Biography / Trivia

It was with the violin that Mark Knight started out in music. Having received a solid training throughout his youth, he has become a renowned fiddler (or "madfiddler" shall we say!). He plays different types, yet the electric violins have found a special place on his shoulder blade and chin. Through the years, Knight did gigs with multiple bands, including Tricks Upon Travellers, K-Passa, Bluehorses, Silver Dogs, and MoonDance. Having also worked as a session musician and arranger, notably with Bjørn Lynne and Massive Attack, all-things violin is definitely Knight's passion when not busy in the game industry.

This Brighton boy has been employed by various British game companies since the early 90's. The first was Mindscape, at which he arranged music for a couple of Amiga conversions and then got on to create original material for games such as Captive 2: Liberation, Out to Lunch, CyberSpeed, and two Warhammer titles. Five years following his hiring, the development team was shut down and Knight went on freelance. The PlayStation port of Duke Nukem 3D was his next project and consisted of remixing 11 PC tracks and composing 20 original ones.

Soon after, he was hired by Bullfrog and this new position led him to score Populous: The Beginning and Dungeon Keeper 2. EA owning a large part of Bullfrog since 1995, his official employer eventually switched to these famous two letters. For his work on Theme Park World, Knight won a BAFTA award for "Best Sound" in 2000. While being in charge of audio, he took care of this aspect for a few other titles, without actually composing much music, until he left the company in January 2003.

Freelance for a time and keeping busy with non-game music contracts, then Knight joined Visual Science in April 2004. Not two years later, the company closed down and he was back on his own. In April 2006, he got a job back at EA, in a different studio this time. Six months later, bad luck struck once more and the studio shut down. From there, he has been able to get a few contracts for sound/dialog editing and music conversion. Since November 2007, he is working in Codemasters' audio department.

Between his first years at EA and today, no new original or elaborate soundtracks were composed. However, Knight kept entertaining his fans with his music by making available for download on his website a number of compositions in various styles he did for himself.

• Under the alias TDK, Knight has been part of the Amiga demoscene by writing music for groups like Anthrox and Melon deZiGn.
• The 'madfiddler' is a character of its own. When performing live, a purple beret and violin (depending on the model he's using), shades, and eccentric and colorful clothing are his trademark.
• He played live in the C64 cover band Stuck in D'80s (SID80's), alongside personalities such as Ben Daglish, Jon Hare, and Reyn Ouwehand. It should come as no surprise that he was the violinist. Two performances were recorded, namely those at the Brighton Centre (2003) and St. Luke's LSO (2004), and made available on DVD: Back in Time Live.
• As of 2008, Knight is in the process of remixing the music from CyberSpeed to create an MP3 album. A preview sample can be listened to on his site.

Albums (1)