My computer got infected recently. I could save my music projects but before I had the time to wipe the harddrive and reinstall everything, the entire laptop was stolen (I do all my music on my laptop).

So, now I haven't done any new music in months - which is sorta draining me. I gotta get me a new computer and get started on all these musical ideas that are circling around in my head.

Anyway, the British gaming website Reaction Time has a new section called VGMonday where they list the best videogame music soundtracks - and right out of the gate it's the BCR soundtrack!

I realize that the BCR soundtrack is becoming my magnum opus - but I gotta at least try to show the world that I can do other things than just remix Gondamin's Bionic Commando tracks... ;-)

I think the BCR2 soundtrack was overlooked, I really do. I worked my ass off to compose new melodies that would be on par with the awesome, catchy melodies of the old game.

In the end I might have proven that I don't have the melody writing skills to match Yunko Tamiya, but I also think it's a proof of how much the nostalgia of the listeners played into the popularity of the BCR soundtrack. Also, the soundtrack wasn't released for download or even used in the trailers for the game.

Anyway, what I want to say is I think fans of retro style electronica have a whole bunch of overlooked gems to discover amongst the BCR2 tracks! Previosly, the BCR2 tracks available on YouTube were very few and if you wanted to find certain tracks from later in the game you'd have to listen to ten minute rips of the entire music sound bank where all intros and loops were all junbled up.

Now, a broader selection of tracks have started popping - so while there still is no official release of the BCR2 soundtrack (contact Capcom if you want one), you can at least find most of the tracks on YouTube. Here is a selection:

Main menu theme

Prolog theme

Papagayan anthem

Fascility theme

Jungle theme (I call this one "Flutes of Ektanadu")

Mountain theme (this C64 oozing original track is my personal favorite)

Mini boss theme

Boss theme

Final boss theme

Thanks to YouTube users RickDanto, RarelyHardcoreGamer and jordak92 for ripping and putting this stuff up.

GamesRadar had an article two days ago that listed twelve videogame soundtracks available in iTunes that you "cannot afford to be without". I'm very honored that the Bionic Commando Rearmed made the list!

In the motivation for Bionic Commando Rearmed making the list, article author David Houghton says that the remake is "pitch-perfect" (something I also take some credit for) and that its music is "fun, imaginative" and "pulse-poundingly exciting".

Today is my birthday, and if you remember I put up a new track on my birtday last year - so I think I'd put up one this year too.

This is a crazy experiment... I was aiming to do a David Guetta style house track with some semi repetitive vocals, but it's frickin' difficult to stray away from that distorte 8-bit sound of mine - so the track became something of an exciting crossover. Anyway - for anyone who's been wondering - this is what it sounds like if Simon Viklund tries to do a David Guetta radio hit:

I recently did an interview with Swedish national radio (SR), and it aired this past Friday. All SR programs are put up on the internet so anyone who speaks Swedish can go to SR's website and liste to it - I talk a little about working as a video game music composer and how that is different from composing to other media.

The interview - in both audio and text  can be found here.

At the very end of the audio interview you get to hear some music from "Payday: The Heist", and I think it's the first time music from the game appears in media outside of video captures of gameplay - so that's a treat that anyone can enjoy whether they speak Swedish or not!

Anyone who has seen the movie Heat will hear resemblance to the music heard in the famous bank robbery scene - and yes, you guessed right: This is the music for the bank robbery heist in Payday.

The website Square Enix Music Online recently contacted me and wanted to do an interview with me. I tried by best to disregard of the issue I had with the fact that the site has taken its name from the corporation that brought my former company down (ok, that was a joke - but I leave it up to you to figure out what part of the sentence was the joke) and agreed to answer their questions.

The guy doing the interview, Chris Greening, sent over his questions and I was very impressed with how in-depth they were and how they projected such a genuine interest in me and my projects. As always I set quite a lot of time aside to answer the questions thoroughly and in my eyes it became a very good piece ...If you're interested in Simon Viklund and prepared to plow through an ocean of text, that is.

