Simon Viklund

Simon Viklund (born Simon Wiklund, December 1, 1979) is a Swedish freelance video game composer, music producer, sound designer and game designer, who was first known for his work on the 2008 game Bionic Commando Rearmed, in which he was a creative director and composer. He is also known for his work on the Payday series as a composer and the voice of the character Bain.

Simon Viklund
Birth nameSimon Wiklund
Born (1979-12-01) December 1, 1979
Stockholm, Sweden
GenresElectronic (techno, big beat, electro, dubstep)
Occupation(s)Musician, sound designer, game designer
Years active2000–present
LabelsBMG
Websitesimonviklund.com

In 2000, Viklund joined his friend Ulf Andersson's company, Grin, and worked on most of the company's games, which included Bionic Commando: Rearmed. Grin went bankrupt in 2009, leading Viklund, Ulf Andersson and his brother Bo to found Overkill Software. Viklund left Overkill in 2015 to become a freelancer. In 2016, he joined 10 Chambers Collective, another company founded by Ulf Andersson, while continuing his freelance projects.

Early life

Simon Wiklund was born in Stockholm on December 1, 1979.[1][2] He began learning music through the violin as child, and later received classical piano lessons for about seven years.[3] He also taught himself to play the guitar and bass guitar.[4][5] As a teenager he sang in the local church choir, and was briefly a singer in a band established by his friends in high school.[4] He studied arts in high school, but later became more interested in music.[4] Wiklund began to write music in the late 90s with the help of a computer program called FastTracker 2.[6] None of his music was released at the time, because he was personally unsatisfied with his creations.

Career

Grin and early freelance work (2000-2009)

Wiklund joined Grin in 2000 and acted as a composer and sound designer on most of the company's projects, starting with its first game, Ballistics. He later changed his surname to Viklund as foreigners abroad often mispronounced his name, as 'W' and 'V' are pronounced similarly in Swedish.[7] Viklund was also involved in developing the PC version of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (2006) and its 2007 sequel, which were published by Ubisoft.[8] He subsequently led the development of Bionic Commando Rearmed, a remake of the 1988 NES version commissioned by Capcom;[6] Viklund also composed the game's soundtrack, which was praised for its faithful reimagining of the original 8-bit arrangements.[9][10] Elements of Viklund's Bionic Commando Rearmed soundtrack were also incorporated into Bionic Commando (2009), which was mainly scored by Jamie Christopherson, with Viklund serving as sound designer.[11] Aside from Grin's projects, he also worked on Triotech's Wasteland Racers 2071 (2006).[12]

Viklund began work on Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 as its creative director in 2009, before Grin went bankrupt four months into its development. Development was transferred to Fatshark, and Viklund was hired as a creative advisor and composer.[6] He was also commissioned by Capcom for Final Fight: Double Impact (2010) and Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition (2011), for which he composed the music.[13][4]

Overkill Software (2009-2015)

Viklund, along with the Andersson brothers and other Grin employees, founded Overkill Software in 2009.[14] At Overkill, he served as the creative director and sound designer for the company's first game, Payday: The Heist, and also composed its soundtrack, drawing inspiration from the 1995 crime film Heat.[1][11] He also voiced Bain, the main narrator and contract broker in the game. Viklund would reprise his role as composer and the voice of Bain in Payday 2, released in 2013.[1]

On August 18, 2015, Viklund left Overkill to focus on his personal and freelance music projects. However, he continued to voice Bain and produce music in Payday 2 as a freelancer.[15]

10 Chambers Collective (2016-present)

In 2016, Viklund co-founded a new company with Ulf Andersson, 10 Chambers Collective, while also continuing to work on his freelance projects.[16][17] He also signed an exclusive songwriter agreement with BMG in the same year.[18] Viklund composed the soundtrack to Robonauts in 2017,[19] and worked as a game designer, narrative director and composer for 10 Chamber's first project, GTFO.[20][21]

