Oklahoma City-based band, Johnny Manchild and the Poor Bastards, will cover a song for a YouTube video for persona Alpharad.
The alternative piano rock band is fronted by Johnny Manchild, who went to high school with former OU student Jacob Rabon, the person behind the Alpharad YouTube channel.
Alpharad has about 1.3 million subscribers on YouTube and streams video games like the Super Smash Bros. series, Pokémon and Sonic the Hedgehog.
Rabon plans to release a video with the band’s cover of the song "Last Surprise" from the game Persona 5 on Feb. 15. The video will also feature a restructured song Manchild and Rabon worked on together in their band Saving Sound called, “Four Years Gone.”
Rabon said fans of Alpharad have found the song and asked if he plans to do other projects like it, and wonders how they will react after its re-release.
Rabon said he knew Manchild was talented, but really got invested after listening to the band’s 2018 album release, “Insomnia.”
“Immediately upon hearing (the album), I was like, no you have everything you need except exposure and that’s one thing I can help with,” Rabon said. “The only hard part with something like that was finding a natural way to do it so it doesn’t come as forced to my fan base.”
Along with the cover, Johnny Manchild and the Poor Bastards plan to release a crowd-funding event on Feb. 15 to purchase a tour van and trailer using Indiegogo. The goal is to raise about $30,000.
Manchild said the band has about eight members, and in the past have used multiple cars to get to Missouri or Texas, but hope to play on the West Coast. He said the band will try to play in the town or metro area of anyone who donates the minimum amount, one dollar, to the fund.
“That may sound like a big number, but...the biggest part of it is actually getting the van, title, registration, getting the trailer, insurance and all that stuff,” Manchild said. “That number is basically the bottom line of what we need to make sure we can do this without ending ourselves.”
The band released its latest single, “All in My Mind,” Jan. 30 as part of its goal to release one single at the end of every month for the year.
Johnny Manchild and the Poor Bastards’ next show will be with And Then Came Humans at 10 p.m. Feb. 7 at The Deli in Norman.
