Alright, Synthfam assemble! The third Runaway Droid album GIANT SPACE LASERS is here. This release completes my one year album trilogy. Available for streaming on Spotify or any major service of your choice and downloads at Bandcamp are totally free (name your price).
Check out this awesome review of Giant Space Lasers on Nightride.fm by Julian Green. For Finnish readers there's a review on Imperiumi by Jesse Ryhänen.
Voyage to Synth City
As I started my journey to produce Synthwave one year ago in the summer of 2018 while my rock band was doing nothing little did I know I would release 3 independent albums within a year. I had been listening to Synthwave on and off from around 2012 or 2011. I have always loved the hits of 1980's and Retro Electro, Daft Punk and so on. I remember Black Waves by Lost Years being on repeat a lot and when Kung Fury came out featuring David Hasselhoff in the music video (Mitch Murder!) I was ecstatic. So last summer while I was boiling alive in my apartment in Helsinki during a short (it's Finland after all) heatwave I thought why not to try my hand in this genre for fun. Not saying I took it as s joke or lightly, after all I've been composing songs seriously for 13 years or something and playing guitar at least since 1999. Yes, I'm old.
As my first attempt I wrote a darker synth piece Degrees of Freedom in a day or two, experimenting with suitable soundscapes and just forgot about it. I wrote Activation Sequence and Accelerator single the next week or so and threw them on Spotify. I think I found Iron Skullet on Google or something and just sent the single his way and thought nothing about it. About a month later I noticed Activation Sequence getting a ton of plays and found out it was on Iron Skullet's Spotify playlist! Seems it's not anymore but the dude deserves a plug. This gave me motivation to actually start learning more about producing and to start writing an album of this material. To this day I still grin a bit inside if I have to call myself a producer since I've always been a guitarist and songwriter or just artist. I'm really not good at studio engineering or mixing so I have learned a lot this past year.
Synthfam
The most cool thing during this whole experience has been how awesome the people of Synthwave community are. The whole scene is so different from what I'm used to with making rock music. There are people curating their own playlists and promoting artists genuinely just because they love the music. Sure every scene has its' problems and bad apples and what not, but my experience has been absolutely stellar. I've made new friends and discovered amazing talents.
The most recent cool thing is that Activation Sequence was played on Beyond Synth podcast e203!
If I understood correctly it was a Beyond Synth Patreon supporter selection so thanks a thousand to who ever you are? Matthew...? (Edit: It was Andy Last himself!)
Helsinki Synth City and Future
I'm a maniac so I have already made a few tracks for the fourth album or future singles. So far all my tracks have been instrumental but on the next one I will introduce a bit of vocals/vocoder! Writing lyrics has always been agonizing but it's coming together.
Giant Space Lasers will also be available as a super limited 60 copies CASETTE some time in September at Upper Class Twat Tapes Store! (Another edit: One day after posting this, it's now up there, go get it!)
I have joined forces with my awesome fellow Finnish producers under the Helsinki Synth City Collective. I'm working on my live set and plan to participate in a few shows soon enough. The live will have me playing a keytar, guitar and maybe some vocoder vocals. I'll make it worth your while!
If you're a real retrohead and love casettes go grab Helsinki Synth City Compilation Vol. 1 casette on Bandcamp! Shipping out on or around August 28, 2019.
The tape features 14 tracks from Ace Buchannon, Millennium Falck, Driver 86, Runaway Droid, Kizunaut, Levinsky & VVOV.
For live action follow Helsinki Synth City and Runaway Droid on Facebook.
Catch me on Instagram for swifter updates. I'll be in some cool places in a few weeks and will post Instagram stories about neon sunsets, palm trees, casinos and beaches...