2020 began with a social fascination for sea shanties, which can be traced in large part back to Nathan Evans’ viral TikTok singing the classic whaling sea shanty “Wellerman,” and the countless remixes and duets that added layers to the song. While it may not be Evans’ version of the song, “Wellerman” is finally making its way to FUSER later this week, free for all players to add to their crates to mix the layered a cappella vocals into any other track.
“Soon May the Wellerman Come” by Cap’n Spicy Dill is a free DLC track for all players. A cursory Google search for Cap’n Spicy Dill doesn’t return any hits (except for literal spicy dill pickles), so it can be assumed this is a local Harmonix artist, either within the studio or as part of a friends and family situation. Harmonix has commonly promoted local Boston musicians and tat community in all of its games. You can hear a quick snippet of the a cappella shanty in the preview video above.
Additionally, players can get their hands on the paid DLC tracks “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac and “Maneater” by Daryl Hall & John Oates. “Dreams” also saw renewed relevance and interest last year thanks to TikTok. A viral video of user Doggface longboarding, drinking cranberry juice, and lip syncing to the now popular song led to a surge of the song on the Billboard charts. “Dreams” and “Maneater” will each cost $1.99, in line with the rest of FUSER’s DLC offerings. Players will then have complete freedom to take the various tracks from each and mix them into their own mixes however they like.
FUSER’s latest event is titled Adrift in the Best Way, and “Wellerman” makes the perfect addition to layer in sea shanty vocals. Earlier this year, Harmonix had also challenged players to come up with their own purely a cappella sea shanties in FUSER using only vocal tracks, so it was inevitable that an actual “Wellerman” track would eventually make its way to the game. With the new Diamond Stage now live, its a great opportunity to show the world how you can remix the popular song in new and surprising ways.
You can check out the original epic remix that sent “Wellerman”—and as a result, sea shanties—viral in the video below, beginning with Nathan Evans and adding multiple vocal parts and even a violin.
These three new tracks will be available in FUSER on June 3rd. “Wellerman” is free for all players, while the other two songs are paid DLC add-ons.
[Source: Harmonix]
