Tim Follin Interview about Video Game Music 2 of 2

[SavySavant]

I never heard of Tim Follin before playing Ecco the Dolphin on the Dreamcast. I remembered his name because that game had the most amazingly immersive music that I really ever heard in game at that point. Its incredibly impressive stuff and it was actually almost the highlight of the game. What I think is interesting about that interview is that he's constantly downplaying his work. Which probably means that he is in fact very good. Hope he doesn't abandon video game music forever..

[SoundwaveRomania]

Lol, how many times does he say 'you know what I mean'?

[TheCookieCinema]

All I want to say is.......PLOK!!!!!!!!

[ThePerky1989]

ahh uncle tim!!!

[thepts]

He sure says "you know what I mean" a lot, you know what I mean?

[scottvska]

@thepts And "sort of"

[nikamota]

" we stole key themes..and then just do your thing with it.."

A very similar way of working to how i used to remix game tunes.

[JohnKricfalusi666]

Wow.He was influenced by prog rock.Good taste.Ah prog! great stuff.Bands like marillion,fish,porcupine tree,king crimson,mostly autumn,pendragon etc.Great stuff.The Equinox music was excellent!

[TheRusskinruss]

@JohnKricfalusi666 Yep just as I thought..Prog rock...Wicked..

[GrandDizzy]

I love Tim's work. He might well be my favourite composer ever.

I sent him an email about 4 years ago telling him how much I loved his Agent X 2 music on the C64. He replied saying he'd actually forgotton he wrote that! I was stunned. It's possibly my favourite piece of his. There are a couple of very good remixes of it out there too.

It's not just nostalgia! I've now heard many pieces of Tims music I'd never heard before, and I love it all, and have some new favourites.

Tim, we love you! :)

[Doommaster1994]

Do you know his e-mail still?

[GrandDizzy]

Afraid I don't have any record of Tim's email any more, but I can tell you I got it off his own website. But that was a while ago; it might not still be up there. (He has some excellent samples of his work on his website.)

[Doommaster1994]

Oh well. Thanks anyway.

[EgoShredder]

@GrandDizzy

Totally brilliant and thoroughlyt enjoyable is how I would describe the Agent X II music! Tim is one of the greats of chip music.

[Plokmegafan92]

plok ost was brilliant

[stripedhyenuh]

This guy's a hero to me. Not only do I love listening to the music he made for older systems, he's also an inspiration. No real musical or computer education, but his work is brilliant nevertheless.

Solstice, Equinox and Plok need more love! All great (though hard) games with superlative music.

[DemioneNDF]

Equinox is by far my favorite from this guy!

[azshaw123]

@stripedhyenuh Please can you tell me who composed the music for ghosts 'n goblins on the commodore 64...Was it Tim follin or Chris butler?

[stripedhyenuh]

@azshaw123

No idea about Goblins sorry.

[bachnerr]

@azshaw123: Mark Cooksey

[azshaw123]

@bachnerr Thank you very much!

[KitFallapart]

Spiderman and the X-Men and Plok are two of my favourite game soundtracks ever!! Man this guy did some awesome work!

[equinoxfan82]

Ah well, at least he remembers the "Solstice" series, have to give him credit for that. It's got such a small fan base, which is probably the reason he doesn't mention it. To me, that is one of the charms the series has!

By the way, I'm sad to say that Tim has stopped composing video game music as of 2006, his final work was Lemmings for the PSP.

[3yE]

Well, he has been dissatisfied with the situation, and understandably so. As the time passes and if another game maker would approach him and offer better work conditions, maybe he wouldn't turn down the offer.

Also, he has had lots of recognition as being one of few unique good chip musicians. Now he is just one of great many composers, and the rules of competition are not so clear any longer.

[dbineb1]

Thanks for posting that. I was hoping he'd mention Solstice! Oh well, glad he's still working.

[Shadax2Glendaal2ND]

Likewise! He didn't mention Solstice OR Equinox!

But you know why that is, don't ya.

Follin's fans are for the most part, Spectrum and C64 fans.

When someone finally did bring up Solstice a while back, he told them he doesn't get any fan feedback on those lesser-known works.

The less it's mentioned, the vaguer it becomes. (So he didn't recollect on it here)

[butanebob1]

Great interview, cheers.