Daniel Malmedahl
Daniel Malmedahl (also known by his stage name, Britt-Erik in Sweden) is the creator of 2TAKTARE.MP3, the sound effect which inspired the creation of The Annoying Thing.
Early Days
Daniel was born in 1980 in Gothenburg, Sweden. In 1997, he recorded himself imitating his friends' mopeds[1], which became the famous after having been used in the The Annoying Thing animation. At the peak of Crazy Frog's popularity in 2005, Malmedahl was 24 years old, working as a computer components salesman.
Britt-Erik
According to Swedish users, Daniel was known in Sweden as Britt-Erik[2][3]. He was popular for creating musical jokes that were transmitted on CDs. The only evidence for this is that original file name of 2taktare is "Britt-Erik - 2taktare" (or "Britt-Erik" is in audio tags), and that scream in "Gullefjun" is very similar to the voice from Jamba! ringtones, but there is no official confirmation that they are the same person.
He is most famous for parody of Bamse and 2TAKTARE.MP3.
List of musical jokes:
- Britt-Erik - Bamsesagan (Bamse saga, Bamsesaga)
- Britt-Erik - 2taktare (tvåtaktare, tvåtaktarn, tvåtakt.mp3)
- Britt-Erik - Äta farfars bajs
- Britt-Erik - Gullefjun
- Britt-Erik - Imse vimse spindel
- Britt-Erik - Ekorrn satt i granen
- Britt-Erik - Elefanten på tråden
Interview on Swedish TV
An acquaintance of Daniel's had posted the recording of 2taktare on the web, where a researcher on Swedish TV found it and persuaded Daniel to perform the sound live on television. On may 27, 2001 he appears under his real name on youth program “Best of Wimans By Night”.
Connection with Crazy Frog
At 17 years old in 1997, Daniel attempted to imitate the 2-stroke engine of a moped. According to Erik Wernquist[4], it was Daniel's moped and not his friend's, which is contradicted by an interview with Daniel Malmedal from the BBC. One "friend of his put the sound on a CD that they used to play at parties". From that CD, "an acquaintance of Daniel's had posted the recording on the web", means he probably may not choose the nickname "Britt-Erik" by himself. Then interview on Swedish TV happened. From there, sound effect was used on various websites in different form, such as Deng Deng, what later became The Insanity Test.
In 2003 Erik Wernquist created "The Annoying Thing" animation using 2taktare his friend sent him. Erik didn't knew who to credit for the sound, so he put a question in the end credits. He got a phone call from Daniel claiming he recognised the sound in animation and performed the sound live on the phone. Wernquist changed the credits of the animation and on TurboForce3D site to Daniel.
Jamster contacted Wernquist and Daniel for permission to sell it as a download for phones.
"I'm very, very, very stunned that it's gone so far, almost too far. It's such a little creation, it's less than a minute and I would guess that most people actually would have no idea that it's an imitation of a two stroke engine."
Trivia
- Daniel's e-mail, daniel.malmedahl@telia.com, was on the TurboForce3D, but it is most likely no longer working
- Daniel voiced a lot of Jamba ringtones
- Russian website[5] confused Daniel/Britt-Erik with Erik Wernquist and Unknown DJ
- NBC Interview is the only Daniel's interview on camera