A new arts project from Family Gamer TV engages audience with videogames through thought provoking songs. The series was unveiled today with this short preview of episodes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8O-aBz1hBCA

Rebecca Mayes, contributor to Charlie Brooker’s GameSwipe BBC show, The Escapist and Game People, has collaborated on a new project where she performs a variety of gaming themed songs before discussing the issues they raise with viewers.

The weekly show will air in the run up to Christmas and offer a fresh way to engage with topics as diverse as violence, therapy, family arguments, body image, life choices and living adventures.

- YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL02RKkMS5T4hqXGbmVXsuUhWRdYWNR0DM

- GamePeople: http://www.gamepeople.co.uk/rebeccamayes_live.htm

Producer Andy Robertson said “Most main-stream headlines polarise videogames into gamers and non-gamers, avid fans or suspicious onlookers. This project, like the games and religion project ( http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL93039943675473CD&feature=plcp) before it, offers a fresh way to talk about video games without this divide. By considering how games relate to the issues of everyday life they become a topic that is interesting to all ages and perspectives regardless of how well versed on gaming they are.”

More About Game People and Family Gamer TV

Rebecca Mayes contributes to the Game People collective, a group that offers unusual video game reviews: http://www.gamepeople.co.uk/artistic.htm For more information visit http://www.gamepeople.co.uk or email editor@gamepeople.co.uk.

Family Gamer TV http://www.youtube.com/familygamertv is a YouTube channel offering video game reviews for parents and families. For more information email editor@familygamer.co.uk.

More About Rebecca Mayes

Rebecca Mayes wrote her first song up a tree in the rolling Kent countryside at the age of 16. A hundred songs later she moved to Devon to study Literature at Exeter University. In a strange sequence of happenings she was offered an unusual job writing songs for The Escapist Magazine, a website who review video-games.

Neither a gamer nor a critic Rebecca wrote subversive songs-critiques on the violence and misogyny of video-game culture, with a quirky folktronica sound. Writing and recording each song (accompanied by a video) in a week forced Rebecca into songwriting, production and video-editing bootcamp that won her attention, acclaim, and the most unlikely of fans.

Commissioned by Charlie Brooker to write a song for his BBC program 'Gameswipe' and receiving accolades in the Independent and the Observer, Rebecca established herself as a singer/songwriter with imagination and intelligence, prepared to go a never-before-ventured route.

Now she's applied everything she learnt to writing songs that are truer to her heart. Inspired largely by literature and myth her songs are full of wolves and other creatures. 'I'm interested in sensuality, the wild and female power,' she says. 'I grew up a vicar's daughter wondering what feminine spirituality looks like.' Many of the songs focus on the courage it takes to live out one's potential.

Rebecca is currently recording her new material and performing across Europe as part of the IC Music Programme. She lives in Devon (UK).

http://rebeccamayes.com/index.htm