievement? Was there a graphic that you cherish to this day?
Sarek: My greatest triumph's were getting loads of adverts for a lot of good friends published in Grapevine Amiga magazine by LSD and also having graphics featured in a full demo by Nerve Axis, coded by Khul and I still have it today - finally achieving 4th best artist in UK in a Doom chart!

GV: Were you inspired by anyone?
Sarek: I am inspired all the time by lots of different places and various art forms. The hard thing is making something original and then putting your own spin on it to make it your own style.

GV: What do you like doing these days?
Sarek: These days I have gone so far back through the oldies, I have almost given up on new games etc. and I am so into the retro stuff! I have most consoles and computers that I owned back then and love nothing more than to dig them out and stick on an old game! I am still active in graphics but not in the scene.

GV: That’s ace, a retro fan - what is your favourite machine and game? If you could pick one to be brought back which one would it be?
Sarek: Well I guess all the old machines are coming back in some shape or form i.e. Commodore 64's and Amiga, Snes etc. is doing a bomb on eBay. I guess everyone is just catching the retro bug because new stuff is shit too complicated and no fun anymore! MAME is the ultimate cop out as it covers everything lol. If pinned down, my 2 choices for best machine would be C64 and Amiga.

GV: Finally what advice would you give to people wanting to get into gfx demos?
Sarek: My best advice to anyone who wants to do graphics/design is learn an eye for colour and combinations look around life, there is plenty to see if you take notice. Also check out old demo's etc. and see what you can learn about layout design. See how 1 bit leads into another, story boards and such like!

Cheers mate, and all the best to ya with all that you do – it’s been awesome chatting with you!

Take care of yourself dude!

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