Heavy metal Greta - Thunberg speech to the United Nations spun into a death metal remix

Record ID: 1436098

  • Title: Heavy metal Greta - Thunberg speech to the United Nations spun into a death metal remix
  • Date: 9th October 2019
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) JOHN MOLLUSK, MUSICIAN AND PRODUCER, SAYING: "I just thought the words she chose and her passion seemed very metal. And so that night, I kind of got into an argument with my wife and instead of going to sleep, I came over here and did the song. It took about seven hours. And I had a lot of fun with it. I enjoyed trying to match the music to her cadence and her speech, especially the breaks with the 'how dare yous'. I thought it turned out really good. I was really proud of it. I showed my friends the next day. I'm like, 'Hey guys, I think this is pretty good. It's kind of funny.' Everyone loved it, but I had no idea. Some media source picked it up and then it just went crazy from there."
  • Embargoed: 23rd October 2019 20:55
  • Keywords: Greta Thunberg climate strike death metal mashup How Dare You John Meredith John Mollusk
  • Location: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES / UNITED NATIONS
  • City: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES / UNITED NATIONS
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment,Music
  • Reuters ID: LVA002B0DNEX3
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: If activism doesn't work out, Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg could have a future as a death metal singer.
    Her passionate speech in September to the United Nations Climate Action Summit has been turned into a death metal mashup that has gained worldwide attention.
    The remix called "Greta Thunberg sings Swedish Death Metal" was created by New York-based musician and producer John Meredith whose stage name is John Mollusk.
    Inside his basement music studio in Queens, Mollusk told Reuters. "I just thought the words she chose and her passion seemed very metal."
    Mollusk, also the drummer for the metal band Suaka, said he could relate to the teenager's angst.
    "So that night, I kind of got into an argument with my wife and instead of going to sleep, I came over here and did the song. It took about seven hours. And I had a lot of fun with it."
    Mollusk said despite distorting Thunberg's voice through a computer, he couldn't quite make the 16-year-old's voice "metal enough".
    "I recorded her speech into the computer, wrote the music around it, based the riffs on her cadence of her speech, especially on the breaks, the how dare yous, and then I tried to manipulate her own words, her own voice, but I couldn't make it sound metal enough," he said. "So I just grabbed the mic and tried to match it best I could."
    The two minute video has been viewed well over four million times, including by Greta who tweeted, "I have moved on from this climate thing... From now on I will be doing death metal only!!"
    Mollusk said, "The biggest complaint is it's not Swedish death metal... It's technically more like black metal I guess, but she's from Sweden and I just called it Swedish death metal."
    That didn't stop the Swedish record label Despotz Records from making a deal with Mollusk. Despotz re-titled the song "G.T - How Dare You" and released it on Spotify, YouTube, Bandcamp and other music sharing services. Mollusk said all the money made from downloads will go to the environmental activist group Greenpeace.
    (Production: Angela Moore, Nelson Villarreal, Catherine Koppel)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2019. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
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