We Chat With Magnus Pålsson

by Menashe

Introduction

The dynamic duo, Terry Cavanagh and Magnus Pålsson, worked together to create the indie sweetheart, VVVVVV, which arrived on the 3DS eShop earlier this year. Terry heard some of Magnus\’ work on a friend’s indie game, called Space Phallus, and reached out to him to come on board with VVVVVV. Magnus checked out VVVVVV while it was in the early development stages and was rightly impressed. He joined the project and began to think of how such a game would manifest itself in music. He composed two tracks (Pushing Onwards and Positive Force- arguably, the two most popular tracks in the game) and gave them to Terry. Terry thought the tunes were incredibly motivating and spent countless hours listening to them while constructing subsequent parts of the game. So, in a way, the creation of VVVVVV was a cycle of inspiration from developer to composer and then from composer back to developer.

When I downloaded VVVVVV on my 3DS, it was love at first sight… and sound. Yes, the soundtrack stood out to me in a way I hadn\’t heard in many years in gaming. As gaming’s soundtracks get bigger and more expensive, the charming sound of the midi and chiptunes of yesteryear gets forgotten. So, to me the music of VVVVVV was like a love letter to years gone by, to an era no longer in our reach. It was because of this I felt drawn to contact Magnus and ask him for a chat. I\’m very grateful to him for agreeing to this interview.

We recommend having this play in the background while you read. It will increase your enjoyment tenfold.

Inspirations

NE: What are you up to these days?

MP: I make music, travel to fun places, prepare myself to make games, educate myself, exercise, talk to friends, make new friends, love and live. I guess… the works!

NE: How did you get started composing music for video games?

MP: I think Garden Gnome Carnage was the first one I scored. It was fun to put my own thing into a game as wacky as GGC. I tend to like those weird small games that are really fun.

NE: I noticed your music in VVVVVV reminds me a lot of the upbeat energy in the soundtracks of Mega Man and Castlevania games. Where do the inspirations for your music come from?

MP: Mega Man is definitely an inspiration. But also my youth with Amiga games did a lot for my style, and pop/rock music. I am influenced by pretty much everything I hear, but try to weed out the bad stuff when I compose myself.

NE: Has there been any recent video game music that you\’ve enjoyed?

MP: Trine springs to mind. Very fitting, pretty, and well-composed music.

NE: Which composers have gained your admiration and respect the most in the video game industry?

MP: To be honest I don\’t listen all that much to contemporary music in games as I haven\’t got that much time to play games anymore, but I remember Chris Huelsbeck from way back, and he’s still active. I\’m quite impressed with a lot of his old stuff still from C64 and Amiga days, they are so melodic and cool that I prefer those bleeps and bloops to modern day pieces. There’s a bunch of oldschool heroes to pick, I\’ll just name a few more: Martin Galway, Rob Hubbard, Jonathan Dunn and David Whitaker.

NE: If you could collaborate with one other famous composer on a game, who would it be?

MP: The answer to that question changes as often as I change underwear. Today, my pick is… the group Anamanaguchi. We could complement each other beautifully.

About Magnus

NE: Outside of video games, what type of music do you like listening to? Any particular band or artist you\’re fond of?

MP: Right now, I\’m into classical J.S Bach, and contemplative slow music to relax to. This recent turn of events hasn\’t had any impact on my output yet though. My mp3 player is filled to the brink with audio. Peter Paul and Mary was the latest enjoyment of mine. That’s right – 60’s psychedelica!

NE: What do you think of Justin Bieber? 😉

MP: I told my friend I thought he was outstanding. My friend then punched me in the face. He didn\’t realize I meant it literally – that Justin \”stands out\”. Standing out is important for any artist. Good for Justin! Go Bieber! … Oh, you meant his music? No? Him? Well, I still think he’s outstanding. Please don\’t misunderstand me.

NE: I\’ve heard you appreciate anime. What series or movies in specific have caught your fancy in the past?

