WudYa looking to go global from Oktoberfest origins.

Mark Lovell

Thu 20 Sep

 ''München, Bayern in the fall'' might not immediately conjure up images of the world famous beer festival, but when it's followed up with ''Oktoberfest, I got the call, Wiesn's callin' one and all,'' you are left in no doubt that WudYa - the Anglo-German pop project - have written a song they hope will be the first ever international Oktoberfest hit.

"Kiss Me" tells the story of how an Englishman fell head over heels in love with a Bavarian girl at the Oktoberfest. Ian Finch, originally from Nottingham in England, is the mastermind behind the lyrics to the song, which has already exceeded 30,000 hits on YouTube.

The idea came about at the beginning of 2011, when Ian mentioned to co-founding band member and work colleague Markus that he'd always thought about writing lyrics and had an idea for an Oktoberfest song in English, "simply because no one has ever written an international Oktoberfest hit specifically about the Wiesn."

Gradually, as the months passed, the lines and verses came together to form the basis of the band's debut song. Ian recalls, ''I would be in the car, listening to the radio, or just thinking about something random and a line would come to me.'' The chorus line "Ein Prosit to the Gemütlichkeit" is an interesting play on words with the Oktoberfest drinking song, which every non-German visitor to the festival soon picks up. ''As soon as Markus heard it," Ian goes on, "he loved it. The fact the word "Frau" fits nicely into the chorus too gives the song a bit more of a German feel.''

He had written three verses by early summer and the chorus and handed the text to his partner. ''For me, the words just rhymed - like a poem. Being less musically minded than Markus I could not visualise how they could be brought to life with music. Personally, I think anyone can write lyrics, but the real talent is successfully putting them to music.''

This Markus certainly did and within a fortnight he'd presented Ian with the first draft of ''Kiss Me'' who was blown away. ''I remember hearing it for the first time and for two days afterwards I could not get it out my head. The Germans call it an "Ohrwurm" [literally an "ear worm" or catchy tune] and from that moment I knew we were onto something.''

With the foundation of the song complete, the band turned their attention to the video, with several ideas and directions considered. Unsurprisingly, the pair chose a Wiesn theme and set about turning Markus' garden into a mock Oktoberfest scene. ''What I like about the video is that we showed the total opposite to what the story of the song actually is. It's amusing to see the girl constantly rejecting the advances of this poor lovestruck guy,'' explains Markus. He goes on, ''Personally, this project presented a new challenge in a different direction, away from mainstream pop music and a little more brass band, folk music.''

The video was filmed on a sunny afternoon in late August (complete with original Oktoberfest beer and extra-large pretzels) and edited together over the next fortnight by the highly talented Patrick Lang, who was also on hand to film and direct ''Kiss Me, the Video.''

By the end of August 2012, more than half a dozen Oktoberfests around the world had registered their interest in using ''Kiss Me'' in some way at their autumn events.

Munich's Radio Feierwerk gave "Kiss Me" its debut on the airwaves, while the Choctaw Oktoberfest in Oklahoma had the honour of being the first festival to perform the song live on stage.

Whilst you might not hear ''Kiss Me'' immediately in Munich, you can be rest assured that somewhere in the world revellers will be chinking glasses, drinking beer and singing along to the story of one starry-eyed Englishman who came to the world's biggest party and fell in love.