Andrew Gregory Sega ( ; born May 20, 1975), also known as Necros, is an American musician best known for

tracking Tracking may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Tracking, in computer graphics, in match moving (insertion of graphics into footage) * Tracking, composing music with music tracker software * Eye tracking, measuring the position of t ...

modules Broadly speaking, modularity is the degree to which a system's components may be separated and recombined, often with the benefit of flexibility and variety in use. The concept of modularity is used primarily to reduce complexity by breaking a sy ...

in the 1990s

demoscene The demoscene is an international computer art subculture focused on producing demos: self-contained, sometimes extremely small, computer programs that produce audiovisual presentations. The purpose of a demo is to show off programming, visual ...

as well as for composing music for several well-known video games. He was a member of the synthpop duo

Iris Iris most often refers to: *Iris (anatomy), part of the eye *Iris (mythology), a Greek goddess * ''Iris'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants * Iris (color), an ambiguous color term Iris or IRIS may also refer to: Arts and media Fictional ent ...

from 2001 until its disbandment in 2021. In 2020, he founded the

dark wave Dark wave (also typeset as darkwave) is a music genre that emerged from the new wave and post-punk movement of the late 1970s. Dark wave compositions are largely based on minor key tonality and introspective lyrics and have been perceived as be ...

duo Hallowed Hearts. Sega is the owner of the

independent record label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represented ...

Diffusion Records. His main solo project is known as The Alpha Conspiracy.

Biography

Andrew Sega was born on May 20, 1975, in

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...

and lived the majority of his young life in Upstate New York. His interest in music began when he was 7 years old, when he started playing and experimenting with an

electronic organ An electric organ, also known as electronic organ, is an electronic keyboard instrument which was derived from the harmonium, pipe organ and theatre organ. Originally designed to imitate their sound, or orchestral sounds, it has since developed ...

he had in his house. He later started taking lessons with an organist from a Polish church in Rome, New York, where he learned almost exclusively

baroque music Baroque music ( or ) refers to the period or dominant style of Western classical music composed from about 1600 to 1750. The Baroque style followed the Renaissance period, and was followed in turn by the Classical period after a short transiti ...

. Later in high school he learned to play other instruments, including

bass clarinet The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B (meaning it is a transposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B), but it plays notes an octave bel ...

and piano. Sega's first records were from artists such as

Men at Work Men at Work are an Australian rock band formed in Melbourne in 1978 and best known for breakthrough hits such as "Down Under", "Who Can It Be Now?", "Be Good Johnny", " Overkill", and " It's a Mistake". Its founding member and frontman is Coli ...

Genesis Genesis may refer to: Bible * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book of ...

, and

Fleetwood Mac Fleetwood Mac are a British-American rock band, formed in London in 1967. Fleetwood Mac were founded by guitarist Peter Green, drummer Mick Fleetwood and guitarist Jeremy Spencer, before bassist John McVie joined the line-up for their epony ...

. He discovered trackers in his first year of college (1993) from a friend who showed him

Future Crew Future Crew was a Finnish demogroup that created PC demos and software, active mostly between 1987 and 1994. History The group was founded in 1986 by PSI (Sami Tammilehto) and JPM (Jussi Markula) as a Commodore 64 group, before moving to the PC ...

's ''

Unreal Unreal may refer to: Books and TV * ''Unreal'' (short story collection), a 1985 book of short stories by Paul Jennings * ''Unreal'' (TV series), a 2015 television drama series on Lifetime Computing and games * ''Unreal'' (video game series), ...

'' demo. Sega was amazed with how good the music sounded. He eventually discovered FastTracker 1.0, and began writing

MOD Mod, MOD or mods may refer to: Places * Modesto City–County Airport, Stanislaus County, California, US Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Mods (band), a Norwegian rock band * M.O.D. (Method of Destruction), a band from New York City, US ...

music for the first time. His first demo group was Psychic Monks. Through the mid-1990s he contributed music to various demo and music groups, and

music disk Music is generally defined as the The arts, art of arranging sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Exact definition of music, definitions of mu ...

s such as ''Epidemic'' (1994), featuring other noted tracker musicians like

Purple Motion Jonne Valtonen is a Finnish composer, arranger and orchestrator. He is renowned for his contributions in the field of demoscene and tracker music, under the name Purple Motion, and with Future Crew. Life and early career Jonne Valtonen was bo ...

and Skaven. Sega later helped form the legendary tracking group Five Musicians, which featured other notable figures, such as

Jeroen Tel Jeroen Godfried Tel (born 19 May 1972), also known as WAVE, is a Dutch composer. He is best known for numerous computer game tunes he wrote in the 1980s and early 1990s for the Commodore 64. His most popular compositions appear in the following ...

