Lorelei and the Laser Eyes’ Daniel Olsén channeled Twin Peaks’ moody music

polygon.com:

It’s impossible to think of Simogo’s inventive library of games without conjuring the works of composer Daniel Olsén in your mind. From the chilling Year Walk, the hyperpop aesthetic of Sayonara Wild Hearts, or the mysterious Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, this catalog of indie titles take root in our minds in part because of how thematically their soundtracks match the gameplay and environment.

To find out how Olsén thinks about his projects, we reached out to him as part of Polygon FM, our theme week celebrating the intersection of music and games.

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?

Daniel Olsén: There wasn’t just one soundtrack that inspired me. I grew up in the era of 8-bit and 16-bit consoles and Commodore 64 — and like many others I was taken away by the NES classics like Super Mario,Zelda, and Mega Man. I think one of the great things about video game music is that when you step away from a game, the one thing you still have with you is the melodies, chords, and rhythms. I didn’t own my own consoles as a kid, but I would always walk around singing my favorite tunes and that would transport me back to the feeling of the games. I did own a C64 and sometimes I would just start games to hear the music from games like The Last Ninja, Delta, and so on. Actually, sometimes, you just wanted to progress to hear more of the music. Even today, I often try to recreate the feeling I got from many of those soundtracks.

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

In “Interrogation” [from Lorelei], I used the theme from “Woman on the Other Side”, another song from Lorelei and the Laser Eyes. It was also inspired partly by Angelo Badalamenti’s walking baselines and slow jazzy drums in “Audrey’s Dance” from Twin Peaks. This scene in the game