The music of Maltese band Plato’s Dream Machine is reaching a whole new audience far from Maltese shores as one of the band’s tracks, Temenza, was recently chosen as the soundtrack to a snowboarding commercial currently running on Australian extreme Epic TV.
The connection came about through SoFarSounds and Bewildered Music Festival organiser Shawn James, who met one of the station’s executives by chance. “I have always done my utmost to get alternative music heard outside of Malta’s shores. Luckily enough, during my time in London, I made some awesome friends, one of them being Epic TV’s Jarrad Templeton,” James says.
Jarrad was introduced to Plato’s Dream Machine music at a house party, when James showed him two of the band’s videos, Flien and Temenza.
Jarrad loved them both, music and videos and, when in early September he was asked to cut a 60-second snowboard promo video for the television station, his thoughts immediately returned to the music of the Maltese band. The exotic sound of the language, coupled with the infectious psychedelic rhythm, made it a winner.
“It’s a strange combination when you think about it – Maltese psychedelic rock and snowboarding. But, somehow, it works.
It worked so well, in fact, that the television station plans to use more Plato’s Dream Machine music and, potentially, other Maltese music, in such spots.
No one was as surprised at this unexpected marriage as band vocalist Robert Farrugia: “When Shawn told me there was a guy from Australia who wanted to use our song as soundtrack for a commercial on Epic TV, I was a bit perplexed. How on earth did our song manage to get that far offshore? Then I remembered that we are living in the internet age and from then on things got exciting,” Robert says.
Eventually, when hearing the finalised version, the singer says that he felt as though he had become a child again, such was his excitement at seeing his music coupled with a skiing video.
“It feels good to have my baby being used for such a random and yet popular purpose. The track really worked well and I’m glad we’re having this kind of exposure abroad – even if I bet it really sounds weird for foreigners to hear me singing in Maltese,” he says.