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BMX Escape is a very cool
synthwave band that I really enjoy listening to. And as of yesterday they have a
Mastodon account, which is partially because of me.
How I found BMX Escape ?
When I was a teenager I was very much into Rock and Metal music as opposed to Pop Music. I was always of a rebellious spirit, but at some point I realized that I have an argument. If you take a big Pop artist and a big Rock artist, chances are the Pop artist did very little to produce the song. Somebody else written the song. Somebody else made the backing track. And the artist themself probably used a heavy dose of auto-tune or some shit, to make them sound like they know what they are doing. Compare it to Rock bands which have real singers, their own songs and guitar solos and stuff, that are kind of technically demanding. Rock automatically becomes more respectful.
But then ( being a big movie guy ) I saw the 2011
Nicolas Winding Refn masterpiece
Drive, which had an electronic type sound to it. It had amazing songs like
Kavinsky - Nightcall and
College & Electric Youth - A Real Hero which were something else. They sounded like they are pop-songs but they worked like Rock songs.
Later I discovered a hugely popular synthwave band
The Midnight who are technically rock-stars. Yes, the songs are very electronic, but you have guitar solos and saxophone solos and cool things and what sounds to be a real singer that knows how to sing. This felt to me like the perfect combination of the reasons I like Rock music, but also a sound which sounds modern and awesome.
I even tried to emulate some of that synthwave sound for the soundtrack of my 2023 short film
Moria's Race. I failed, I think. Because the genre of music in the soundtrack is all over the place. But the influence is clear.
So here I am after
Moria's Race, making the game I'm making
Dani's Race, which requires a lot of modeling and a lot of coding. And so it is a perfect time to listen to some futuristic sound of synthwave. So I looked up and found these 3 hour - 4 hour long vocal synthwave compilation on YouTube ( through FreeTube obviously ) and started listening to those a lot.
So I'm working on something. And suddenly a song pops up that is kind of way better than anything else on the playlist. I'm forget about the work. I just vibe to it. It is that good. But then the song ends. And the next song begins and I continue working.
After some time I find that very song in that very playlist again. After a few times of listening to that playlist I put that specific playlist specifically for that song. I start to become a little obsessed about it. But the problem is, I don't seem to know what is the song. So I wait for it again. And I pause as it starts... I look down at the description and see "BMX Escape - That Melody".
I'm pretty sure that this band is at least as huge as
The Midnight. They sound fucking fantastic. I go looking for them individually and I find... Well I find a YouTube channel that has less subscribers than I have on my Odysee and nobody knows or likes Odysee. I find that my films ( like
Moria's Race were watched by more people than the views on
That Melody. And I'm both absolutely fucking shocked and kind of relieved a bit. I found somebody I am a fan of, that is kind of on the same level of fame as I am.
How I made BMX Escape join Mastodon?
Obviously I started digging. I thought that maybe they might be already on the Fediverse. I thought maybe getting them on things like the
Fireside Fedi show by
@Ozoned could increase their fanbase. Because fuck you, I like that song ( and now their other songs ) enough that I want to help. But I found out that they are not on the Fediverse. I found a
linktr page where it lists their Facebook, Instagram, X and Email... but not anything on the Fedi. Wait... Email?
I had to act immediately. I wrote them an email. I outlined the idea that getting onto the
Fireside Fedi could be good for them. And that a requirement for that would be to be on the Fedi. I mean they are already cool enough to be interesting. But the show is called
Fireside Fedi. So... All they need to do is to start a Mastodon account, or something.
I also immediately talked to
@Ozoned ( who is running
Fireside Fedi ) about it. And gave him a listen to "That Melody" which he absolutely loved. He said:
DUDE! listening to this song over and over, this is SO GOOD.
And then I received a few responses from BMX Escape.
My heart started pounding...
BMX Escape wrote to me...
OMG!
OMFG!
...
I looked into the responses and what I saw is... The first email outlined that they appreciated the suggestion and looked into the Fediverse. And the second email told me that they were making their Mastodon right now!!!
Obviously I started searching for BMX Escape on Mastodon. And at one point I saw it.
@bmxescape@mastodon.social
It happened!...
I immediately messaged
@Ozoned and after a few minutes I saw that BMX Escape on Mastodon now has 2 followers. One of them is
Fireside Fedi.
...
Then then I woke up today... And I saw another something... BMX Escape followed me back.
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