Bjorn Lynne

This work is © 2001 by Bjorn Lynne. You may not distribute it without the explicit written permission of the author. It will remain the personal property of the composer and are NOT in the public domain.

Jooli - (mp3 file, 7.2 MB)
Jooli

"I would say that this track is very much 'typical Bjorn Lynne' music and is very representative of my work."

Biochemical Structure- (mp3 file, 7.5MB)
Biochemical Structure

Relentless and psychedelic goa-trance that will just keep you going till you drop!
From the album: DIVINORUM SAMPLER

To learn more about Bjorn Lynne after reading this interview, you are invited to visit his homepage!

Interview with Bjorn Lynne
By Nwaado

N: First, tell me briefly about yourself
Bjorn: I am a Norwegian who has lived in England for 6 years. I compose, arrange, and play music for a living. I have done that as a profession for about 6 years, and before that, about 6 years as a hobby.
I am now involved with many different projects, including writing music for PC- and videogames, special interest videos, my own CD albums, and various other projects.
N: What instrument(s) do you play?
Bjorn: I play keyboards, guitar, bass guitar and various percussion.
N: How did you get involved in composing music for games?
Bjorn: I came into contact with the game industry through the Amiga demo scene. I was part of a demo-group and we used to release free music disks into the Amiga public domain. These disks got copied and spread all around, and some of them ended up at some game companies. Some of them caught an interest in my music and asked me to make some music for their games. That's how it started.
N: How long have you been in this business and how many games have you been involved in?
Bjorn: I have been full-time in the business for about 6 years, and part-time about 3 years before that. I have made the music for maybe around 30 games in total.
N: Please list the games that you wrote the music for.
Bjorn: Stunt GP
Worms: World Party
Phoenix - Deep Space Resurrection
Worms Armageddon
Arcade Pool 2
Worms Pinball
Nightlong: Union City Conspiracy
Addiction Pinball
Worms 2
Seven Kingdoms II
Seven Kingdoms
Cybercampus
Dark Corona
Worms: The Directors Cut
X2
Rasdan
Virtual-U
Worms: Reinforcements
Worms: United
Worms
Qwak
Project-X
Fantastic Voyage
Shanghai
Airline
Escape from Colditz
Cubulus
Brat

...and maybe a few more that I don't remember right now.

N: Wow, that sounds interesting. Is there any of them that you are particularly satisfied with?
Bjorn: I am quite satisfied with all of them. But I think the music in "Phoenix - Deep Space Resurrection" was pretty good. The game itself was a failure commercially (sold only a few copies), but I feel that the music was quite good in a Star Trek / Babylon-5 style orchestral arrangement, and it changed according to the game conditions. Of course I am very happy to have been part of the hugely successful "Worms" games.
N: In what way(s) is it different to compose for a game?
Bjorn: When working for games, you often work within technical boundaries and limitations. For example, the music should of course fit different scenes and places in the game, but you may also be limited by available RAM, available sound-channels, few instruments, and so on. So it's a technical challenge as well as an artistic challenge.
N: Do you sometimes create sound effects, too?
Bjorn: Sometimes, yes.
N: Do you have a trick to get the ideas and melodys flowing when you sit down to write a piece?
Bjorn: Not really. I just sit down nice and quiet, and start playing the piano or guitar with an "empty head". Sometimes, nothing special happens and I give up after maybe 30 minutes. But other times, some special themes and ideas will come into my head while I'm playing, and I then try to build on that, to make complete pieces of music.
N: Tell me a bit about the process of creating a game from the initial idea to the finished product.
Bjorn: Usually the first step is to try to establish the technical side of the music in the game, i.e. what music playback system will be used in the game. Will it play straight CD-tracks?, or will it play some other kind of MIDI+samples format or maybe a tracker format?... or maybe even DirectMusic format?. This has to be decided before I start to compose the music, because if I have written the music in normal CD-tracks first, and it turns out later that I have to re-write everything in a different format, I will kill somebody! So first, the technical side of it must be established and decided. THEN I start to think about the style of music. Maybe I'll take a couple of weeks to just experiment with different types of music, and look at the game artwork (sometimes just early sketches) and try to find a style/sound of music that fits the game. Then I really get into the serious work and will spend the next weeks/months actually composing and producing the music.
N: Are you involved from the beginning of the process, or does your part come in at the end?
Bjorn: Sometimes from the beginning, and sometimes only at the end.
N: Finally, what is your advice to someone who wants to start writing music for games, and what kind of education do you need?
Bjorn: You don't need any education. I don't have any musical education at all. You just have to have some talent, a good ear, and more than anything, you've got to be able to keep pushing yourself to the game companies, and don't give up. It can take many years to build up a reputation, so even though it seems difficult at first, you can just keep trying and trying, and very slowly you will find it easier and easier to do this job.