Mark Knight (musician)

Mark Alan Knight (born 8 January 1973), also known as TDK and Madfiddler, is a British musician, video game music composer and sound designer. He started out writing chiptune and module file music in the Amiga Demoscene,[1] and began his games industry career as a composer in 1992 . He continued until 2000 when he moved to sound design, and since 2014 has a split role as a sound designer and composer.

Mark Knight
Birth nameMark Alan Knight
Also known as
  • TDK
  • Madfiddler
Born (1973-01-08) 8 January 1973
Brighton, East Sussex, England
Genres
Occupation(s)
  • Composer
  • musician
  • sound designer
Instruments
Years active1989–present
Associated acts
  • Bleeding Hearts
  • Blue Horses
  • K-Passa
  • Tricks Upon Travellers
Website

Biography

Born in Brighton, East Sussex in England on 8 January 1973, his grandfather started teaching him the violin when he was 6. At 10 years old he was given a Commodore 64 home computer and took an interest in electronic music. Whilst studying in college he began writing music on the Amiga, releasing music within the demoscene. Having been refused a university place to study Music Production in 1992, he was given the opportunity to arrange the Wing Commander soundtrack to the Commodore Amiga home computer which led him to full-time employment with the developer, Mindscape.

Having left Mindscape in 1997, Knight wrote the soundtrack for Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown before accepting a position at Bullfrog Productions, a development company owned by Electronic Arts, working on games such as Dungeon Keeper 2, Populous: The Beginning and Theme Park World – which won a BAFTA for Best Sound.[2]

In 2000, Mark changed career direction and lead the sound design team on the EA Sports F1 series, stating that "If truth be told however, it was a simple choice of either F1 or Harry Potter".[3] He left EA in 2003, and after spending time at Visual Science he joined Codemasters in 2007 working on their DiRT, F1 and GRID franchises.

Knight has performed on the electric violin with the folk punk band Tricks Upon Travellers (1994–2000), K-Passa (2000–2001, 2008–present), Blue Horses (2002–2003), 4-4-2 (2004), Laura Kenny (2006), Silver Dogs (2006–2007), Bleeding Hearts (2009–2011) and has worked as a session musician for bands such as Pepe Deluxé,[4] The Divine Comedy,[5] C64 Audio.com, and Frost*. He also administers the Fiddle and Alternative Strings Forum.

In 2012 Knight released his first TDK chiptune album, and continues to compose music in this style.

In 2015 Knight announced his return to video game composition with F1 2015. and in January 2016 was nominated for Best Western Game Composer, 2015, at the Annual Game Music Awards.[6]

Knight resigned from Codemasters, the day F1 2017 launched and is now running his Audio Production company, SONiC FUEL, full time.

Personal life

Knight lives in Warwickshire, England.

Discography

Video games

Music Releases
  • Cyberspeed Unleashed (2011)
  • FortressCraft Credits (2011)
  • Reawakening (2012)
  • D/Generation HD (2015)
  • Project Hubbard: Escape to New Rob (2019)
  • ME! (2019)

Violin Sessions
  • 4-4-2 – Come on England
  • Bjorne Lynne – The Gods Awaken
  • C64Audio – Back in Time 3
  • Frost* – The Dividing Line
  • Frost* – Falling Satellites
  • James J Turner – How Could We Be Wrong?
  • Ian Livingstone – Big Fat Gypsy Weddings
  • K-Passa – Born Again
  • Pepe Deluxe – Beatitude
  • Press Play on Tape – Home Computer
  • SilverDogs – SilverDogs
  • The Divine Comedy – Casanova
  • The Giallos Flame – House at the Edge of the Dark
  • This Morning Call – Deserted
  • Tomorrows Ancestor – Live at Stainsby
  • Tricks Upon Travellers – The Last Fish Supper
  • Tricks Upon Travellers – Where the Skeletons Dance
  • Tricks Upon Travellers – Acoustic Live and Uncut

References
  1. "List of TDK Amiga tracker modules".
  2. "Bafta Interactive Sound Winner in 2000". 2000.
  3. Nichol, David (21 June 2012). "An interview with Mark Knight". Track Time Audio. Archived from the original on 11 September 2016. Retrieved 22 September 2014.
  4. Beatitude (Media notes). Pepe Deluxé. Catskills Records. 2003. ASIN B0000AM6N8.CS1 maint: others (link)
  5. Casanova (Media notes). The Divine Comedy. Setanta. 2001. ASIN B00003ZACC.CS1 maint: others (link)
  6. "Video Game Music Online, 2015 nominations".
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