The man behind the Vikings of Thule song reveals all

This time around, we have our part-time Star Wars geek and full-time music specialist, Egill Antonsson, in the employee spotlight.

Íris wants to know what  happened to the eyepatch you often wore and why are you not a pirate yet?
Well, I thought I was a pirate, but then I realized that I am a Viking. Eye patches are not very hot in the Viking fashion world.

What was the first game you played and on what platform?
My older brother got a ZX Spectrum when I was about six years old, and we played a lot of games on it. I don´t remember exactly which game I played first, but I do remember that we couldn´t load the game Renegade with our cassette player, but we could with our uncle‘s cassette player when we visited him. He lived about 300 km away, but it was worth it!

Your favourite game of all time and why?
Tie Figther because it is a good space-fighter-game and I´m a Star Wars geek.

What do you like to do in your free time?
Sing and play music. I also sing at the office, but I´m trying to keep that at a minimum so I don‘t drive my co-workers insane.

Any kids?
I have a step-son named Andri Reyr Ragnarsson. He plays alot of web browser-based flash games, including Vikings of Thule.

Where have you worked in the past? Any noteable projects?
My earlier profession was being a jazz piano teacher. I played in bands as a keyboard and bass player. I am proud of the band KUAI, of which I was a member (the KUAI album is on sale on gogoyoko.com, plug plug).

What Gogogic project are you especially proud of?
I am proud of all the Gogogic projects, but if I had to choose one, it would be Vikings of Thule.

You wrote the song for the Vikings of Thule teaser. How did that come about? What inspired you?
My brother, Jónas Antonsson, and I wrote the song together. He wrote the lyrics. It was made at the same time that I was working on my final project for my Computer Science class at Reykjavik University. That project, by the way, was the awesome Gogogic artillery game, Battle Drawn. It was a busy and fun time. The artistic guidelines for the song were to have a heavy beat for the scenes in the video to follow and to create an authentic Viking mood that harmonized with the video. The video animation, melody and lyrics inspired me. I orchestrated in a way for it to have the most dramatic impact. I am very satisfied with how the video and song complement each other and make the whole experience stronger.

What software do you use in your daily work?
As the Gogogic Sound Guru, I recently switched from a PC computer to a Mac. I am now using Apple Logic Pro as my main sequencing software. I also have Propellerhead Reason and Steinberg Cubase at my disposal. I use Adobe SoundBooth for Sound Editing. I use a PC when flash programming, so I guess I´m bi-polar….. and bi-WINNING!  I use Adobe Flash Builder 4 as my developer IDE.  I use Adobe Flash CS5 for linking graphical assets together with the code.  I also use a TeamCity Windows Tray Notifier that notifies me of the Continuous Integration build status. I would like to have an Ambient Orb as a CI feedback device one day.

Who should be the next one in the employee spotlight and do you have question for that person?
I would like to challenge Olafur Petursson. My questions are: Are you a wolf or a dragon? Are you a breast or a leg man? What show do like better – Desperate Housewifes or Grey´s Anatomy? Do you often sing or whistle just for fun? Would you eat me if I was frozen and you were really really really really really really really really really really hungry?

Yes… err… thanks Egill. We may ask him some of these questions.