MP: Well, that phase has passed. I was introduced to the genre with Naruto many years ago, and then watched Hajime no Ippo, The Prince of Tennis and One Piece. Once I kind of saw that they were all themed very similar I moved on to reality instead. Some of these have MANY episodes and getting into one can be quite the timesink.

NE: What video games did you grow up playing?

MP: Commando, Ghosts \’n\’ Goblins, X-out, R-type, Gradius, Wizball, Giana Sisters, Delta, Punch-Out, Excite Bike, Zelda 2, Street Fighter 2, Red Alert, Starcraft, Counter-strike…. The list goes on and on.

NE: Do you still consider yourself a gamer?

MP: Yeah, but semi-retired. I know and appreciate games, but I don\’t go full-force at it like I used to.

NE: What’s your favorite movie?

MP: The Matrix. It’s story and message is quite fascinating from a philosophical point of view, plus it’s got some great visuals to boot.

Magnus\’ Music

NE: When you compose a new track for the first time, how do you do it? What does that creative process look like?

MP: Placeholder beat, bassline, chords, melody, more melody, add a little melody, then polish until it sounds like better than my internal brain audio thought it would when I started.

NE: What hardware/software do you use?

MP: Madtracker 2 is my software of choice this far. It’s old, abandoned, full of bugs, and I love it. My hardware is a normal PC, and nothing else. I compose on a typing-keyboard.

NE: Which individual track of yours are you most proud of?

MP: Piercing the Sky. I spent way too much time polishing that one.

NE: What projects are you working on for the future? Any surprises you can hint at for us?

MP: I\’m going to see if I can get a string quartet financed by a Kickstarter to record my VVVVVV music. If that thing works really well and I get enough cash for it, I\’ll hire an entire orchestra to do it instead.

Game wise, I\’ve got a few things going but I can\’t talk too much about them. If the guys behind Mega Man 2.5D gets that game finished, I\’ll provide them with music for it.

NE: Is there the possibility that you might join up with Terry Cavanagh again in the future?

MP: Terry and I have no plans made as of this moment, though \”yes\” is the answer to the question, hypothetically speaking.

NE: The soundtrack for the game VVVVVV is called PPPPPP. Besides for sharing the \”six consonants\” theme with the game itself, can you explain to us your reason for calling it such?

MP: Terry made me do it! AND… Well, that’s actually a secret that I divulge in the extras file that comes when you buy PPPPPP from my page. But ah, guts are meant to be spilled… PPPPPP stands for some things that can be good to have in life: Persistence, Power, Positivity, Passion, Potential and Purpose. Then of course every track except the bonus track starts with the letter P. And it went well with VVVVVV, like you said.

Magnus\’ Beliefs

NE: These days, the soundtrack for a game is usually one of the later steps in the development. The music is usually created as an appropriate accompaniment to a nearly-completed game. Do you think music should be take into account earlier in the development stage? Is there a benefit from the game designers having the music to be inspired by earlier on in the creation of the game?

MP: First off, I\’ll have to acknowledge that this is the current state of affairs, for good reason. It just doesn\’t make monetary sense to keep a musician on for the full production cycle of a game – if the music takes less time to make.

That given, I think that creating new music and adding it on to a game after-the-fact has drawbacks that become evident only after the music’s been delivered. The proposed artist then can\’t be rejected any more, and if he’s not on board with whatever the feel of the game is then he might make music that doesn\’t contain his own soul in it. That makes for worse music.

The game devs also miss out on being inspired by the music during the development of the game. This is a synergy often glossed over in a world that’s set on \”producing, delivering and selling\”. To me, songs that sound like they don\’t have any personality is oftentimes a product of this. But end-users are smart. They can feel it in their bones when something is made from your heart and not.

NE: Do you think the industry takes the music in video games seriously enough? Are they lagging behind in any way?

MP: The contacts I\’ve had with developers have been all positive. No complaints here.

