BEHIND THE SCENES
The chiptune maestro
Chipzel – the composer for Super Hexagon, Spectra, and other games – grew up in a house full of music.
“Every Irish family is kind of musically inclined in some way,” says Chipzel (Niamh Houston to her family). “We’d have get-togethers where someone would whip out a guitar, tin whistle and bodhrán and start playing folk songs or a pop hit. It was really a wholesome thing.”
These days, her music has a much different flavour.
For more than 10 years, she’s specialised in chiptune – music made using vintage 8-bit game consoles and similar electronic relics. Ever heard a dance track that sounds like a ’90s-era Nintendo game? That’s chiptune. The first two words of her Twitter bio: “Bleep bloop.”
With little more than two modified Game Boys, Chipzel has become a chiptune tour de force: she composed the soundtrack to the classic (and exceedingly difficult) puzzler Super Hexagon, released five albums, kept up a steady performing schedule and is working on the soundtrack to the upcoming game Dicey Dungeons, from the creator of Super Hexagon. We talked to Chipzel from her home in Ireland about the subtleties of a whoosh and Game Boy jazz.
How did you get into chiptune?
Obviously, as a misunderstood teenager, I always had headphones. I started listening to Imogen Heap, Breaking Benjamin and AlexisonFire, but then I got into trance and house music and found it was easier to tune in on what was happening in that kind of progressive stuff. It played a big part in allowing me to see how melodies interact with rhythms and how to piece together a song that makes sense.
What were some of your earliest forays into that world?
I think Sabrepulse’s “Tokyo Boy” was the first chiptune track I ever heard. This was during that trance and hardcore and Euro-rave phase, all that four-to-the-floor, 220-bpm stuff. I heard that song and was like, “Oh my God. I don’t recognise these sounds from any game, how did they do that?”
So I looked up Sabrepulse and found this community of people who were hacking retro consoles, making pixel art on Commodore 64s and Amigas. But the main section was thousands of members posting music every day. A whole world existed.
How did you turn that into making music on your own?
I just started asking questions and eventually got into Little Sound Dj [music software for the Game Boy], which I still use. I looked at the manual for about an hour and was like, “Yep, that’s enough information for me.” I figured out how to press a button and make a sound, and that was enough. My first song was an absolute mess, but I guess it had some potential.
Can you still buy a Game Boy online?
Oh sure, although they used to be cheaper. The kids are all into chiptune now.
You worked on Super Hexagon with Terry Cavanagh and reconnected for Dicey Dungeons six years later. How did you get back in touch?
I love Terry’s games, and apparently he likes my music. For Dicey Dungeons, I took on a bunch of new roles: I did all the audio, voice-overs and sound effects for the swords, metal, arrows and whoosh sounds. There’s a lot of that in my library – “Whoosh #1” and “Whoosh #2”.
How was creating the sounds for Dicey Dungeons different than your previous work?
It’s got a more polished feel, but it works in the context of the game. I chopped up all these jazz and funk and disco riffs. I’m sure there’s a way to write jazz on a Game Boy, but I don’t know how.
Honestly, how far have you made it in Super Hexagon? And no shame – it’s notoriously difficult.
This is embarrassing, but I got a few seconds into the second level and gave up. I did play Super Hexagon once during turbulence on an aeroplane, and it was such a rush. I highly recommend everyone do that at least once.