Payday composer Simon Viklund on his tough ‘try and fail’ process

Whether you know Simon Viklund as the composer of the Payday franchise’s emblematic dubstep/EDM/techno soundtracks or as the voice of Bain in the same series, his name is always associated with heavy-hitter action games. He’s known for his work on Bandits: Phoenix Rising, Bionic Commando, Dead by Daylight, and of course, Payday: The Heist and Payday 2.

For Polygon FM — our weeklong look at the way music and gaming interweave with each other — Viklund discusses his early inspirations and why wonky rhythms make good video game music.

Polygon: Was there a game soundtrack or song that inspired you to pursue creating game music? Can you set the scene of what that felt like for you, and why the music was so effective?

Simon Viklund: I was somewhat obsessed with NES music when I was a kid, to the point where I recorded Megaman 1-3 music off the TV to cassette tape so that I could listen to it when I wasn’t playing. The music on the NES was extremely effective because the primitive sound chip forced the composers to arrange economically and rely on great harmonies and melodies. My hot take is that the music in the 16-bit era wasn’t as good because the tech sounded more like actual instruments but not quite — it was like the uncanny valley of sampled instruments — and composers started to over-rely on the tools.

Can you break down one of your own songs and its influences? Was it inspired by game soundtracks, other music, or something else?

I made a track called “Inject” that was written specifically for the name reveal trailer for Den of Wolves, a techno thriller heist co-op game we’re working on at 10 Chambers. We wanted the trailer to leave the viewer with a sense of “oh hell yeah, that’s bad-ass,” and I listened to half-tempo bass music for inspiration.

There’s this track called “Arbiter” by Draeden, which has what I would call a trap-inspired beat, and I’m not really into trap but I loved what Draeden did and drew heavily from that particular track. “Inject” is basically drums and one synth melody, with most of the bass coming from an 808 that goes with the kick drum. In other words, there’s not a lot [of] layers to it, and so each component really has to shine. I spent a lot of time making the kick very punchy, the snare snappy, etc.

Another aspect was my idea to make the music sound sort of “wonky” and not pitch perfect or quantized (i.e. not rhythmically perfect). My idea was that it would help the music become a bit more ear-wormy beacuse it would sort of feel “off.” I spent a lot of time making the groove sloppy timing-wise, and the synths screech and wobble a bit like it wasn’t intentional even though it was. I had a lot of fun exploring new ideas, pushing out of my comfort zone and learning new tricks while making “Inject”!

What are the main instruments used to record the soundtrack for the Payday series? How did you choose those instruments?

Payday has a lot of drum loops and distorted synths, but every once in awhile there’s some real electric guitar and bass in there. When we were creating Payday: The Heist back in 2010-2011, my gut feeling said the choice for the music was between leaning into the game’s Hollywood movie inspiration with cinematic music, or leaning into the “outlaw power fantasy” with something more rock ‘n’ roll. I went with the latter.

Is there anything else we should know about your approach to composing video game music?

It doesn’t come easy for me. It’s hard. I don’t use project templates, although probably I should. Every time I sit down to make another track, it’s a clean slate, and I go “How do you do this again?” There are so many directions a soundtrack or an individual track can go, it’s easy to get choice paralysis. I need time, I need to try and fail, and I need other people on the project to help me through the process — with direction and support through patience. So the process is hard, but I love doing it!