Thomas Bergersen

Biography

Thomas Jacob Bergersen (born 4 July 1980, Trondheim, Norway) is a Norwegian composer, multi-instrumentalist, and the co-founder of the production music company Two Steps From Hell. He is among the worlds most streamed artists in the classical crossover genre, with over 2 million streams per month on Spotify. Bergersen's compositions have featured in many famous movie series, such as Avatar, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Twilight Saga, The Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, Da Vinci Code, The Mummy, The Dark Knight, and Tron: Legacy. His compositions have also been featured in many soundtracks and film trailers.

Career

Bergersen is self-taught. He began playing piano at the age of 6 and started writing symphonic music in his teens.
He started his musical career as a demoscener, writing tracked modules under the name Lioz in the group Index. Bergersen worked with fellow Norwegian artist Boom Jinx on the 2007 trance single "Remember September×Remember September19 March 2007 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracks1Remember September (original mix)8:502Remember September (Duderstadt remix)8:49".
In May 2010, Bergersen and his business partner, Nick Phoenix, released a debut public Epic Music Two Steps From Hell album titled Invincible. Several additional commercial album releases followed, including Archangel and SkyWorld. Bergersen also performed in a 2013 live concert at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. In 2010 Bergersen composed the original music for the movie The Human Experience. The Soundtrack CD was released on 29 March 2011.
Bergersen released a solo-produced soundtrack titled Illusions×Illusions22 June 2011 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 19 tracks1Aura7:432Starvation4:273Dreammaker4:184Hurt1:435Ocean Princess2:536Gift of Life3:227Rada4:238A Place in Heaven4:169Merchant Prince2:2610Promise4:5911Femme Fatale4:1212Homecoming2:5713Immortal4:0814Remember Me4:3015Sonera5:3716Reborn3:5317Age of Gods2:3018Illusions8:0219Soulseeker3:15 in 2011. His second solo album, Sun, was released in September 2014. He has also released several commercial singles since 2011, including "Heart" and "The Hero in Your Heart×The Hero in Your Heart16 November 2013 · SingleSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1The Hero in Your Heart4:00," which were intended to provide disaster relief in the wake of the Tōhoku earthquake and Typhoon Haiyan, respectively.
In March 2020, the album series Humanity was announced. Humanity is intended to be a seven-part set exploring all aspects of human emotion. On 1 July 2020, Humanity - Chapter I was released. Humanity - Chapter II was released on 11 November 2020, followed by Humanity - Chapter III. Humanity - Chapter IV was published on 2 September 2021, and on 21 April 2023 Humanity - Chapter V was released. On 28 July 2026, Humanity - Chapter VI was released.
Two Steps From Hell went on their first tour in 2022, performing with a live orchestra and choir at thirteen venues across Europe, and went on to release a live concert album that same year. They performed at the Wacken Open Air music festival in 2023, kicking off a second live tour. In 2025, Bergersen was invited to perform at the Mountbatten Festival of Music 2025 by the Bands of HM Royal Marines.

Personal life

Bergersen was born and raised in Trondheim, Norway. He moved to the US in 2009 to pursue a musical career. Bergersen has stated that he moved from Los Angeles to Miami, and then to Seattle between 2010–2014 in the liner notes of his album Sun. The song "Cassandra" on the same album was inspired by his then-girlfriend. Bergersen considers himself a gamer and used to play games such as Duke Nukem 3D, Doom, Quake and Hitman: Absolution.

Music

Bergersen stated that he has been influenced by musicians from many genres, such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Katy Perry. However, he stated that Gustav Mahler is among his primary influences. He dislikes the concept of music genres, which he thinks limit music to certain structures for the purpose of classification. For this reason he generally avoids following genres and industry conventions and follows his own intuition instead.
He draws inspiration from his personal emotions and events in romantic relationships, and anything "unique and beautiful" in his surroundings.
While Bergersen uses some publicly available sample libraries, most of his sounds are bespoke. He has sampled many orchestras, world instruments, and other sounds himself from all over the world, and those samples are available only to him. He uses Steinberg's Cubase to compose music. Besides electronic composing, many of his melodies originally come to life on his Grand piano.

Studio albums

Illusions (2011)
Sun (2014)
Humanity (2020–)
Chapter I (2020)
Chapter II (2020)
Chapter III (2021)
Chapter IV (2021)
Chapter V (2023)
Chapter VI (2026)

Symphonies

American Dream (2018)
Seven (2019)
A Christmas Carol (2024)

Studio albums

Invincible (2010)
Archangel (2011)
Halloween (2012)
SkyWorld (2012)
Classics Volume One (2013)
Miracles (2014)
Colin Frake on Fire Mountain (2014)
Battlecry (2015)
Classics Volume Two (2015)
Vanquish (2016)
Unleashed (2017)
Dragon (2019)
Myth (2022)