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Interview with Bjorn Lynne (Team 17)

Editor: Andreas Stürmer










What's your full name and where do you live? Please tell us a bit about yourself and your work...

My name is Bjorn Lynne, although I used to call myself "Dr.Awesome" in the Amiga-scene when I was in the Amiga demo-group "Crusaders". I made all the music for the Crusaders demos, megademos and EuroChart. I am originally from Norway, and Crusaders was a Norwegian group. But in 1995 I moved from Norway to England, and I have now lived here in England for more than 6 years. I now work as a musician and sound designer in many different fields, including music for video games as well as my own solo CD albums.

When and on what kind of computer-system did you start composing?

I started a bit with a Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48k (the one with the rubber-keys!). I had a MIDI interface and a drum machine plugged into the Spectrum, and I had a simple synthesizer and used to make some simple songs with that. But a couple of years later, I got an Amiga 500 and then things really took off. The sound ability of this machine was incredible at that time. So I started writing music like crazy. In my most active period on Amiga, I made at least 2 new songs every week! At first I used the program Aegis Sonix, and later I changed to Soundtracker.

What was your first composition and how long did it take you to compose it?

I probably can't remember the very first one. The first composition that I do remember was called "China" and it was made with my simple Casio synth and the ZX Spectrum drum machine (called "SpecDrum", haha!). The song was called "China" because I used only the black keys on the keyboard, and that resulted in a kind of oriental feel in the song!

You were part of the scene-group "The Crusaders". How and when did you get in contact with them?

There were 6 people of us, who started Crusaders. It was done between christmas and new-year 1988. We already had another less known group before that, called "IFF" (International Fart Federation, hehe!). But after we started as "Crusaders" we started to make some better demos and music-disks and we got a lot of contacts in the scene. Then we also started the EuroChart, and made some bigger projects like "megademos".

When - and of course why? - did "The Crusaders" quit their work in the scene?

We were extremely active in the scene for about 5 years, which was a long time for a demo-group. Of course, there are groups who have been active longer than that, but I don't think there are many who were REALLY active (spending many hours every day) for more than 5 years. Crusaders still exists today, but only as a group of friends - not as an active demo-scene group. The reason we gave up in 1993/1994 was that more and more of us were getting real jobs, and we simply didn't have the energy or time to spend so many hours every day on Crusaders stuff. The "EuroChart" was taking a hell of a lot of time and energy. I personally was the main coordinator of the Eurochart (together with my then-best-friend El Cubo), and we spent maybe 4-6 hours every day on the Eurochart on the weekdays... and in the weekends maybe 12-14 hours every day! In the end, we just "burned out". But of course, I didn't stop making music.

You wrote many scores for Amiga-Games like Project-X, Quak or even Alienbreed 3D - all from Team 17. How did you get in contact with them? What was your the first game you made the music for?

The first game I made the music for was an Amiga game called "Brat", and it was not a Team17 game. I made music as a freelancer for various companies in 1991-1995. One of those companies was Team17, when I made the music for them for "Qwak", it was done as a freelancer, and I was paid 300 GBP for the whole job. But in 1995, Team17 wanted a full-time musician, so they asked me. So I quit my job in Norway, sold everything I owned, and moved to England in April 1995. And since then I have lived here, and I still enjoy it. I now have a home and family here in England (although my girlfriend is also Norwegian! The English girls are horrible).

For how long did you work at Team 17?

6 1/2 years so far. I still work there.

You're a professional selfmade-composer too. Albums like "Witchwood" or "Wizards of the Wind" are best selling CDs. When did you start composing and producing music for your own CDs?

My first CD was called "Hobbits & Spaceships" and was released in 1992 together with the other Crusaders musician, Fleshbrain. But that was not a "commercial" release. I borrowed some money (about 2000 GBP) and paid for the pressing etc. myself. My first "commercial" release was in 1995, when I got a deal with the Scottish record label Centaur Discs and released the CD "Dreamstate". That was the first time my CD was in the record-stores, and I was very proud of it. Since then I have released many CD albums on various different record labels.

Where can we get some of your CDs? )

They can be ordrered from my web site www.lynnemusic.com . I take orders both online and offline. There are many different ways to order, and fast shipping all over the world.

Please tell us some of your favourite titles from your CD-Albums...

All the CDs that I have made, have been the result of a lot of creative energy and good times, so it's difficult to pick out favourites. Also, different listeners have different favourites. Many people think that my CD "Witchwood" from 1996 is still my best one. But my most successful one (and my personal favourite) is "The Gods Awaken" which was released in the summer 2001. I think it's my best CD.

Which track of them was the most hard to compose?

On the CD "The Gods Awaken", there is a long track called "Two Kings in Hadinland" and I spent a whole lot of time and effort on it. I worked on that song for about 6 weeks, almost full-time. I deleted big parts of it and replaced them with new parts, many times - until I was exhausted and it was getting almost too much for me. So I was very happy when that track was finally finished. It's more than 14 minutes long, too.

Do you want to compose any songs for an Amiga game in the future? On which games are you working currently?

Of course, if the Amiga game market comes back to life, I want to make music for new Amiga games. Right now I'm working on the game "WormsBlast" which is primarly for PC and PS2 - with possible GameBoy Advance and GameCube versions to follow later.

What's your opinion about the current position of the Amiga?

A few people still hang in there, but unfortunately there are not many people who even remember Amiga now. Most young computer users who grow up now, have never even heard of the Amiga. They were maybe 4 years old when the Amiga market died in 1994/1995....! That's a bit strange to think about.

What do you expect from the upcoming AmigaOne? Any tips you want to give Amiga Inc.?

I think it's going to be very difficult for the AmigaOne to fight it's way into the mainstream mass-market. The best they can hope for is to dig out a niche market and find people who are specially interested. In the mainstream market they would have to fight with Microsoft, which is always going to be a tough battle. But there are still people who hunger for an alternative to Windoze, and these are the people that Amiga Inc should try to aim the new AmigaOne at.

How are our readers able to contact you?

They can email me at lynne@lynnemusic.com (home) or bjorn.lynne@team17.com (work), or they can visit my web site at http://www.lynnemusic.com

Anything you want to tell our reader-community? )

Maybe that on my site I have a sales-list of CDs from all the great Amiga- and demo-scene composers, including Chris Hülsbeck, Lizardking, Moby, Jester/Sanity, Jogeir Liljedahl, Scorpik, Allister Brimble, Dr.Awesome (me), Necros and others. And also CDs with new synthesizer studio recordings of famous Amiga melodies etc. Check out my web site for details.