Electric Callboy and the Need For Positive Change

Sometimes you consume a piece of media and know that you’ve found a purpose in it, whether it be an inspiration to fall in love, work out, or start a new obsession. I’ll be talking about none of these today; I’ll be talking about partying! Oh, and a creative band that kickstarted a brand new genre I suppose. 

In 2020, I—along with many others—discovered “Hypa Hypa” by Eskimo Callboy (don’t worry, we’ll get to the discrepancy), and it took the internet by storm. Seemingly overnight, many YouTube music and reaction channels were inundated with requests to watch a video for what looked to be an 80s-inspired song by an underground German band with a funky name, and I implore you to explore the reason for this for yourself.

Great! Now that I choose to assume you clicked on the video link (seriously, you only need 20 seconds), I’m guessing you can see why this video blew up on reaction channels. Anything with a surprise element has always had a place in internet culture. Especially when you know what’s coming, watching someone be taken aback by something is incredible. So a comedic, off the wall, EDM-turned-metal song was practically made for the internet.

The men of this musical meme masterpiece are Nico Sallach and Kevin *looks at smudged writing on hand* Ratajczak, the primary songwriters for Electric Callboy. Prior to them, Sebastian “Sushi” Biesler was in Nico’s place. Together, they launched a genre affectionately referred to as “partycore” (à la the other -core genres like “hardcore”). Formed in 2010, EC’s sound was influenced by other huge German bands like Rammstein and other electronicore bands of the time like Attack Attack!, and their lyrics and style were influenced by other comedy acts like The Lonely Island. Listening to the lyrics should make that pretty apparent, as much of the “partycore” content comes from their lyrics about sex and partying. These inspirations in themselves are nothing new, but the way it’s presented is in an original style that they created together.

Nico and Kevin have gone on record as saying that in order to create songs, they just do some divergent thinking to come up with as many unique and funny ideas as they can, and think of ideas that would be funny and work with their style. They’ve also said that their favorite part of writing music is coming up with how the breakdown will sound. From “MC Thunder II: Dancing Like a Ninja”’s anime buildup to “We Got The Moves”’s hardstyle drop, it’s clear that the band puts a lot of effort in what they do for their and their audience’s fun.

It’s also clear that this band isn’t afraid to change when it needs to. From the sound and style in 2010, Electric Callboy has evolved, as most bands have, in many ways. The first of these major changes came with the lead vocalist’s swap in 2020. Sebastian left the band to pursue a new start with a different band, and he parted with Eskimo Callboy on good terms. Later that year, they found their replacement man: Nico Sallach. From Sushi to Nico, Nico offered his own unique sound to the band in his less nasily singing tone and deep screams.

The next major change came when the band announced the submission of their song “Pump It” to the Eurovision Song Contest. Because of this, and for other reasons, they decided to change their name from Eskimo Callboy to Electric Callboy. They made a video explaining that in Germany, “eskimo” doesn’t have the same connotation as it does overseas. They also explained that even though they don’t see themselves as bad people (and it’s obvious that they aren’t), it’s a bit hard to market your band to people who don’t know you when you have a negatively associated word to many people in the name of your band.

It’s clear that these changes were made in good nature, and that they aren’t afraid to deviate from their norm as many bands are. Electric Callboy is truly a new creative force in the industry and an influence to many aspiring musicians.