Watch Out For Snakes | |
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Background information | |
Birth name | Matthew Stephen Baum |
Born | Cocoa Beach, Florida, United States | April 21, 1981
Origin | Atlanta, Georgia, United States |
Genres | Chipwave Chiptune Synthwave Electronic |
Years active | 2015 – present |
Labels | Bitwave Records Independent |
Website | watchoutforsnakestheband.bandcamp.com |
Watch Out For Snakes is the pseudonym of Atlanta-based musician and producer Matthew Stephen Baum. [1] He is often credited as a pioneer of the chipwave genre, fusing elements of chiptune and synthwave. [2] [3] [4]
He is also known for placing emphasis on his live performances, which employ a keytar and have been characterized as high-energy and aggressive. [5] He has participated in a number of synthwave, chiptune, and video game music festivals including Echosynthetic Fest, Neon Rose Fest, and MAGFest. [5] [6]
Baum synthesizes his chiptune instrumentation from the Nintendo and Game Boy video game systems. His albums have been described as imaginary video game soundtracks and he has stated that they draw thematically from personal events in his own life. [4] [7] [8]
Chiptune, also called 8-bit music, is a style of electronic music made using the programmable sound generator (PSG) sound chips or synthesizers in vintage arcade machines, computers and video game consoles. The term is commonly used to refer to tracker format music using extremely basic and small samples that an old computer or console could produce, as well as music that combines PSG sounds with modern musical styles. It has been described as "an interpretation of many genres" since any existing song can be arranged in a chiptune style defined more by choice of instrument and timbre than specific style elements.
Anamanaguchi is an American chiptune-based pop and rock band from New York City. The band has four members: lead songwriters and guitarists Peter Berkman and Ary Warnaar, bassist James DeVito, and drummer Luke Silas.
Nintendocore is a broadly defined style of music that most commonly fuses chiptune with various hardcore punk and/or heavy metal subgenres, most often metalcore and post-hardcore. The genre is sometimes considered a direct subgenre of post-hardcore and a fusion genre between metalcore and chiptune. The genre originated in the early 2000s and peaked around the late 2000s with bands like Horse the Band, Karate High School and Sky Eats Airplane pioneering the genre.
Bitpop is a type of electronic music and subgenre of chiptune music, where at least part of the music is made using the sound chips of old 8-bit computers and video game consoles.
Porter Weston Robinson is an American DJ and electronic music producer. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, and raised in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Robinson began producing electronic music during his adolescence. He signed to Skrillex's record label OWSLA at the age of 18 and released the extended play Spitfire in 2011. He appeared on Billboard's 21 Under 21 list in 2012.
Daniel Behrens, better known by his stage name Danimal Cannon, is an American video game composer and chiptune music performer. He is most known for combining guitar playing with Game Boy music. He is also known for his presentations on chipmusic, having hosted panels at Penny Arcade Expo, YouTube tutorials, a TEDx Talk, and a Game Boy masterclass workshop at Blip Festival 2012.
Synthwave is an electronic music microgenre that is based predominantly on the music associated with action, science-fiction, and horror film soundtracks of the 1980s. Other influences are drawn from the decade's art and video games. Synthwave musicians often espouse nostalgia for 1980s culture and attempt to capture the era's atmosphere and celebrate it.
Franck Hueso, better known by his stage name Carpenter Brut, is a French darksynth artist from Poitiers, France. He has released three EPs, EP I (2012), EP II (2013) and EP III (2015), which were collected and released together as the album Trilogy (2015). He later released three additional studio albums, Leather Teeth (2018), Blood Machines OST (2020) and Leather Terror (2022), along with one live album, CarpenterBrutLive (2017). He has also contributed original music to a variety of soundtracks, both for film and video games.
Dunderpatrullen is a Swedish electronic music group from Östersund, Jämtland. Their music is mostly based in the bitpop sub-genre of chiptune, but has deviated into other territories such as synthwave and EDM. Much of their inspiration comes from classic retro video game composition, often referencing and basing composition off of classic chiptune techniques in a modern context. The band has found success within the gaming enthusiast sphere, playing for events such as DreamHack and NärCon.
Gunship is a British synthwave band formed in 2014 by Dan Haigh and Alex Westaway; they were later joined by drummer Alex Gingell.
James Leusink, better known by his alias Ephixa, is a Canadian electronic music producer who lives in Ontario, Canada. He is best known for his viral "Charlie Sheen Bi-Winning" dubstep remix, remixes of music from the Legend of Zelda franchise as well as various other remixes and original electronic music. Leusink peaked at #11 on Billboard's Next Big Sound chart in November 2011. Ephixa is also known for the first ever single released by Canadian record label Monstercat, "Dubstep Killed Rock 'n' Roll".
Juan Carlos Ozuna Rosado , known simply by his surname Ozuna, is a Puerto Rican singer, born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico to a Dominican father and a Puerto Rican mother. Five of his studio albums have topped the Billboard Top Latin Albums chart, with Aura (2018) charting at number seven on the Billboard 200. His musical style is primarily defined as reggaeton and Latin trap, although he has collaborated with several artists from different genres and his music takes influences from a wide variety of genres, including pop, rock, hip hop, R&B, reggae, bachata, dembow, and electronic, amongst others.
Juan Irming, also known as Amplitude Problem, is a Swedish-American musician and producer currently based in Los Angeles. While the former hacker has had a long career in music beginning in the underground demoscene in Europe, he is best known for his chiptune, synthwave, and nerdcore tracks.
Laura Fares, known as LAU or Lau Fares is an Argentine singer-songwriter, drummer, and producer from Argentina, and currently based in Barcelona (Spain), after 21 years in the United Kingdom. She is also the founder of Aztec Records with Ariel Amejeiras.
John Cody Carpenter is an American musician and composer. He is the son of film director John Carpenter and actress Adrienne Barbeau. Carpenter is mostly known for his work with his godfather and musician Daniel Davies, as well as his various solo projects.
Michael James Oakley is a Scottish synthwave producer and musician.
Jukio Kallio is a Finnish video game composer known for creating the soundtracks to Minit, Fall Guys, Nuclear Throne and Luftrausers. He started making music in 2011 and created chiptune music on his own. He then met game developer and co-founder of former Dutch game studio Vlambeer, Jan Willem Nijman. Kallio collaborated with Nijman to develop and create the music to various titles made by Vlambeer. Kallio then collaborated with Daniel Hagström in 2020 to create the soundtrack to Fall Guys.
Forrest Avery Carney, known professionally as Mr.Kitty, is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and DJ. He is best known for his song "After Dark", which was released in 2014 and went viral after a fan video was published on YouTube in 2019.