Musical style and influences

Viklund's compositions are primarily based on elements of electronic music genres such as techno, big beat, electro-funk, or dubstep, but some have been based on rock, industrial music and rap.[11] In 2008, Viklund's music was labelled by Swedish magazaine Nöjesguiden as "chip house" music, while Viklund considered his music to be from a variety of inspirations, ultimately becoming "8-bit-inspired dance music".[22] In an interview with VGMO, Viklund described the musical style of his tracks to be "a mix between the music I find suitable for the project in question, the music I enjoy, and the music I have the skills to produce."[11] In Ballistics and Bandits: Phoenix Rising, he cited the Quake III soundtrack, Fatboy Slim, and The Chemical Brothers as inspirations for the rock, techno, big beat, and industrial sound. When it came to the soundtrack of Bionic Commando Rearmed, Wiklund was influenced by groups such as The Crystal Method and Justice, inspirations that he says can be "[heard] ... clearly in the music".[11]

Composition

The music for his first two projects, Ballistics and Bandits: Phoenix Rising, were made with FastTracker 2, while the tracks for Bionic Commando series and Payday: The Heist, were made with Jeskola Buzz.[6][23] In 2013, for Payday 2, he moved on to using Ableton Live, supplemented with a Native Instruments Komplete keyboard and the reFX Nexus 2 Synthesizer plug-in.[23]

Works

Video games
Year Title Developer Role Notes
2001 Ballistics Grin composer, sound designer [12]
2002 Bandits: Phoenix Rising Grin composer, sound designer [11]
2006 Wasteland Racers 2071 Triotech composer, sound designer [17]
2006 Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter Grin sound designer [11]
2007 Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 Grin sound designer [11]
2008 Bionic Commando Rearmed Grin composer, creative director [10]
2009 Bionic Commando Grin senior sound designer, music consultant [11]
2009 Wanted: Weapons of Fate Grin sound designer [11]
2009 Terminator Salvation Grin sound designer [17]
2010 Final Fight: Double Impact Capcom composer [11]
2011 Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 Fatshark composer, writer, creative consultant [6]
2011 Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition Capcom composer [11]
2011 Payday: The Heist Overkill Software composer, sound designer, creative director, voiceover voice of Bain[11]
2013 Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Starbreeze Studios music consultant [24]
2013 Payday 2 Overkill Software composer, chief engineer, sound designer, voiceover voice of Bain
2014 Gear Up Doctor Entertainment composer trailer music[25]
2016 Dead by Daylight Behaviour Interactive composer trailer music[26]
2016 Pan-Pan Spelkraft composer, sound designer [27]
2017 Robonauts Qubic Games composer [19]
2019 GTFO 10 Chambers Collective composer, game designer, narrative director [28][21]

Discography

Viklund has released several of his compositions as albums and singles, both independently and on behalf of Overkill Software:[29][30]

Albums
Title Year Notes
Payday - The Game Soundtrack 2012
PAYDAY 2 Official Soundtrack 2013 features tracks by Gustaf Grefberg[31]
A Merry Payday Christmas 2013 credited to Hoxton, voiced by Pete Gold[32]
Overkill B-Sides 2015
O.R.B.O.T 2016
Free Music 2018
RADIX - Music From and Inspired by Robonauts 2018
STHLM Hunters OST 2018
Badlands 2019

Singles
Title Year Notes
"Kid Icarus Remix feat. Brand0" 2014
"Criminal's Ambition" 2014 featuring KwoteONE[33]
"Ode All'Avidità" 2014
"Breath of Death" 2015 from the Payday 2 Jacket trailer[34]
"The Club" 2015 reinterpretation of "The Mark" from the Payday 2 Soundtrack[35]
"Chains is in a Pickle" 2016
"Steal From The Rich, Give To Myself" 2019

