NAME: MARK KNIGHT
AGE: 47
LOCATION: WARWICKSHIRE, UK
I WAS AN IMPRESSIONABLE 11 YEAR OLD, IN 1984, WHEN I FIRST LAID MY HANDS ON A COMMODORE 64 HOME COMPUTERBUT IT WAS ABOUT A YEAR LATER WHEN IT REALLY CHANGED MY LIFE WHEN I BOUGHT A COPY OF THE VIDEO GAME, COMMANDO.
ALTHOUGH THERE WERE A COUPLE OF GAMES I OWNED WHICH MADE ME TAKE NOTICE OF THE SOUND PRODUCED BY THE C64, COMMANDO, COMPOSED BY MY CHILDHOOD HERO ROB HUBBARD, MARKS WHEN I TRUELY ‘MET’ SID.
I WAS AWE STRUCK WHEN I HEARD THE MUSIC TO THIS GAME, AND IT WASN’T LONG AFTERWARDS WHEN I STARTED SEEKING OUT MUSIC PROGRAMS TO ALLOW ME TO GET ‘THAT’ SOUND. SADLY, NOT HAVING A PROGRAMMERS HEAD, I FELT MOST COMFORTABLE WITH A PROGRAM CALLED ELECTROSOUND WHICH WASN’T CAPABLE OF REPRODUCING THE SORTS OF SOUNDS I WAS HEARING IN THE GAMES I WAS BUYING.
FAST FORWARD 5 YEARS, AND THE TRUSTY C64 WAS REPLACED WITH A COMMODORE AMIGA, AND AGAIN VARIOUS DEMOS I WAS HEARING AMAZED ME WITH NOT ONLY THE SOUND QUALITY, BUT THE MUSICIANSHIP BEHIND THE COMPOSITIONS.
I QUICKLY FOUND SOUNDTRACKER AND STARTED WRITING MY OWN TUNES, USING WHATEVER SAMPLES I COULD GET HOLD OF AND AFTER THE USUAL LEARNING PROCESS. DEMO COMPOSER WARLOCK WAS BORN, JOINING LOCAL BRIGHTON DEMO CREW THE HACKING RELATION (THR). ADMITTEDLY, THE QUALITY OF COMPOSITION WASN’T THAT GREAT AND IN REALITY I WAS STILL YEARNING FOR THE SOUND OF THE C64, BUT ON THE AMIGA. I GOT BORED QUITE QUICKLY WITH THE NAME WARLOCK AND CHANGED TO TDK. I WAS A FAN OF THE TDK CASSETTE TAPE AND TDK STOOD FOR THE DARK KNIGHT WHICH RHYMED WITH MARK KNIGHT, ALL GOOD THERE THEN.
MY BEDROOM IN 1990 (sorry mum)
HAVING HEARD 4MAT’S GROUND-BREAKING TECHNIQUES TO GET CHIP TUNES OUT OF THE AMIGA, I STARTED PLAYING AROUND WITH THE SAME IDEAS AND EVENTUALLY STARTED WRITING MUSIC IN THE SAME CHIP STYLE. AS I LEARNED THE SOFTWARE, MATURED AS A PERSON, THE QUALITY IMPROVED AND I JOINED ONE OF THE MORE FAMOUS DEMO CREWS, OR SHOULD I SAY HACKING CREWS - ANTHROX, AND RELEASED TUNES FOR SEVERAL CRACKTROS (THE 90’S EQUIVALENT OF KEYGENS) PLUS 2 MUSIC DISKS, SPLOOSH AND SPLOOSH 1 ˝ WHICH CONTAINED MORE OF MY “FULL RANGE” AMIGA TUNES.
THE PHRASE, FLIT KILLS MOTHS, CAME ABOUT FROM WATCHING HISTORICAL TELEVISION ADVERTS AT SCHOOL. MY IMMATURE MIND SIMPLY LIKED THE WORD FLIT!
IT WAS WHEN I JOINED MELON DEZIGN (ALTHOUGH I NEVER REALLY LEFT ANTHROX) THAT I WROTE MOST OF MY ‘MEMORABLE’ CHIP TUNES WHICH BECAME RATHER POPULAR IN THE DEMO SCENE. HOWEVER, I SOON SECURED A FULL TIME JOB AS A GAMES COMPOSER, HAVING CONVERTED THE ORIGINAL PC SCORE TO WING COMMANDER ON TO THE AMIGA FORMAT, AND IT WASN'T LONG BEFORE I FOUND THAT I DIDN'T WANT TO WRITE MUSIC IN MY SPARE TIME, WHEN I WAS DOING IT DURING THE DAY AS WELL, AND SO TOWARDS THE END OF 1993 I RETIRED TDK FROM THE SCENE, AND FROM DEMO MUSIC COMPOSITION.
THAT WASN'T A BAD MOVE AS DURING THAT TIME I WROTE SOME RATHER SUCCESSFUL SOUNDTRACKS TO GAMES SUCH AS CAPTIVE 2: LIBERATION, WARHAMMER:DARK OMEN, DUKE NUKEM: TOTAL MELTDOWN, POPULOUS: THE BEGINNING, AND DUNGEON KEEPER 2.
THE BEDROOM IN 1997
RECENTLY I FOUND THAT ONE OF MY TRACKS, CHUBBY CHUBBY CHIP CHIP, HAD BECOME A CULT SONG WITHIN THE YOUTUBE POOP MUSIC VIDEO SCENE (YTPMV). THE TRACK WAS CREDITED TO THE WRONG PERSON (MARK ALLEN KNIGHT), AND CALLED THE WRONG NAME (CHUBBY CHIP CHIP), SO IT WAS BY ACCIDENT THAT I FOUND THIS. SO FAR OVER 85 VIDEOS HAVE BEEN CREATED USING THIS CATCHY TUNE, AND MOST MAKE ME LAUGH A LOT WHEN I SEE THEM!
SO 19 YEARS LATER THAT LOVE FOR THE SID (OR C64 SOUND) HAD NOT GONE. DURING THIS TIME I’D WRITTEN A HECK OF A LOT OF MUSIC - SCORED A NUMBER OF WELL-KNOWN GAMES, PLUS A LOAD OF PERSONAL WORK WHICH HAS NEVER BEEN RELEASED (YET!)… BUT…. I STILL HAD THIS DEEP DOWN DESIRE TO GET BACK IN TO THE SOUND WHICH SPARKED IT OFF ALL THOSE YEARS AGO.
THE MUSIC ROOM IN 2012
AS WELL AS THE CHIPTUNES, I'VE BEEN WORKING IN THE VIDEO GAMES INDUSTRY FOR OVER 20 YEARS. CHECK OUT MY GAMESOUNDS WEBSITE FOR MORE INFORMATION.
TDK IS REAWAKENED, OLDER, WISER AND HOPEFULLY, BETTER.
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