Two further El Huervo tracks, Turf and Crush, also prominently feature in the game Rust (El Huervo remix) was also included as a bonus track on the vinyl. Here’s the first time Hotline Miami players meet Beard, soundtracked by El Huervo’s Daisuke: “They wanted to include a nice character because everyone else is so corrupted and evil - so they chose me! Then it felt perfect to have one of my songs play during those sequences.” Söderström and Wedin were so inspired by Åkerblad’s track Daisuke that they decided to use his likeness for the (only) friendly character in the game: Beard. I had just released a mini-album, Do Not Lay Waste to Homes…, which they listened to and picked out a couple of songs that they thought could fit in the game.” We were hanging out and they were looking for music for the game. Then the collaboration just sort of ‘happened’. The three developed an artistically intimate relationship: “I was doing tonnes of other stuff myself wasn’t really getting involved. Åkerblad first struck up a friendship with Dennaton’s Jonatan Söderström and Dennis Wedin around 2010 in Sweden, whilst they were still developing the core idea of Hotline Miami (eventually released in late 2012). Niklas Åkerblad’s covers for Hotline Miami (left) and Hotline Miami 2 - the latter featuring a self-portrait of him as the returning character, Beard: ( Unless you count the recent non-canon comic book series).Īs we approach the fifth anniversary of Hotline Miami’s original release, we thought it would be cool to catch up with renaissance man Niklas Åkerblad (pronounced: or-kay-blood): as well as contributing music tracks to the Hotline Miami and Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number soundtracks under his music monicker, El Huervo, he created iconic game covers for both games and artwork for the respective vinyl releases.
Currently available in its second pressing, it turns out that this was to be the last official release associated with the the series. Niklas Åkerblad AKA El Huervo AKA Beard talks about the aftermath of Hotline Miami’s breakout success and his emerging artistic philosophy.Īpril 2016 saw success for the Kickstarter campaign for the Hotline Miami Collector’s Edition Vinyl, launched by Laced Records in collaboration with game developer Dennaton and publisher Devolver Digital, to the tune of £156,899 (the initial goal was £40,000).