Secretly I have discovered that Rebecca Mayes has hit the national UK papers. A text from a friend: Nice review in the Guardian. An email from my brother: Congrats on the piece in the Independent. It's all news to me. Seems I need to set up google alerts on my own name. How disturbingly narcissistic.

I also have no idea if I was in actual print or just online, and it's not as easy as going to your newsagents and asking for yesterday's paper - no they all get sent back to the aliens in the sky, seeing as the past is prone to going out of sell-by-date.

And so I settle down in front of the screen to see what the big guns have to say. It is more than odd reading about yourself in this way. I have come to think of Rebecca Mayes as an entity beyond my knowing, a project, an experiment. I am not her/it. I am the experience of reading her story, created by me, created by strangers.

This is what Toby Moses had to say in The Observer:

"While game soundtracks may have garnered some respectability, with the LA Philharmonic performing Final Fantasy recitals, the idea of video games inspiring the content of an entire album is easy to write off as a curio."

[Curio? Thinks Rebecca Mayes. Nice word.]

"Fortunately, Rebecca Mayes comes at it with a wry wit and an affectionate, informed voice, making the long-form The Epic Win and shorter Songs From the Garage (Peppy Records, mp3 download, out now) not only enjoyable listens, but witty testaments to how far gaming culture has come in the past few decades."

[Interesting use of ‘voice' here, Rebecca Mayes thinks, both the sound of her voice and the thoughts she gives voice to. Humm this guy is a pro.]

"Mayes effortlessly combines lyrics pleading for peaceable treatment of zombies in Resident Evil 5 ("Don't shoot them, try to hug them and hold them instead") with a folksy style that challenges gaming stereotypes."

[He gets it!]

"She performed "Chainsaws and Swearwords" on Charlie Brooker's Gameswipe to acclaim and the song's attack on gaming's all-too-common infantile obsessions is mirrored by her eulogy to Batman: Arkham Asylum, rejoicing in an award-winning game that leaves "no blood on your hands this time".
"Most tracks offer a musical critique of a single game. The weary refrain on "Who You Gonna Call?" artfully highlights the flaws of the recent Ghostbusters game with lines such as: "I couldn't stand the indignity on the face of the Giant Stay Puft Marshmallow Man." If only all reviews could be just so."

Well, Toby Moses has made it into Rebecca Mayes' good books that's for sure.

And now she's off to search the aliens in the sky, see if they'll send back a copy of the past.

Written by Rebecca Mayes

You can support Rebecca by buying Big Guns



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Rebecca Mayes writes the Rebecca Mayes column.

"Welcome to my blog. I thought I'd let you in on a few of the secrets that go on backstage in the world of Rebecca Mayes."

Here are the games I've been playing recently:

• Battle for the Living Room
• Live Show
• Train Gang
• Fierce Hero Girl
• Home