Subwoolfer and the Journey to Discovery

Music is a subject which in my life I've always been particular about what I listen to.

Maybe it is because of my upbringing, and that may have been a huge influence. But I also like to think I have some taste.

Film scores/soundtracks have always been some of my favourite. The epicness of a scene captured through the art of music! To me, it takes extraordinary talent to create those scores, meticulously creating and aligning the music according to what is happening on screen while setting the appropriate mood. It is something which I've always admired the amount of talent that goes into it. Hell, even choosing the right lyrical music takes a certain understanding.

Enter me minding my own business listening and enjoying to the soundtrack of How to Train Your Dragon 2 ad nauseam. (John Powell, you absolute genius!) Sometimes movie soundtracks have the odd lyrical songs which they have musicians create specifically for the movie. And most of the time whenever I see/hear of one, I tend to skip or just ignore cause let's face it, some of them are a 'no....'

Long story short, through HTTYD 2's soundtrack - "Into a Fantasy" - I discovered Alexander Rybak and his music which then led me to "Fairytale" and ultimately... Eurovision and his epic win in 2009. 

Going down this particular rabbit hole happened around the time I really started exploring what kind of lyrical music I enjoy, as one I expect does at some point in their life. I had been exploring other artists, mainly from the 90's early 2000's, but Rybak and Eurovision somehow snapped my attention. 

However, I didn't jump on that Eurovision bandwagon right away. For starters, I knew nothing about it - when it started, how it functioned. I knew it was a song competition (well, duh), and I might have heard of it in passing, but that was about it. Then one day I discovered Rybak made it to Eurovision again in 2018 with "That's How You Write a Song."

via GIPHY

So naturally I was like, "How the hell did I not know this!?" I quickly listened to his entry, not worrying about anything else. But curiosity had other plans and insisted that I explore what the other entries were... naturally after the contest was over since my timing on realizing Rybak went to Eurovision was late to begin with. Almost immediately I discovered the feeling of emphatically disagreeing with the choice of winner and instead preferring another like Denmark's "Higher Ground." And from there, I dove deep.

Fast forward to 2019. My knowledge of Eurovision remained pretty limited, despite listening to past entries. I understood the culture of it more and knew it was approaching, even listening to some entries beforehand since Rybak had done some violin riffs; but I still had no idea when it started let alone the rules. Then somehow - and I don't remember the exact details - but somehow on the day of the Grand Final, I discovered a live stream.

I had a particular liking to Norway as a whole because of Alexander Rybak, so I was excited for their 2019 entry, KEiiNO's "Spirit in the Sky." Unfortunately, I had missed their live performance cause, again, I was late to the party, so I had to watch their entry while the show was still going. The travesty of them not winning because the juries decided to f*** things... at least they won the popular vote.

Then 2020 hit, slapping the world like Will Smith slapping Chris Rock and then 2021. Both years I kept an eye on Norway's Melodi Grand Prix (MGP), listening to the entries at the very least: in 2020 my favourite was "Pray for Me" and in 2021 "Monument." 

Then along came 2022, and the world was introduced to two space wolves: Keith and Jim.

via tenor

Subwoolfer: the biggest band in the galaxy!

Let's just first start off by saying this: when I watched Norway's entry for Eurovision 2022, I had no idea what to expect as I had completely forgotten about MGP. Keith's and Jim's outfits reminded me of The Blues Brothers, so I figured this has gotta be at least entertaining. I've always enjoyed the antics of The Blues Brothers. As I listened to the song "Give That Wolf a Banana," it was everything I had expected: pure fun; but it had such high level of production and choreography that one wouldn't necessarily expect from an entry many were deeming as "a joke." 

Let me tell you: their performance was no joke.

The song alone hooked me, and it was playing rent free in my head - still does even. Compared to all the ballads out there, singing about love and pain, it was a breath of fresh air. Contrary to what some were saying on how the song had no meaning, people began placing different meanings to the song, some more in depth than others. And others just loved how much it vibed, nothing more, nothing less. I, however, am a little... different.

The comment section I was glued to, wanting to glean any other information. I simply had to know anything and everything about Subwoolfer and the emerging community. Some commented how Subwoolfer came from the moon and that they came to Earth to compete in Eurovision. And something about Neal. This boggled my mind, but curiosity took over once more. The discovery I made on their YouTube channel, well, see for yourself

‘Subwoolfer’ -The biggest band in the Galaxy,first formed 4.5 billion years ago on their home planet, the moon. Since then the brothers, ‘Keith’ and ‘Jim’, have conquered the music scene on every planet, making them the most successful pop group ever. On 20th July, 1969, a prophet named Neil appeared to them in a stable, and was soon hailed ‘the man with the strongest arms’. He promised to return telling them he would help them become the biggest band on his planet too, but only once they had written the greatest song in the universe, sung in his native tongue -English. Neil never returned however, and so now armed with the greatest song in existence, ‘Give That Wolf A Banana’, they have come to earth in search of him, and to claim their musical throne by performing at the most important and prestigious musical event in the history of the world -MGP Norway 2022.

My sci-fi ass immediately became even more obsessed.

Why am I telling you all this? What is this purpose?

Well, first, to share who and what this iconic duo are and the community that emerged. I mean, the fan art alone is just - one expects stuff like that more so for media such as TV shows and movies. I'm sure fan art exists for artists and musicians, but I've never seen it on such a level as with Subwoolfer. And some of their skits? Masterpieces. 

These two really do live completely rent free in my head. 😍

But more importantly, I want to share with you all the Subwoolfer lore and what they get up to. I want to be the one-stop source for all things Subwoolfer - at the very least, write all of their lore down on a page, updating when necessary. I want to keep track of their lore cause it really is some of the most creative things I have seen in a long while.

(That and I know someone who plans on writing in depth fanfiction about them.)

So watch out for posts on them and their antics as well as a page dedicated on their lore. And if you have anything to add, do not hesitate to comment and bring it to my attention. As I am writing this, I'm still in the process of going through all of their interviews and piecing together their story.

My gosh do I wolf them. 💛💛