Skol, fallen warriors of the void! This week Ryan and I interview the vastly talented composer Patrik Jarlestam. For the gamers out there you may know him as the composer for the hit Viking survival game Valheim. The soundtrack is a stellar mix of relaxed folk-like melodies, peculiar ambient textures, and epic metal boss fight compositions. Ryan has never played the game himself, but now that he’s getting a new PC here soon… I’ll guide him into the dangerous magical realm myself!

My good pals and I had just beaten the final boss and we decided to see what it would be like to fight multiples of each boss. We spawned about fifteen Eikthyr (a giant stag that shoots lighting) and watched the chaos ensue as our framerates tanked. As the glorious Meshuggah-inspired boss battle riffs blared my friend asked, “Dude, why not interview the composer for your podcast?” Lo and behold, that’s exactly what we did.

Within the episode, Patrik goes into detail about his involvement with Valheim as well as his other musical endeavors, from briefly being in the Swedish metal band Hom Dai to conducting modern classical orchestral pieces. He speaks about some of his most cherished games, how he went about piecing together Valheim’s soundtrack in a matter of months, as well as his musical influences and travels. I was also intrigued by his thoughts and sentiments toward learning about other cultures through their music.

Patrik is a man of many talents and is superbly well-spoken. It was an immense pleasure to chat with him for a couple of hours and glean so much backstory about his life and how he crafts his compositions. I sincerely hope you enjoy this episode with a tankard of mead in hand. Below is a screenshot of our plains Valheim fortress—those damned horrid Deathsquitos and Fuling weirdos.