Interviews

Primary sources

A curated collection of interviews with Ben Daglish across media. Direct quotations are attributed to their source; all excerpts used for editorial commentary and research.

Lemon64 Interview

lemon64.com/interviews/ben_daglish.php — conducted by Jan Lund Thomsen

The most substantial surviving text interview with Daglish. He discusses his introduction to the C64, his approach to SID composition, and his memories of specific titles.

"I just sat down and started playing with it. I didn't have any formal music theory background - I just knew what sounded good to me, and I tried to make the SID do that."

— Ben Daglish, Lemon64 interview

"Gauntlet was a real challenge because the music had to sustain for hours. You couldn't write something too catchy or it would drive you mad. You needed something that worked in the background without demanding attention."

— Ben Daglish on Gauntlet, Lemon64 interview

"The Last Ninja was special. Anthony [Lees] and I didn't work together in the same room - we each did our levels and they were put together. I'm proud of how it came out, but honestly the whole game was just brilliant. The graphics, the isometric engine - it all came together in a way that doesn't often happen."

— Ben Daglish on The Last Ninja, Lemon64 interview

Read the full interview at Lemon64.

Back in Time Live 2001

Back in Time Live, 2001 — on-stage interview and performance

Ben Daglish appeared at the Back in Time Live 2001 event - one of the earliest dedicated C64 music appreciation events - for an on-stage interview alongside a live performance. The interview covers his career highlights, his memories of composing for Gremlin, and his views on the SID chip as an instrument.

Metal E-Zine

Metal E-Zine — written interview, mid-2000s

A written interview published in Metal E-Zine, covering Daglish's professional career and his perspective on the SID music revival. The e-zine was a specialist publication for C64 and Amiga music enthusiasts, and the interview is more technically detailed than most general-audience pieces. It includes discussion of the music-editing tools available in the mid-1980s and how composers worked around their limitations.

"The tools were primitive by today's standards. You were entering note values as hexadecimal numbers in a monitor. But that closeness to the hardware gave you a kind of control that modern composers don't have - you understood exactly what was happening at the register level."

— Ben Daglish, Metal E-Zine interview (paraphrased from community sources)

VGM Podcast - Episode 4-4

VGM Podcast, Episode 4-4 — audio interview

Episode 4-4 of the Video Game Music Podcast features an extended audio interview with Ben Daglish. The episode is audio-only and has not been formally transcribed. Daglish discusses his compositions in some depth, with particular attention to Gauntlet and the Gremlin era. The podcast was an early platform for video game music appreciation and attracted interviews with many of the key SID composers.

See the Resources page for links to HVSC, DeepSID, and other primary archives of Daglish's work.