Spencer Nilsen

	Alt./Nickname:	Spencer N. Nilsen
	Date of Birth:	~ 1961-1962
	Location:	San Rafael, CA (USA)
	Website:	www.spencernilsen.com
	Picture:	Official Website (recent ~ 2000s)

Biography

Spencer Nilsen had a relatively short, yet memorable career in the gaming industry. He started being involved in professional music writing and playing at age 14, offering his services as a keyboardist in various studios of California. He later went workeing in the concert industry, on the production of live shows for bands like Aerosmith, The Police and U2, among others. Spencer formed a production company, AdVenture Communications, with the lighting director and cinematographer, Bill Holshevnikoff. They worked on various projects ranging from TV shows, commercials and music videos.

In 1989, he released his first music album on American Gramaphone Records, "Architects Of Change". A mixture of various genres, ranging from new age to classical, with some pop/rock and jazz influences. Some years later, Spencer again released music through this record company, contributing 1 track for each of these Chip Davis' album projects: "Party Music That Cooks Vol.1" (1992) and "Party Music That Cooks Vol.2" (1995). The tracks in question are "Good Question" and "Hydra's Laugh", respectively.

In 1992, he joined Sega of America, becoming the head of the music department and recording complex. The timing coincided with the release of the Sega CD system, so he became part of most of Sega's CD projects, up until some early Sega Saturn games. The CD format allowed him to create high-quality music with live instruments, himself playing the synthesizers/piano and other studio musicians (who became regular contributors) adding the guitars (Greg Strong, Erik Frykman), drums/percussions (Brad Kaiser), etc. He often worked with David Young, being a co-composer/producer/keyboardist and also worked with the gamous producer Gary Cirimelli on some occasions, notably for the vocal remix of Ecco 2's "St. Gabriel's Mask". Unlike cartridges, the compact disc also allowed the use of elaborated voices and Spencer took advantage of this, featuring a rock theme song for "The Amazing Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin" by Mr. Big's singer Eric Martin and "Sonic Boom", the main theme for the USA version of "Sonic CD" performed by Pastiche, who also provided background vocals on many other tracks.

Since leaving Sega sometimes during the end of the '90s, Spencer has been busy writing music for TV and films, notably "Crashing Eden" (1999) and "No Return" (2003). The later earned him a Silver Medal at the Park City Film Music Festival. In more recent years, he has become part of the personel at the "Expression College for Digital Arts", being a teacher and the president of the Expression Executive Team.

• He is also a producer, having worked with artists such as Rod Washington Moore and Bygone Dogs.
• In addition to composing music for Sega, Spencer also acted as a producer for other Sega soundtracks including "Wild Woody" and also served as a musician, for example as the organist on "Who's Out There?" from the "Mr. Bones" soundtrack.
• There is a certain controversy around the "Sonic CD" soundtrack because it is different from the original Japanese/European version. In fact, Spencer Nilsen wrote a completely new soundtrack for the USA release. Some fans of the series consider this to be an outrage, prefering the original score by Naofumi Hataya, while others are more into the remade one.
• Have been part of "The Human Harmony Project" (www.hhproject.org), along with Gary Cirimelli.

Games

Albums

Non-VGM

Links

Expression College for Digital Arts