Kalistani Major History

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Kalistan selects Eshar band "The Starving Artists" to Represent the Empire in Baltusia
FOMAT XXV will be first time Seleyan Republic hosts the Contest
Eshar, Duchy of Odufaray
August 19, 5481


The Starving Artists, on tour in Odufaray, will represent Kalistan at FOMAT XXV

The Festival of Music Arts in Terra, or FOMAT, has been officially launched, and this has led to a predictable flurry of effort on the part of local and national bands in Kalistan to push out new music in an attempt to represent Kalistan. FOMAT XXV will be held in Ralston, Baltusia, and, like previous contests, will feature music from around the world, all competing for the FOMAT title. The 24th Edition, held in Kalistan during 5431, was won by Dundorf, who officially passed on hosting option earlier this year, opening the door for Baltusia to take the opportunity to host. While the contest is still seven years away, time usually works a little funny in the music universe, and both artists and labels know that the time is now to submit music for the contest.

Kalistan's nominee, as usual, is determined by radio poll on KRTVN's flagship music station, Radio 1. This year, the competition was fierce, with 64 different acts entering music. Over the course of two weeks, Radio 1 held a round robin with listeners calling, emailing and texting in their preference in head to head match ups between different artists. Most of the entries were either alt-folk, hip hop, or pop, as these acts have historically done well on both the radio poll and the contest. But this year, there were a lot that went head to head--maybe too many, as most of them cancelled out, and then one of those genres that had beaten out several other songs, tended to lose to one of the relatively few hard rock songs in the contest.

At the end of it all, the winner overall was judged to be a relatively unknown independent rock act from Eshar, Odufaray named The Starving Artists. Brother and Sister Andre and Mellie Arnhart from Eshar are joined by Nathan Black on Bass and Walt Richardson on drums. The song they enters, and which subsequently won also had the longest song title of all the entries: "Heroin (is Quite Passe, but I wouldn't give it to you f you were the Last Junkie on Terra)" Mellie Arnhart, primary song writer for the band explained the title in a recent interview: "No, its not an anti-drug song. It is more like a hate song about a pathetic dude I used to know. Its kind of funny when Andre sings it: He's pretty effeminate, and that makes it more kinda sneering and snotty, and less like "f--k you, I hate you..." which is how I wrote it, but I think he really gets the sentiment of what I was going for, and it really came out a lot better with him singing it."

When informed that they won, Andre, who was stoned and drinking at the time of the announcement, and incidentally performing in Springfield, reportedly walked off the stage to go pack, before the rest of the band informed him that the contest wouldn't be for seven years, and that he had to finish his show. It took the band several minutes to communicate this to Arnhart. Following his return to the stage, he promptly fell off the stage and bruised three ribs. Several days later, at a press conference held by ODEN, who is sponsoring the band's entry into FOMAT, Arnhart said, "No, this is the first I'm hearing about this. I'm not sure why this happened, but the song was like a breakup song. It was a fun little track, we had fun with it, but no, I don't think its going to win. I voted for (Vrassan Alt-Folk singer) Veronica Mark. Her song was so much better than like everything we've ever done. Like no offense to Mellie or anything, but we need better songs. I mean, yeah Baltusia? Cool Yeah, of course we will win. Mellie is the most creative person I know, and she writes such awesome songs."

The Band will travel to Ralston for the FOMAT Contest. But you can check out The Starving Artists' "Heroin (Is Quite Passe, but I wouldn't give it to you if you were the Last Junkie on Terra)," the track that won the Kalistani contest and will represent Kalistan, here:

[Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3xjI0fCKfM]