David Whittaker

United Kingdom · Born 1957 · Composer & Audio Director

He programmed music directly in machine code for the C64 and Spectrum, scored Shadow of the Beast on the Amiga — and wrote the Lazy Jones tune that became the club hit "Kernkraft 400".

David Whittaker was born in Bury, Lancashire, on 24 April 1957. Before games he played in a new romantic band, Beu Leisure, and he cited David Bowie, Kraftwerk and Yazoo among his influences. In the 8-bit era he wrote music the hard way, programming it directly into the machine with a machine-code monitor and later an assembler rather than using composition software. His Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum work includes Lazy Jones, Glider Rider, Armageddon Man, Amaurote, BraveStarr and Elektra Glide. Lazy Jones produced his most unexpected legacy: its subtune 21, known as "Star Dust", became the basis of "Kernkraft 400" by Zombie Nation, a dance hit later chanted in sports stadiums. On the Amiga he composed for Shadow of the Beast (1989), whose atmospheric score was a key part of that game's reputation as a showcase for the machine, along with Obliterator, Beyond the Ice Palace and the Bitmap Brothers' Speedball. Whittaker later moved to the United States and spent eight years at Electronic Arts in Redwood Shores. In September 2004 he joined the British developer Traveller's Tales in Knutsford, Cheshire, as head of audio.