Anyway, the interview can be read right here.

Aftonbladet is a Swedish newspaper, and they have a videogame section called "Spela" (the word means "Play" in Swedish). They recently did an interview with me and Adam Tensta regarding our involvement in Street Fighter III 3rd Strike: Online Edition, which is now up and can be read right here.

It's come to my attention that not everyone is entirely happy with my SF3 remixes - but I won't defend the creative liberties I took in reinterpreting the songs. After all, everyone is entitled to their opinion.

However, I do want to bring out a specific email that I received a while back - so full of emotion that there was no room for punctuation. You can read the email below, and my response below it in the green box - sent through iTunes.

I hope my gift finds Mr. "Urien" well and I trust that I can now count him as a fully satisfied fighting game customer. Spread love, not hate.

I'm not saying this because my music is in the game, but because I think game projects as ambitious as this deserve to do well: Get Street Fighter III 3rd Strike: Online Edition!

Use your power as a consumer (your money, that is) to tell Capcom and other companies that if they put as much effort into a remake (or any production for that matter) as they have done with SFIII3rdS:OE, you embrace it.

Apart from the remixed soundtrack done by yours truly you get high-quality visual filters, tons of challenges and unlockable content, great training modes, GGPO online functionality, YouTube sharing and more!

Show your support and let ambitious game development prevail - get the game for only $15 on PSN and XBLA right away!

Last week I did an interview with Level 3, a weekly television show/website based in Melbourne, Austrailia. With the little free time I currently have in my schedule these days all we could do was a text interview for their website, so we did. I talk about how little I actually play fighting games, the remix process as well as other topics. You can read it right here.

I was at GamesCom in Cologne, Germany last week, showcasing Payday: The Heist to the media. PlayStation blog did a video interview with me where I talk about some of the many fine points of Payday.

On Friday, my colleague Ulf Andersson and Beefy Media's Adam Boyes attended Joystiq's "GamesCom 2011 day 3" podcast. We had a fun and interesting discussion about Grin, our new projects and the business in general!

Finally, G4TV has put up a short video interview I did when I was over in LA a month ago, and you can look at that one right here.

In other news, I'm working hard on the music for Payday - hopefully I can put up some sample clips on the site pretty soon!

Damn, that's a long title - even abbreviated it's super long! I'm talking about Street Fighter III 3rd Strike: Online Edition of course!

I just wanted to drop by my blog and wipe off the cobwebs in here (I know, I know, but development of Payday: The Heist is taking all my time) and post some news: A new trailer has been released for SFIII3rdS:OE - edited to my music - and you can look at it (and listen to it) RIGHT HERE!

In other news, there's a new trailer for Payday: The Heist out (and no, I did not make the highspeed ska-punk music used in that trailer). Also, there's an interview with me up on the official PlayStation blog, where I give some thorough descriptions of what makes Payday: The Heist tick as well as it does (because believe me, this game is ticking!)

Now, I gotta get back to work... ;-)

Those who follow me on Twitter will know that I recently inherited a banjo from my late grandpa'. I now have the means to make a great interpretaion of the music from Gun.Smoke (NES)! I don't know about you, but I've always interpreted the instrument that starts off that song as a banjo...

I haven't had much time to work on my remix/interpretation, and I don't know when I'll get the opportunity to continue working on it, but I have the first few seconds at sketch quality. It's total Ennio Morricone style, complete with a rhythmical whip lash! Let me know if you like it!

We got a Twitter account for Overkill (which several people on the team is "tweeting" through) so I figured I'd get a Twitter account for my solo projects as well. So after launching this blog, the YouTube channel, the Facebook page and Twitter, I guess there's only MySpace left? Or do I need to be on Soundcloud as well!? One thing at a time now, I'm not good at multitasking...

...and to those who were sent to this blog post from my Twitter account, you just got caught in an endless loop! Moh-huh-hah-haa!

