80s mash-up is a viral hit for band
MUSICAL BRAINWAVE FROM A DULL SUNDAY
A BAND originally from Staffordshire have gone viral online after producing an unlikely 80s mash-up of a song that has received more than 1.1 million views.
Deco, with members who grew up in Tutbury and Ashbourne, posted a video of the band performing the lyrics of Oasis’ Wonderwall to the tune of Smalltown Boy by Bronski Beat, in true 80s-style.
The video went viral online, reaching more than 2,500,000 people in 24 hours, being viewed 700,000-plus times. Frontman Max Kendall, a former Burton de Ferrers student, said: “During the first lockdown, the band were living together and we wrote about 14 songs together in that time. But now, we’re all living in separate households, so it’s been more difficult to create music.
“We were all bored one Sunday and had been planning to do some Tik Tok covers, having already done an 80s sea shanty the week before. We chose Wonderwall and Smalltown Boy, and within a few hours it was going crazy on Twitter.
“We had all filmed our own parts and edited them together, and it was getting lots of organic traction, and our followers have skyrocketed!”
The mash-up was picked up by Radio 2 and BBC News, with the original version now having over 1.1million views.
The band, established in 2011, have since released a new mashup of how the Spice Girls’ Wannabe would sound if it was released in the 80s, to the tune of Sexual Healing by Marvin Gaye.
Now residing in London, Deco comprise: Max Kendall: vocals and synth - Burton ; John Dell: guitar - Ashbourne; John Steele: bass - Ashbourne; Thomas Reinholz: drums - Munich; and Lucy Kendall: saxophone - Burton.
They released their EP Real Life in 2020, as well as seven singles the previous year. Deco are planning to release the Wonderwall x Smalltown Boy mash-up as an official single, followed by some new material, which they were working on during the pandemic. Max added: “It’s been a really cool experience, and it was surreal for a lot of friends and family to see me on the news, as I haven’t seen much in the past 12 months.
“We were about to release a single but we’ve had some interest from labels so we are just finalising some contracts. We are going to release the mashup, then a follow-up single this year.”