Basehead Basehead, also known as dc Basehead and Basehead 2.0, is an American alternative rock band formed by Michael Ivey in 1992. Ivey serves as the group's songwriter and leader, performing vocals and various instruments. Basehead's 1992 debut album ...

and

Hunz Hunz is an electronic pop music group from Brisbane, Australia. The name Hunz can refer to either the group or its composer, keyboardist and vocalist, Hans van Vliet. The group was formed in 2005 by Johannes (Hans) van Vliet (born 15 December ...

. He was also a member of German demogroup Legend Design, and iCE. Sega programmed and/or composed music for several demoscene productions, such as the NAID '95 demo ''Eden'' and 1996 demo ''Babylon''. His composition, "Ascent of the Cloud Eagle", won the first place at NAID '95. In a 1998 interview, Sega declared that he had composed around four hundred finished songs. He gradually left the demoscene behind and started making music for video games, beginning with little known titles such as ''

In Pursuit of Greed ''In Pursuit of Greed'' (also known as ''Assassinators'') is a science fiction-themed first-person shooter (FPS) video game released in 1995 for DOS , developed by Mind Shear Software and published by Softdisk. Release After Mind Shear Software' ...

'', '' Ironseed'' and ''Xixit'', then moving on to

Origin Systems Origin Systems, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Austin, Texas. It was founded on March 3, 1983, by Richard Garriott and his brother Robert Garriott, Robert. Origin is best known for their groundbreaking work in multiple genres ...

' '' Crusader'' series, where he worked as a software engineer and composer. Sega was a founding member of the

video game music Video game music (or VGM) is the soundtrack that accompanies video games. Early video game music was once limited to sounds of early sound chips, such as programmable sound generators (PSG) or FM synthesis chips. These limitations have led to ...

production company

Straylight Productions Straylight Productions was a team of video game music composers and producers, founded in 1994. Overview The founding musicians were Andrew Sega and Dan Gardopée, joined later by Alexander Brandon. Straylight composed soundtracks for Origin Syst ...

, contributing tracks to the first-person shooters ''

'' and ''

Unreal Tournament ''Unreal Tournament'' is a first-person arena shooter video game developed by Epic Games and Digital Extremes. The second installment in the ''Unreal'' series, it was first published by GT Interactive in 1999 for Microsoft Windows, and later r ...

''. Later, he joined

Digital Anvil Digital Anvil, Inc. (formerly Digital Anvil Holdings, Inc.) was an American video game developer based in Austin, Texas owned by Microsoft Game Studios (MGS). It was founded in 1996 by brothers Chris and Erin Roberts along with Tony Zurovec, Ma ...

(now a part of

Microsoft Game Studios Xbox Game Studios (previously known as Microsoft Studios, Microsoft Game Studios, and Microsoft Games) is an American video game publisher and part of the Microsoft Gaming division based in Redmond, Washington. It was established in March 2000, ...

), and worked as a programmer and musician on ''

Freelancer ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

''. In 2006 he founded Diffusion Games, a gaming company which focuses on exploring emotional and social aspects of

interactivity Across the many fields concerned with interactivity, including information science, computer science, human-computer interaction, communication, and industrial design, there is little agreement over the meaning of the term "interactivity", but m ...

. In 2001, Sega founded The Alpha Conspiracy, and released two studio albums, ''

Cipher In cryptography, a cipher (or cypher) is an algorithm for performing encryption or decryption—a series of well-defined steps that can be followed as a procedure. An alternative, less common term is ''encipherment''. To encipher or encode i ...