Last week at E3, when we were showing our new game "Payday: The Heist", a team from Funny or Die (Will Ferrell's comedy website) came by our booth and wanted to use our game to film a sketch. I was asked to play a part and here's the result (I appear 49 seconds in).

Trivia: This guy really couldn't play games if his life depended on it, he's a comedian who - as far as I could tell - has no gaming interest whatsoever. With that in mind, I think this sketch becomes even funnier!

The first verse

As I stare at myself in the mirror, and the noises around me fade
No fear for my health, never give up though the voices around me say:
"It's a long shot, it'll never happen - don't put you money on that" as they're laughin'
I know I'm up against the best but we fightin' in the streets - left right, right left
This is what I live for right here - you think I'm gon' fold cause the lights glare?
Like I don't know what this life is? Well think again cause I won't no hype is
Ever what they paint it up to be, and the underdog is evidently
The one who got more to win - I'ma make you taste the ground; here's my Hadouken!

The chorus

You know what they say: "The Third Strike is what counts"
And you can get it too - don't think that l can't knock you out
Out, out knock knock you out
Out, knock knock knock you out
Out, out knock knock knock you out
Don't think that l can't knock you out

The second verse (which is omitted from the trailer)

I've been waiting for this moment, this is what I spilled my blood for
Always being up early mornings - every day, even when I wasn't up for it
So you see you don't need to believe - either way, you are all enemies
As I travel 'round the globe and go against you - that's my fighting code
Now you know what my intentions are, and you that I came from afar
But have you studied my style? Caue I've studied yours and I know who you are
And I know you all weaknesses - in the eye of a needle it's
Exactly what i came to do: I ain't leavin' till I beat you, I ain't here to lose

Trivia: Adam first wrote the end of the second verse like "I ain't leavin' till I beat you, here's my Sonic Boom", but then Capcom informed us that Guile (the SF character who has the Sonic Boom as his sort of signature move)  wasn't in the game. Adam then changed the final phrase to "I ain't here to lose".

Today, I can reveal that I'm the man behind the remixed soundtrack of Capcom's "Street Fighter III Third Strike Online Edition". In short, the soundtrack of the original game from 1997 has received the "BCR treatment".

For two of the tracks that required vocals, I contacted fellow Swede and ace rapper Adam Tensta who busted out some mad rhymes. For those who aren't familiar with Adam's music, he raps to electro influenced techno beats - so his vocals fit my music like a hand in a glove.

Here's the game's awesome trailer, edited to Adam's and my original main theme to the game, "Third Strike 2011":

Disclaimer: I haven't made the music that is used in the trailer. I am making the music that will be used in the game.

Hi everybody! So, today I can reveal what company I'm involved with since 20 months back, and what game we've been working on!

Together with seven other dudes from GRiN, I have founded a company we call OVERKILL. Amongst us we have Bo and Ulf Andersson, who founded GRiN, and a bunch of other very talented individuals. As a part of the company's core team I serve as both sound designer, music composer and creative director (alongside Ulf).

It's very exciting and alternating - lately I've been working with difficulty balances, as well as mixing reload sounds for a revolver and also directong voice actors. I get to do a lot of different stuff and I love it!

This is the website of OVERKILL.

Since we started out, we haven't wasted any energy on self promotion - we thought it was way cooler to keep our existance secret until we actually had something to show. So here is an exclusive IGN preview of our game; "PAYDAY: The Heist".

Visitors of next week's E3 will be able to try the game out in SONY Online's booth. Swing by, play the game and chat with me if you have the opportunity!

This is the official website of PAYDAY: The Heist. Check it all out!

This is looong overdue. I had been meaning to release a new song to celebrate having reached 100 subscribers on my YouTube channel - now I already have almost 200 subscribers. I just noticed though, that I have just above 100 "likes" on my Facebook page, so let's say that's what we're celebrating here.

This track is called "Hold on Tight", and it's still a work in progress - but you can download mp3 anyway (click the download icon on the right).