ON THE RISE
If you want to go from a 1980s video arcade to a dystopian world of 2088 with a pit stop in 2025, you can get there by riding Arcade Knights’ authentic ’80s synths on “Neon Dreamers” and the album it ends, Cyber Hack.
And you can do all that while you read the graphic novel of the same name (Cyber Hack: Uprising), for which the album is the soundtrack, because everything he does tells a story.
The video will take you right into dystopia.
“I have, with that full album, Cyber Hack, including ‘Neon Dreamers,’ a graphic novel that I wrote,” said Arcade Knights. “There’s also lyrics in the Cyber Hack and ‘Neon Dreamers’ tracks, that helps tell a relavent story, it’s all linear. From the first track to the 11th track, there's a full story that unfolds.”
Musically, the story is narrated through 1980s hardware sounds. He emphasizes hardware, not computers.
“Yes, I’m an 80s kid, and what I’ve done with Arcade Knights is I use ’80s synthesizers, authentic synths, authentic sounds, all in hardware. I don’t use a DAW. I use the hardware. So, with Cyber Hack, it’s an old school feel with a modern twist, because what I also add to the music, aside from the authentic ’80s synths, is modern glitch sounds, cyberpunk elements.”
The hook in “Neon Dreamers” conveys the feel of the music and a hint of the story of the album and the novel, and Arcade Knights’ approach to music:
We’re neon dreamers lighting up the sky
Chasing our tomorrow, never asking why
With our hearts electric breaking through the dark
In this digital world we’ll make our mark
He is making his mark in a digital era with, as previously noted, ’80s hardware. He started putting out music in January 2024, the month, he says, that he left computers behind to make music. He tried the digital audio workstations.
“I wasn’t able to really get my feelings through the mouse and into the interface. And then I said, ‘I’m done with this,’ and I went back to hardware synthesizers, hardware sequencers, hardware groove boxes with authentic ’80s sounds and the tactile feel of me hitting pads and turning knobs to get the synthesizer frequency pattern just right.”
His day job is as an ethical hacker — he hacks the systems of critical infrastructure to find any weaknesses so they can be eliminated before bad guys can exploit them.
“I protect power grids, oil rigs, the big, heavy kind of industry.”
In fact, some of the tracks on Cyber Hack include industrial sounds glitches from his work. For instance, one of them is wrapped like an industrial power transformer.
“I changed the pitch and worked the sound, so it’s my sound.”
The story in Cyber Hack is based on the potential threat of AI.
“The story has this battle of an evil AI with a retro ’80s hacker group that is defending our freedom today. That’s the idea behind the album and the music, and every track, every key signature I use is related to a feeling I want to invoke through this journey, this album. So, from start to finish, there’s this kind of up-and-down conflict. There’s a heavy, rebellious anthem, and then there’s a resolve at the end.”
“Neon Dreamers” is the final song of the album, and he says that through it you can get an idea of where the story goes.
Everything he does has a story, and every album has or will have a graphic novel to go with it. The novel for an album he released last year, Dark Fate, will be out this October, on the anniversary of the album’s release. Cyber Hack, the novel and the album, are on Amazon.
Everything he does is on retro-based equipment. He wants to bring that sound, that feel of the ’80s arcades, into the present and adapt the modern world to it. He also does his own mixing, mastering and engineering—everything from start to finish, in hardware.
And vice versa.
“I’m creating synthwave-cyberpunk music. I’m expanding it back to the past into a retro arcade feel, but really still having the true dystopian future aspect, like Blade Runner, which is cyberpunk.”
The name of his band, Arcade Knights, comes from the feel of that era, when he was a kid. He cites the soundtracks from Miami Vice, Rambo, Terminator, Tron, and arcade halls, “all those flavors.”
He is trying something new, with his albums doing double duty as albums — wonderful electronic listening — and as soundtracks for his graphic novel. A great deal of the charm and, for him, the passion, is doing it on ’80s hardware, with ’80s sounds brought into the 21st century.
“I really want to make this a full-time thing, so I’m really putting my heart into it. And dude, it feels awesome! Nostalgia meets modern neon and cyberpunk.”
Ride into the past, the future and the present and connect to Arcade Knights on all platforms for new music, videos, and social posts.
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Pop and soul singer Sharon Watkins is preparing to share her very first album in 2023. Working alongside producer Sam Miller (known for his work with The Hoosiers and One Direction), she is following up with her newest release, The One That Got Away, which arrives on 18 November 2022. The track is a tender acoustic ballad that tells the story of leaving behind a harmful relationship, finding strength, and welcoming a fresh start. With gentle piano arrangements and Sharon’s unmistakable soulful voice, the song captures an intensely emotional journey.