'' (2001) and '' Aura'' (2004), and a

split EP A split album (or split) is a music album that includes tracks by two or more separate artists. There are also singles and EPs of the same variety, which are often called "split singles" and "split EPs" respectively. Split albums differ from "var ...

with Low Technicians, ''Forward Rewinding'' (2002). He also founded Diffusion Records, an

through which he released The Alpha Conspiracy debut album. Gradually, Diffusion Records became a full-featured label, releasing albums by Iris, CTRL, Low Technicians, and Kilowatts and Vanek. Sega was introduced to

in 2001. He started working on several test tracks with

Reagan Jones Reagan Jones (born March 2, 1973 in Lufkin, Texas) is an American singer-songwriter, best known as the lead singer of synthpop band Iris. Jones formed Iris with Matt Morris in 1993, and remained the original vocalist for the band until its dis ...

before becoming an official member in 2002. Sega is also a live member of

industrial hip hop Industrial hip hop is a fusion genre of industrial music and hip hop. History 1980s The origins of industrial hip hop are in the work of Mark Stewart, Bill Laswell, and Adrian Sherwood. In 1985, former The Pop Group singer Mark Stewart releas ...

group Stromkern. As of 2011, he was working on a dark electropop side-project with Julia Beyer (

Chandeen Chandeen ( ) is a musical project from Frankfurt am Main, founded in 1990 and popular in the darkwave scene in the first half of the 1990s. The band refers to its own style as "Electronic poetry".Manuela Orth · ''New Life'' Music magazine · Is ...

, Technoir). In 2012 Sega and Dan Clark from Stromkern teamed up under the name The Mighty Chouffe and released an EP, ''The West Town''. In 2013 he released ''Obelus'', the debut album from his new side-project XYZZY. In 2020, Sega and Alex Virlios (Blue Images, CTRL, Exit) formed Hallowed Hearts and released their debut album ''Into the Fire''. Sega's influences include

Underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld. ...

, μ-Ziq,

Aphex Twin Richard David James (born 18 August 1971), best known as Aphex Twin, is an Irish-born British musician, composer and DJ. He is known for his idiosyncratic work in electronic music, electronic styles such as techno, ambient music, ambient, and jun ...

Radiohead Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Greenwood (bass) ...

, Orbital,

Fluke Fluke may refer to: Biology * Fluke (fish), a species of marine flatfish * Fluke (tail), the lobes of the tail of a cetacean, such as dolphins or whales, ichthyosaurs, mosasaurs Mosasaurs (from Latin ''Mosa'' meaning the 'Meuse', and Greek ...

The Prodigy The Prodigy are an English electronic dance music band formed in Braintree, Essex, in 1990 by producer, keyboard player and songwriter Liam Howlett. The original line-up also featured dancer and singer Keith Flint and dancer and occasional l ...

Hybrid Hybrid may refer to: Science * Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding ** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species ** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two dif ...

Mouse on Mars Mouse on Mars is a German electronic music duo formed in 1993 by Jan St. Werner and Andi Toma. Their music is a blend of electronic genres including IDM, dub, krautrock, breakbeat and ambient, featuring heavy use of organic analog synth and ...

Depeche Mode Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in Basildon, Essex, in 1980. The band currently consists of Dave Gahan (lead vocals and co-songwriting) and Martin Gore (keyboards, guitar, co-lead vocals and main songwriting). Depeche ...

Rush Rush(es) may refer to: Places United States * Rush, Colorado * Rush, Kentucky * Rush, New York * Rush City, Minnesota * Rush Creek (Kishwaukee River tributary), Illinois * Rush Creek (Marin County, California), a stream * Rush Creek (Mono Cou ...

XTC XTC were an English rock band formed in Swindon in 1972. Fronted by songwriters Andy Partridge (guitars, vocals) and Colin Moulding (bass, vocals), the band gained popularity during the rise of punk and new wave in the 1970s, later playing in ...

Public Enemy "Public enemy" is a term which was first widely used in the United States in the 1930s to describe individuals whose activities were seen as criminal and extremely damaging to society, though the phrase had been used for centuries to describe p ...

Imogen Heap Imogen Jennifer Heap (born 9 December 1977) is a British musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. Her work has been considered pioneering in pop and electropop music. Heap classically trained in piano, cello and clarinet starting at ...

, and

The Chemical Brothers The Chemical Brothers are an English electronic music duo formed by Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons in Manchester in 1989. They were pioneers (along with the Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, the Crystal Method, and other acts) in bringing the big beat genre t ...

, among others. He described

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Fol ...

techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time (4/4) and often ch ...

ambient Ambient or Ambiance or Ambience may refer to: Music and sound * Ambience (sound recording), also known as atmospheres or backgrounds * Ambient music, a genre of music that puts an emphasis on tone and atmosphere * ''Ambient'' (album), by Moby * ...