References
  1. Clay, Sam (2013-08-13). "Music to heist to: Payday 2′s musical masterpiece". VG247. Retrieved 2013-08-18.
  2. Viklund, Simon (2010-12-02). "Simon Viklund - "Guru 4x4"". YouTube. Retrieved 2014-01-06.
  3. Napolitano, Jason (2008-07-28). "Comic Con 08: Interview With Bionic Commando Rearmed Composer/Director Simon Viklund". OriginalSoundVersion.com. Retrieved 2013-08-18.
  4. Jolly, Bradley (2011-08-23). "INTERVIEW: Simon Viklund (3rd Strike Online Edition - Music)". Level 3. Archived from the original on 2011-08-27. Retrieved 2013-08-18.
  5. Good, Owen (2008-09-04). "Rearming the Music — and Memories — of Bionic Commando". Kotaku. Retrieved 2013-09-09.
  6. jeriaska (2011-02-26). "Sound Current: 'Back in the Swing of Things - Simon Viklund on Bionic Commando Rearmed 2'". GameSetWatch. Retrieved 2013-08-18.
  7. Viklund, Simon (2014-08-03). "My badge for ECTS 2002". Instagram. Retrieved 2014-08-08.
  8. "Something to GRIN About". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 2020-12-22.
  9. Parish, Jeremy (2008-08-13). "Bionic Commando: Rearmed Review". 1Up.com. Archived from the original on March 10, 2016.
  10. "Postmortem: Capcom/GRIN's Bionic Commando Rearmed". www.gamasutra.com. Retrieved 2020-12-21.
  11. Greening, Chris (September 20, 2011). "Simon Viklund Interview: Designer and Composer Alike". Video Game Music Online. Retrieved 2017-04-28.
  12. Mäki, Jonas (2015-02-19). "Ljuddesign med Overkill Software i Gamereactor Academy". www.gamereactor.se (in Swedish). Retrieved 2017-05-26.
  13. "E3: Street Fighter III:3rd Strike's new features detailed". Destructoid. Retrieved 2020-12-21.
  14. "An Interview with Simon Viklund". Mad Gear Solid. 2011-09-11. Archived from the original on 2011-09-11. Retrieved 2017-02-15.
  15. OVERKILL Software (2015-08-18). PAYDAY 2: A Message From Simon Viklund (video).
  16. Harris, John. "Q&A: How Steam co-op hit GTFO chooses depth over breadth in game design". www.gamasutra.com. Retrieved 2020-12-22.
  17. "10 Chambers Collective - Simon Viklund". www.10chambers.com. Archived from the original on 2019-12-23. Retrieved 2017-06-26.
  18. "SC: Simon Viklund Signs with BMG". BMG. 2016-06-10. Retrieved 2020-12-21.
  19. Doolan, Liam (2017-09-20). "Review: Robonauts (Switch eShop)". Nintendo Life. Retrieved 2020-12-21.
  20. O'Connor, Alice (2017-05-31). "Payday co-creator names new co-op FPS: GTFO". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved 2017-06-26.
  21. Beckhelling, Imogen (2020-10-22). "GTFO adds matchmaking and new difficulties in its latest update". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved 2020-12-21.
  22. Hallstan, Johan (2008-09-17). "Simon Viklund: "så får du ett exploderande huvud genom censuren"". NÖJESGUIDEN (in Swedish). Retrieved 2017-04-28.
  23. "What gear I use". simonviklund.com. 2013-07-26. Archived from the original on 2013-08-20. Retrieved 2017-04-28.
  24. "Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons - Official Soundtrack, by Gustaf Grefberg". OVERKILL Soundtracks. Retrieved 2020-12-21.
  25. Viklund, Simon (2014-07-24). "Gear Up!". Archived from the original on 2014-08-04. Retrieved 2017-05-25.
  26. "Simon Viklund". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2017-05-26.
  27. McKenney, Kyle (2016-06-03). "Newly Unveiled Pan-Pan Seems Like the Perfect Game for a Lazy Afternoon". pastemagazine.com. Archived from the original on 2016-06-04. Retrieved 2017-03-07.
  28. Pierce, Tanner (2017-06-02). "Payday Game Designer Reveals New Game GTFO". DualShockers. Retrieved 2017-06-26.
  29. "Simon Viklund". Bandcamp. Retrieved 2020-12-21.
  30. "OVERKILL Soundtracks". OVERKILL Soundtracks. Retrieved 2020-12-22.
  31. "PAYDAY 2 Official Soundtrack, by Simon Viklund". OVERKILL Soundtracks - Bandcamp. Retrieved 2020-12-22.
  32. "A Merry Payday Christmas, by Hoxton". OVERKILL Soundtracks. Retrieved 2020-12-22.
  33. "Criminal's Ambition (single), by Simon Viklund feat. KwoteONE". OVERKILL Soundtracks - Bandcamp. Retrieved 2020-12-22.
  34. "Breath of Death, by Simon Viklund". Simon Viklund - Bandcamp. Retrieved 2020-12-22.
  35. "The Club, by Simon Viklund". Simon Viklund - Bandcamp. Retrieved 2020-12-22.
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