NE: How integral do you feel the music is to a video game overall?

MP: When I think back to the games I played in my youth, I typically remember those the best that had good music. If they didn\’t there had to be another emotional kick to them – something many games today lack. The music can make or break a game. Getting things \”right\” in the audio department is crucial to any project.

NE: The music you created for VVVVVV is very hummable. A lot of video game music these days are not very hummable at all. Is that something you consider important?

MP: To me, if I don\’t want to hum it myself, I won\’t write it. There’s no point if I don\’t enjoy it myself. I want to write music I think is missing in the world – music that I think obviously needs to be there, but nobody took the time to make.

NE: How should an aspiring musician break into the video game industry?

MP: Make awesome music from your heart, and when you got some communication with game devs who love your stuff (via some forums, emails, etc), then you start charging a little bit of cash. It’s not a sin to charge money if you want to make a living doing it – in fact, you have to! Big surprise, huh? 🙂

NE: The mainstream video game industry VS indie games industry: How do you feel about these two?

MP: I like the indie scene because I have a lot of friends there and they can make really weird stuff. Mainstream industry tends to be more risk-aware and like safe franchises. Therefore, the revolutionary thinking is oftentimes made by the small guys. Money is a big factor. If a game creator have an investor or publisher who wants to meddle in your affairs in return for their money, you might have to make concessions on the game. In short, the more people involved in a game, the more likely it is to have its core message diluted into a gray mass instead of a razor-sharp black and white message. And when a player is greeted with a message that has been worked over too much to fit with the public for instance, or work over by too many people who are trying to push the game in different reactions, the player reacts negatively and distrusts or ignores the message. VVVVVV is independently made, and its message is clear: HAVE FUN! 😀

NE: What has gaming lost since the retro years?

MP: Good question. I\’ll compare VVVVVV with some stuff I\’ve thought about for a while… I believe that \”fun\” is an experience of the user, which is way different than, let’s say, something APPEARING to be fun, like a not-so-fun game that LOOKS very fun, SOUNDS really good, but is actually draining on the user’s time and has them \”work\”. All games that have a \”grinding\” element are like this. In VVVVVV, the strength of the gameplay itself is the fun: every screen is a challenge, and you don\’t have to grind a lot just to be able to take on the challenge – if you already have learned how to do it. The distinction is just that: do you have to do \”work\” in order to play the game properly? The overworld in VVVVVV can be challenged on this, but that has an exploration element and you only have to explore it ONCE before you can just traverse it, which is done fairly quickly. Besides, exploring is a big part of the fun! Finding out possibilities, searching out hidden treasure or trinkets, or just coming across something weird, like the sad colorful (and possibly epileptic) elephant. Gameplay is king. If the object of the game is originally to have fun playing, and then that was scrapped in order to have you spend more time playing and thus in the long run generate more money for the developer, I would in each instance carefully consider whether developer integrity is lost as well.

As creativity of the creators goes down (or gets dumbed down to fit a larger crowd). VVVVVV introduces new mechanics on every level. First you are taught the mechanic of flipping. Then you\’re shows bad guys to avoid. Then comes the screen wraps. Then the Gravity lines. Then comes a bonus level. Then a subgame. Then warp tokens. In short, new ways of interacting with the world are discovered constantly, which has the players brain be activated and enjoying itself. This function of the brain will NEVER care about the latest graphics card by nVidia, or whether the music in a game is played with 4 channels of sounds or 400. It will care about variety, evolution and harmony. Things that don\’t move the player mentally are boring and uninteresting after a while.

Not all is lost, there are still good games being made that incorporate the above mentioned holy-grail tips! And there’s already been made so many good games that you couldn\’t play them all even if you tried to. So it’s as important to ask \”What has gaming gained?\” as well… But this ramble has gone on long enough! 🙂

NE: Thanks for taking the time to answer these questions!

MP: Much obliged, please visit my page www.souleye.se