ARCADE NINJA
Arcade Ninja
Arcade Ninja is a Canadian synthwave/chiptune/8 bit music artist living in the city of Montreal. Arcade Ninja sounds like a blast of retro synthesizers, beat machines & vintage drums delivering powerful melodies coming straight out of a video game mixed with 80’s pop culture obscure references. Arcade Ninja came to life in 2015 for the love of retro video game music, the passion for synthesizers and the nostalgia of the 80’s culture. Arcade Ninja is the convergence of generations x/y, music styles and technologies giving birth to a new style of music.
Not so long ago we were living in the 80's with stinky hairspray, funny looking haircuts, boombox radios, pogo sticks, video stores and movies at the Drive-In. Phil Collins, Prince, Michael Jackson, Cindy Lauper and Van Halen were flooding the airwaves and surfing at the top of the charts.
Every home in North America had a Rubik cube, Sony Walkman, VCR and some were lucky enough to have calculator watches and Rebook pump shoes, we were also making mixtapes of our favorite songs and taping our favorite cartoons on VHS tapes.
The video game industry was in full expansion releasing amazing video game consoles like the Commodore 64, ColecoVision, Amiga, Atari, SEGA MASTER, Turbo Grafx-16, NES, Gameboy, SNES, GENESIS. We spent years of our childhood having friends sleeping over playing video games all night in the basement (Pac-Man, Q-Bert, Space invaders, Galaga, Golden Axe, Commander Keen, Wolfenstein, Space Quest, Final Fantasy, Dragon Warrior, Castlevania, Ninja Gaiden, Metroid, Zelda …) just to name a few.
Hollywood was releasing great cheesy movies like The Swamp thing, Return of the Killer tomatoes, Killer clowns from outter space, The Toxic Avenger, Bill and Ted’s excellent adventure, Howard the Duck, Bloodsport, Point break. Actors like Tom Selleck, Patrick Swayze, David Hasselhoff, Steven Seagal, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Chuck Norris we’re starring in every god damn action movie and we were always thirsty for more cheese.
By the start of the 80’s there was an explosion of synthesizers available on the market for consumers. Classics synthesizers (Yamaha DX7, PPG Wave 2.2, Roland D-50, Roland Jupiter-8, ARP odyssey, ARP 2600, Roland Juno 106, Yamaha CS-80, Yamaha MS-20, Minimoog, Prophet 5, Oberheim OB-X, Fairlight CMI, E-MU Emulator). Back then synthesizers were used by all the artists & movie composers resulting in a very specific futuristic sound that characterized the sound of the 80’s that a lot of us are still digging today.
I'm sharing my music out there hoping to reach other people with the same passion as mine. I hope that my music will encourage some of you out there to explore the world of possibilities behind synthesizers and how to express yourself with these powerful tools.
Feel free to drop me a line!
Arcade Ninja