Her earlier singles, Proud and Stranded, have already connected with listeners in a big way, reaching more than 250,000 views on YouTube and 150,000 streams on Spotify. With this momentum building, Music News sat down with Sharon to talk about her music and what comes next.
Hi Sharon How are you?
Doing really well thanks! So excited about all the momentum we’ve had with our first 3 singles, honestly, it has been insane to have had BBC radio interviews, rotations, global press coverage and to have won an international song contest in such a short space of time!!
Tell us about your latest release ‘The One That Got Away’?
Well, it starts out as a real wintery piano ballad, portraying that moment when you suddenly realise that someone you're with is messing you around. Then, with the help of big strings and orchestral percussion, it develops into a powerful "I'm over you" song…. It is really a defiant two-fingers up at the ex that never appreciated you until it was too late. It moves from the turmoil of still having feelings for that person, cutting lose and moving on to triumphant recovery, knowing that you made the right decision.
The music video is visually stunning and the dance is beautiful, talk to us about the filming of this video and the creative decision to use dance to express the meaning of the track.
Thank you, that means a lot! We’re really pleased with the way the video came out. Me and my brother, Sammy J Stopford, who has been my partner in crime on this whole album project, knew very early on that we wanted a contemporary dance that portrayed the turmoil in this song. I also knew I wanted the video to express the mental turmoil you go through after finishing a relationship and the underwater medium just seamed such an ideal metaphor for that. We put out a request for dancers and choreographers on Instragram not thinking we would get much interest. One of our lessons on this project is that you can’t pore the right energy into a project if you don’t love the music and so this was the main pre-requisite for dancers…. “please only contact us if the song inspires you!”…. we couldn’t believe the response!! We ended up watching so many amazing dance videos from such talented people. Our album is about adult life lessons and so we knew we wanted a believable couple, that had a great connection and were old enough to have gone through an adult relationship and breakup. We chose Florivaldo Mossi (Michael Jackson in West End Show “Thriller”) & Ashley Cavell (Star of many shows, including ABBA Fever) as they are both incredible dancers but also fit the storyline so well. I couldn’t believe it when Choreographer, Stewart Arnold (choreographer & dancer to Kate Bush) agreed to work on the project!!
The writing in the song is very personal. Was it emotional pouring these emotions into lyrics?
Honestly, it is like an exorcism. Songwriting is how I process and deal with life’s ups-and-downs and so I would be lost without that outlet. It forces me to really dig deep on my emotions towards things. You can’t write songs about superficial stuff, otherwise it just sounds cliché.
What do you hope people take away from ‘The One That Got Away’?
I feel like it’s the song you need a friend to play you when you have broken up from someone and are feeling injured and unsure. You need someone to tell you that you missed a bullet and one day that ex will look around and realise that they lost something very special. I have had people reach out already and tell me how relatable the message is and that it has helped them… this is the biggest compliment of all!!
Talk to us about your influences as an artist.
I grew up in Manchester surrounded by an incredible 90’s music scene, in a house where my dad played everything from The Beatles to Zappa. I then spent 8 years living in the states, picking up some great American influences like Carole King. I have now made Nottingham my home, which is where I recorded the album and I have honestly really been enjoying the return in popularity of singer-songwriters like Lewis Capaldi and Tom Odell …. So all-in-all a pretty varied range of influcences… making for an eclectic pop album that I hope you all like.
Going back briefly on the video, you collaborated with some great people on the video such as Stewart Arnold who worked closely with Kate Bush and Florivaldo Mossi, noted for being Michael Jackson in Thriller Live. Tell us about your experience working with them.
It's been the stuff of dreams really. I am a massive Kate Bush fan and to work with Stewart was like a dream come true. He and I had some long conversations about our vision for this video and the turmoil I wanted to portray. His ability to translate that into dance is something amazing to watch. I had the honour of watching him choregraph the dancers on the morning of the shoot and it was like watching a master at work, the artistic ideas that he brought to this project were incredible. Flori Mossi and Ashley Cavell are both experienced dancers but seeing the way they clicked together, and their interaction and interpretation of the song just blew me away.
What can we expect from you next?
Well, we have 3 more singles coming ahead of the album launch in 2023, so make sure you follow me on Spotify to keep up with those (Sharon Watkins) and we’re also going to be doing a series of “Live Lounge” performances of our tracks ahead of the album release so follow me on socials @sharonwatkinsofficial to keep an eye out for those.
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