Quick Q&A with Chris Huelsbeck at Retromessa 2024

A few words with the videogame musician.

Turrican II
Interview by Håkon Puntervold. Transcribed by Joachim Froholt.

This is a very short Q&A with Chris Huelsbeck, conducted at Retromessa in Sandefjord where he had a stand. It was used in an episode of the Spæll podcast, and we thought it worth transcribing. The interview was conducted by Håkon Puntervold.

Huelsbeck is among other things known for the music to Turrican 2.

First time in Norway?

No, this is my third time in Norway. I’ve been to Bergen twice, there was this event called Back in Time Live that I went to. But it’s my first time here in Sandefjord.

What do you think of the event?

It’s nice! It’s actually comparable with the Amiga events in Germany, which they do every two years or so. It’s cool that there are so many fans out there who are interested in the old machines.

I’m not from the Amiga or Commodore 64 generation, I’m more from the Nintendo and console side. But the music on the Commodore 64, there’s something unique about it. And all the melodies you made are so catchy.

That’s my trademark, catchy melodies, hehe.

So, of all the tunes you’ve made, which one is your favourite?

That’s a difficult one, because every time I finish something I like that. The last project is always the coolest and best. But most people would probably talk about the Turrican series. But I’ve done a few projects since, and there’s a lot of cool stuff there too. You mentioned Giana Sisters earlier, and that has been remade in Twisted Dreams for instance.

Denne grafikkstilen liker jeg!
In recent years, he’s worked on games like Tiny Thor.

And that was together with Machinae Supremacy?

Yeah, because I heard one of their remixes of a song of mine, and I wanted to have them on that project because what they were doing, their interpretation, was kind of cool.

Are you composing music for any new videogames now?

There’s always stuff, in the last two years I’ve done like three-four games, and two or three of are really retro-styled. I just did a Mega Drive project. And the CDs that I have here at the show are from Tiny Thor, a Giana Sisters-like jump & run games with puzzles. Then there’s Interstellar Sentinel, the latest CD I did, which is a side-scrolling game kind of like R-Type, Katakis and those things. And the music is retro inspired so I used SID-sounds in there.

Awesome. Thank you so much for taking the time to chat!

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