Kalistan

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Megasaur beats field to represent Kalistan at FOMAT
"Small group of dedicated fans" flooded lines at KRTVN
Kaliburg, Grand Duchy of Ananto
August 1, 5714


Addisjah based Noise Alternative band Megasaur elected to represent Kalistan

It seems that underground Noise-Alternative three piece Megasaur has been selected to represent the Empire of Ananto and Kalistan at the upcoming FOMAT contest in Bianjie. The band itself is not well known throughout the Empire, and itself was rather surprised that it was selected to play the international music contest.

"Well, it would seem that a band who plays shows for like 200 people at these small clubs or whatever, even they too can strive to someday accidentally end up representing our great nation in a pop music show," said Megasaur lead singer M. Calloway. (M. is Calloway's legal first name, changed from his birthname of Christopher.) "This is too much of a trip even for me."

It turns out that Megasaur's "accidental" election was really the work of three superfans, who decided that they would like the band to represent the nation. "Well these idiot... I guess I shouldn't call them idiots," said Calloway, "this small group of dedicated fans, who apparently come to every show and they have like Megasaur posters and stuff that they made, and one of them always volunteers to run the merch table at the shows and everything, whatever... anyway, these three guys started passing out fliers at the shows telling like 200 kids to not only call in and support the band at the radio station or whatever, but also to have their parents do it, and their parents' friends do it, and a whole bunch of other people who have never heard our music. And we were like 'oh this is cool. Maybe we get one of our songs on the radio or whatever,' but then it turned into all this..."

To say that Megasaur was a dark horse is an understatement. "I think each of the preliminary rounds took like the top 8 and narrowed them down, narrowed them down. We were like 8th in our first group, and then 8th in the second one, and then we started doing these weird head to heads where we were going up against some real big names. And I guess there was just something where we didn't have to beat everyone, we just had to beat the person we were up against or whatever. And we were getting votes from really weird places: places we hadn't ever played or even knew anyone... We're a small and very loud band, and so we were lucky that they didn't know what to do with us, and just put us up against the lamest pop and B garbage, you know, stuff that usually does well at FOMAT."

To win, they had to beat Sulari pop sensation Carina, whose song, "Just us." has already sold 560,000 copies. "I was like there's no way we're gonna beat that girl. She's cute, we're these lazy gritty punk rockers from Addisjah. No way..." But it turns out that by the time they hit the finals, Megasaur had built up a wide base of support. As Calloway recounted "It was like our 20 actual fans, all their moms and dads, all their moms' and dads' coworkers and neighbors, and all these people who just hate pop music or whatever. Turns out there's a lot of them in this country. Kalistan is pretty sophisticated with its music tastes, but you had grit versus sugar, whatever, and the music snobs seemed to come down on the side of raw as opposed to refined. Surprised the heck out of me."

When the voting was completed, Megasaur had narrowly defeated Carina, and were declared the winner. The contest's sponsors, KRTVN and KMI attempted to contact the band to make arrangements. "But as they found out, we're just some DIY punks. We don't even have a manager or whatever. We met with this A&R guy from KMI out here and he took us out to lunch, and was like 'Ok, so who do I talk to?' and we were like, 'Well, you're talking to us,' and he said 'No, who's your agent?' and we were like 'us...' It was kind of an eye opener." After lunch, the KMI guy shook the band's hands and gave them some parting advice. "He said 'Get an agent and a manager, and then give him my number. Ok?' and then he was gone. And like ten seconds later some guy came out of nowhere and said 'Hey, you guys are great. I want to represent you...' or whatever... Wild how sh-- like that happens..."

Megasaur will play at the Bianjian venue for FOMAT later this month. This is their first time abroad. They will perform the song from their recent self-titled EP called "I feel Nothing", which won them the KRTVN contest. They are not expected to win, but Megasaur fans are expected to vote highly for them anyway.

[Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xS0yBnwQZLQ]
"I feel Nothing" from the independently released ST EP Megasaur, by Megasaur

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