Kalistan

[Doc]

Dana's The Rudies chosen to Represent Kalistan in FOMAT
Dana Ska Collective joined by Carly Maxwell will sing "Falling into Me"
Dana, Duchy of Ananto
March 1, 5686


Multi-instrumentalist Mitchell Clarke, who makes music as The Rudies, is joined by singer Carly Maxwell on "Falling into Me"

Dana musician and multi-instrumentalist Mitchell Clarke, who produces music under the name of The Rudies, has been selected to represent the Empire of Ananto and Kalistan at the upcoming FOMAT contest.  He will be joined by Dana Dubrawk Allstars, who tours with Clarke, and singer Carly Maxwell in Luthori where they will perform "Falling Into Me", a song about a sapphic crush.  The single, which Clarke independently produced in his own studio and on which he plays every instrument, was distributed in the Empire by LCR in Sulari.

"Of course its an honor to go and represent our Empire at FOMAT," said Clarke.  "It will be great to perform this song live for an international audience.  And its great to go and represent ska internationally too.  I think the last time Ska was at FOMAT, Kalistan won with it.  Well, we follow Red Tone's example, and we're bringing skankin back to Artania."

Of the featured singer, Dana skin/rudeboy scene fixture Carly Maxwell, who usually sings for Dana HXC band nailbiter, Clarke had only positive things to say: "Oh Carly is so fun.  She's always jumping around on the stage and going out to dance in the pits during shows.  She lives in the scene, and like listening to nailbiter, you wouldn't think she sings at anything other than top volume all the time, but she is really a very good singer, as we all know.  She was the only one I would have asked to sing this song.  She's like this militant lesbian, and a total rudegirl, and yet she's so polite and sunny all the time.  And she brought that personality to this track."

Clarke said that the song is meant to be a fun, new love song.  "I played the demo for Carly and it was some kind of generic love song.  She took one listen and was immediately like 'See, I think you can do so much more with this song...' and she proceeded to erase some stuff, change some stuff, and make it all from like a lesbian's point of view.  But she felt comfortable doing that:  she knew I wanted her to sing the song, and be authentic."  

Clarke said it will also be amazing to appear with the Dana Dubrawk Allstars in Luthori.  "We tour together, of course.  My main instrument is bass, and so I will play on some of their songs, and they make it so I can play live.  And they are totally down to going to FOMAT to kick out the jams."  Clarke said this will be his first time outside of Kalistan.  "Yeah, we all stay pretty close to Dana and Yoshimi, and only go to Kaliburg to play every once in a while.  I'm not even sure how we won the contest.  I didn't even know we had been entered.  This record was recorded like last summer.  So it was kind of a surprise to all of us.  We were in Plains when the club manager announced we had won, right in the middle of our set."

Radio 1 actually included the single in with the FOMAT poll, because one of its DJ's, who is from Dana, spun the record each night for a week on Radio 1 and it had generated a lot of buzz on Radio Kaliburg.  The song beat out 7 other songs in the listener's round robin, double elimination poll.  "We found out later that we beat like 4 pop and B tunes, two alternative songs, and one electronic song.  That's wild," said Clarke.  "But then I had the opportunity to listen to the other contestants, and its kind of a good thing we are going:  there's not a lot of variety in genre among the contestants, so we'll at least stand out."

Clarke understood that the song can be seen as subtly subversive.  "The contest was initially supposed to be in Etxea, but the religious nutjobs on the mainland decided to threaten to kill everyone in Extea if we played there.  I think this is a kind of a subtle jab at those hypocrites who think that their evil god is worth following.  I understand that they may be upset by a black dude and a white leftist lesbian who don't give a F what those fascists think, playing ska together on stage.  I hope the image haunts them.  We want to have fun, but I think Carly is gonna make a anti-fascist statement during the show.  And if you can stop her from speaking her mind, you're a bigger dude than I am."

The independently produced 12" single comes with three other tracks:  The single itself and a tradska song called "Rudeboy in Lower Dana" and then on the B Side, the skapunk Instrumental "Black and White" and a dub mix of "Falling into Me".  All songs on the record were produced by Clarke himself, and LCR agreed to distribute the disk for a percentage of sales.  "It works out," said Clarke.  "I have my own studio, and LCR of course loves us up here in Dana, so I had no problem getting a distribution deal when they heard my masters."

You can listen to song which will represent Kalistan at FOMAT right here:  The Rudies, from Dana, with "Falling Into Me, feat. Carly Maxwell."  And make sure to vote for Kalistan during the FOMAT contest which will be rebroadcast in Kalistan on M7 live from Fort William, Luthori.

[Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ondIFcTfS4]

@KalistaniRawkMonthly