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

, and

synthpop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s a ...

as his favorite genres, but noted that he tries to avoid the categorization of music. Sega studied

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

and philosophy at

Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public research university in Stony Brook, New York. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is one of the State University of New York system's ...

. Throughout the years, he has worked primarily as a full-time software engineer for video games.

Video game credits

Andrew Sega has composed music for the following video games: * 2007 – '' Aqua Teen Hunger Force Zombie Ninja Pro-Am'' * 2007 – ''

Enigma Enigma may refer to: *Riddle, someone or something that is mysterious or puzzling Biology *ENIGMA, a class of gene in the LIM domain Computing and technology * Enigma (company), a New York-based data-technology startup * Enigma machine, a family ...

'' * 2003 – ''

'' * 2001 – '' Conquest: Frontier Wars'' * 1999 – ''

'' * 1999 – '' Jazz Jackrabbit 3'' (unreleased) * 1998 – ''

'' * 1997 – '' Wing Commander: Prophecy'' * 1996 – '' Crusader: No Regret'' * 1995 – '' Crusader: No Remorse'' * 1995 – ''

'' * 1995 – ''Xixit'' * 1994 – '' Ironseed''

Discography

Necros

* 1994 – ''Digital Psychosis'' (Psychic Monks,

DOS DOS is shorthand for the MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS family of operating systems. DOS may also refer to: Computing * Data over signalling (DoS), multiplexing data onto a signalling channel * Denial-of-service attack (DoS), an attack on a communicat ...

) * 1995 – ''Progression'' (Five Musicians, DOS music disk with

S3M ''S3M'' (Scream Tracker 3 Module) is a module file format, the successor to the STM format used by the original Scream Tracker. Both formats are based on the original MOD format used on the Amiga computer. The S3M format has many differences com ...

files) * 1997 – ''System'' ( IT music files)

The Alpha Conspiracy

* 2001 – ''

'' * 2001 – ''Forward Rewinding'' (a split EP with Low Technicians) * 2004 – '' Aura''

Iris

* 2003 – '' Awakening'' * 2003 – ''Reconnect'' * 2005 – ''

Wrath Anger, also known as wrath or rage, is an intense emotional state involving a strong uncomfortable and non-cooperative response to a perceived provocation, hurt or threat. A person experiencing anger will often experience physical effects, su ...

'' * 2005 – ''Disconnect 2.0'' * 2008 – ''Hydra'' * 2010 – ''

Blacklight A blacklight, also called a UV-A light, Wood's lamp, or ultraviolet light, is a lamp that emits long-wave (UV-A) ultraviolet light and very little visible light. One type of lamp has a violet filter material, either on the bulb or in a separat ...

'' * 2014 – '' Radiant'' * 2019 – ''

Six 6 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 6 or six may also refer to: * AD 6, the sixth year of the AD era * 6 BC, the sixth year before the AD era * The month of June Science * Carbon, the element with atomic number 6 * 6 Hebe, an asteroid People ...

The Mighty Chouffe

* 2012 – ''The West Town'' (EP)

XYZZY

* 2013 – ''Obelus''

Hallowed Hearts

* 2020 – ''Into the Fire'' * 2021 – ''Ruins'' (EP)

References

External links

The Alpha Conspiracy official website
*
Artist profile
at

OverClocked ReMix OverClocked ReMix, also known as OC ReMix and OCR, is a non-commercial organization dedicated to preserving and paying tribute to video game music through arranging and re-interpreting the songs, both with new technology and software and by vari ...

Andrew Sega Webshrine with Music examplesAndrew Sega
at

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the la ...

Diffusion Records official websiteIris official website
*
XYZZY
at

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online audio distribution platform founded in 2007 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with headquarters in Oakland, California, US. On March 2, 2022, Bandcamp ...

Hallowed Hearts
at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sega, Andrew 1975 births Living people American electronic musicians Demosceners Video game composers Intelligent dance musicians American video game designers Jeskola Buzz users American keyboardists American multi-instrumentalists Electronica musicians Tracker musicians Ableton Live users Origin Systems people Stony Brook University alumni Guitarists from Rhode Island Musicians from Providence, Rhode Island Record producers from Rhode Island American male guitarists 21st-century American singers 21st-century American guitarists 21st-century American male singers