August 28, 2007 - The gaming industry has come a long way from the tailored wooden boxes of Pong to the sleek polished plastic chassis of the PlayStation 3. From first finding a home in a neighborhood bar in Sunnyvale, California, video games have now become a fixture in several million households across the world. The transition from novelty to near necessity was a difficult one, however, and if it wasn't for the contribution of professionals like musician Spencer Nilsen, the genre's credibility wouldn't have reached the peak it's presently at today.

Nilsen's progression into music started early. The offspring of artistic and supportive parents, by two he was already plucking away at his father's 1920 Gibson acoustic guitar, and by the age of 14—by which he already had nearly a decade of experience under his belt--he had become so adept at music that he was already being booked for writing and recording sessions around his native San Francisco Bay Area. Synthesizers were his way in, Nilsen recounts, and his introduction was none other than widely-known Don Weir's Music City in San Francisco. After-school visits to their keyboard department turned into numerous studio gigs as a session keyboardist and synthesizer programmer for the teen (he affectionately refers to his mother as his first "roadie" since she had to drive him to sessions). But it was an unforgettable invitation to play in-studio for Tower of Power that Nilsen finally considered the recording studio his "home away from home".

The list of bands that Nilsen has worked with reads like a lineup at a concert tour. Landing a job as an on-campus concert promoter at his alma mater San Diego State University may have seemed like a likely application of his musical passion, but little did he know he would wind up producing shows for iconic acts like The Clash, INXS, Thompson Twins and, as he quite amusingly put it, four scrappy teenagers from Dublin called U2. When pressed for a standout memory, Nilsen recalls working a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers concert that was particularly nerve-wracking since it was there when he was asked to carry a paper bag to a backstage room through a 50,000-strong crowd. If that doesn't sound intimidating to you, imagine that $200,000 of the night's earnings is sitting in that fragile paper sack.

It wasn't long before Nilsen decided to go back to work on the production side of the music business with his own company, AdVenture Communications. And it'd be easy to think that he'd have considered the release of a solo album ("Architects of Change") the pinnacle of his life's work, but expectedly he wanted to keep moving forward. Fortunately, the early Nineties brought with it one of many opportunities for Nilsen to compose music for the increasingly-popular genre of gaming.

A stint with SEGA to head up their music department saw him producing the soundtracks to titles like Sonic the Hedgehog CD, Ecco the Dolphin, and Batman Returns. Nilsen remembers there were very few professionals with true entertainment experience at the time, the game companies mostly populated with NASA-level mathematicians and toy people, so being able to experiment with new technology in the game music production process was an extremely exciting challenge. He candidly relates that he still gets mail from fans who were inspired by some of the projects they were experimenting with back then.

In 2006, Spencer Nilsen was appointed Chief Creative Officer at Ex'pression College for Digital Arts. There since its founding in 1999, he is now tasked with the school's overall development in the digital arts, a position he appears well suited for considering his extensive experience both inside and outside the studio. In regard to his new role, Nilsen has been quoted saying, "It's important to me personally that we continue to provide students with a unique opportunity to revel in creativity while they hone their craft." With that said, it's safe to assume his students are in capable hands.