An Interview with Fredrik Segerfalk

Tim Follin, Drax, Jeroen Tel, Rob Hubbard, Martin Galway, Johannes Bjerregaard

Wizball main theme, Bionic Commandos, Pimplesqueezer 6 part 3 (Bjerregaard) Exploding Fist.

For 64-composing I use an editor written by Zizyphus/Oneway called System 6581. In my studio, well, here's the list: PC with a Hardsid Quattro and a creamware Luna II, Cubase VST, Reason, Fender Rhodes, Hohner Clavinet D6, Korg Polysix, Korg VC-10 Vocoder, Hohner Pianet T, Yamaha DX-100, Jen SX-2000, Acoustic guitar, assorted percussion, various pedal-fx, A Spirit 20 ch mixer (used as input source only), record player and a healthy dose of vinyl records. I use a pair of Genelec 1030 for monitoring.

The c64 is very limited, and that's what makes it so compelling to compose on. You can really concentrate on the sound creating and composing. Using other gear it takes a lot of know-how with the mixing and mastering process, such as using eq, compressors and other effects. Just to get a proper listening environment with good nearfield monitors, and then learning how to listen, is a science in itself.

I just love it! If there's anything negative, that's gotta be the signal/noise ratio - it's noisy! And yeah, it stole a lot of my youth😉

Of course this was a dream coming true, unfortenately my main mission was to convert the tunes from the Amiga version, only track 6 was composed by me. Mayby people will get angry now, but I really thought the original tunes kinda sucked. I wanted to compose brand new songs. Zzap 64 liked it though! It's also rewarding to get the 5 minutes of fame!

It was a great track to compose, me and Zizyphus screaming KICK OFF! - GOOAAAL into the poor sampler :O and feeling generally like soccer hooligans.

Hm. I don't think my name has actually occured in a game. We used the name of our group, System 6581, which consisted of me and Fredrik Hederstierna, and a guy called Johannes (can't remember his last name now, but he was a hell of a graphics guy!) And in some cases, like Shadow of the Beast, the credit was given to Sonic Graffiti, which was our working partner (more about that later)

It was back in 87 I think, when I was visiting Kaktus (Kaktus&Mahoney) and he told me that Mahoney said: There's that moppe guy! Moppe is swedish for Moped, and I had a moped that I used a lot. So I decided to change handle from Kiwi, which really sucked. I don't know if Moppe is any better, but it's a least a little bit funny, and people (especially swedish) remembers it.

The Randers party in -89 was fantastic. I met JCH and Johannes Bjerregaard, had loads of coke (coca cola!) and pizza, made a great demo together with Zizyphus. Another dear friend got drunk for the first time with inevitable results - no details. In all, there are so many good memories of the scene and so few bad. One of the worst was when I burnt a SID and couldn't get a replacemant for several days (can you imagine? Several days!! 8-/) A also remember a tendency to get a serious cold after many parties, probably due to the fact that there were too many lamers present ;D

We (system 6581) had a co-operation agreement with Gerard Gourley (Gez) of Sonic Graffiti wich meant that he could use our editor (system 6581, which was far superior to his own) and in return he would act as our manager. It started out well with the Blood Money tracks and Kick Off II was no problem either, but after completing the Shadow of the Beast score and getting half of the payment, we were supposed to meet him (gez) on PCW 1990 where we were to recieve the last downpayment for the Shadow of the Beast tracks. He never showed up. He never payed the money either and we could not get in contact with him. This was of course bad, but even worse was the fact that we many years later I discovered that he had sold two of my tracks without giving me a single penny, or even contacting me. I discovered this thanks to HVSC. The Games Extreme and European Soccer Challenge had my tunes in them. So Gez, if you happen to read this, be extremely ashamed of yourself!

Disappointed, cheated and very mad! I considered going to the UK and deal with it personally. Never did though.

Sonic Graffiti took all credit for it. Gez didn't even bother to change sounds, alter melodies or change arrangement. What a blatant lame-a** ripper!

I got my 64 in -85 and was instantly intrigued by the SID. My first games were Exploding Fist, which as you all know has a superb soundtrack, and Jet Set Willy, which has a rendition of the Moonlight sonata by Beethoven, and that also fascinated me. At that time I played church organ (yep, the huge stuff with loads of pipes!) and I was very in to classical music. I bought a music program that was pretty good I thought, but then I discovered the warez scene (thanks to my chemistry teacher in 8th grade!) and first got hold of the Future Composer editor, and then then soede-soft editor. After a while my good friend and supreme scener Fredrik Hederstierna (Zizyphus of Oneway) started coding what later became the 6581 editor, which I have been working on since then. The SID was a chance for me to compose without having to invest thousands of bucks in studio equipment.

It nice and funky with a lot of inspiration from Tower of Power, and there's way too little demo music covered.

I think I'm doing one of my own tunes 😊 But I have not decided on which one yet.

Bruce Lee - coz it got kickin lo fi sounds and simple but effective melody. Seriously, I'm quite satisfied with what I've done, and I don't wish that it would have been any different!

Mayby that I should have been more active spreading my music. But I'm working on converting all of my unreleased tunes (100 ) to make them available on HVSC.

Considering I was attending school at that time, yes, but making a living out of it…no.

Wait and see 😃

Probably not. The tunes rely on freaks like us. Most people hate it! But you could always take a theme and add lyrics and do a real production and I'm sure it could generate something commercially usable. The SID is a strong and unique source of sound for commercial productions, which is proved by such excellent products as the Hardsid and Sidstation.

Dark chocolate (yeah, the really bitter type!)

I used to play church organ and I still listen to some early 20th century composers like Charles Marie Widor and Louis Vierne… ohhh I listen to so many different types of music…. Dj Krush (abstract hiphop) Dj Shadow (triphop kindof) Drum n Bass, John Coltrane, RnB, p-funk, Acid Jazz, Aphex twin, Bossa Nova, nice filter house, hard techno, Electro, Slick 80's soul, disco, Radiohead, Meshuggah, Unkle…and on and on

C64 scene: I returned to the scene by going to the X98 party which was awesome, and now I will try to attend a party at least 1-2 times a year. I'm fortunate to live in the same city as th Floppy-parties are arranged (great party, dudes!)

C64 remix scene: It's cool to see that the intrest in c64 music is so big! I just hope that the composers will cover more demo music, and not do a zillion Delta remixes.