A SIMPLE request to find the name of a forgotten song from the 1980s launched a three-year search that ended with an unlikely result and saw twin musicians thurst into social media stardom.
Christopher Saint Booth and Philip Adrian Booth are lifelong musicians and filmmakers who have worked on projects throughout their decades-long careers.
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In the 1980s, the identical twin brothers were in their early 20s and worked odd jobs in the entertainment industry, which often included licensing some of their songs to adult film producers.
“It wasn’t written for the movie. It was just someone saying, ‘Hey dude, I need some music you have to use. Whatever it is,'” Christopher told The U.S. Sun.
Many of the adult films the brothers did music for were turned into “erotic thrillers,” which were shown on networks such as Cinemax and Showtime.
The money they made from the royalties helped launch their careers, which have largely turned into horror films and paranormal documentaries.
“And we still do music. I have a new album out called SkyPolar, which is all electronic-synthesizing music,” Christopher said.
“I was promoting one of our documentaries and somebody wrote under the post, ‘Release Ulterior Motives.’
“I had no idea what that meant but it kept going on. Suddenly, I clicked on Reddit, and my son, Gabriel, walked in and said, ‘Dad, you’re a god on the internet.’
“He shows me all this stuff and he goes, ‘Dad, you’re blowing up.'”
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The brothers, admittedly, were confused about what the fuss was about as they only used social media to promote their upcoming projects.
“My daughter texted me and said, ‘I’m so proud of you guys,'” said Philip.
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“I’ve been in the entertainment business for so long but we still didn’t really understand the concept of social media.”
The brothers’ accounts were flooded with comments and followers with Christopher gaining roughly 36,000 followers in about 30 days.
It all stemmed from a song they recorded in 1983, Ulterior Motives, which was licensed for the 1986 pornographic film Angels of Passion.
Nearly 40 years since the film‘s release, the Booths had completely forgotten about the song and had no idea it had been part of a popular internet search.
“I think it’s super cool, but I wasn’t knowledgeable at all,” said Christopher.
“I think it’s amazing that people do that, you know. The only thing we knew was that they found this song…I didn’t even recognize the title until I heard the song.”
A NEW SEARCH
The search for Ulterior Motives started on October 7, 2021, when a user only identified as Carl92 posted on the song identification website WatZatSong, asking others to identify a snippet that he found.
The 17-second snippet was muffled, making it hard to recognize the lyrics, prompting users to call the song Everyone Knows That or EKT.
During the three-year search, Reddit users joined in and created a subreddit dedicated to posting potential leads in hopes of solving the lost media riddle.
Before the song’s eventual discovery, several theories were posted in the subreddit as some people doubted the song’s authenticity.
Some believed the entire thing was a hoax created by Carl92, accusing him of generating the song using artificial intelligence.
The search for Ulterior Motives/EKT
In October 2021, Carl92 posted on WatZatSong, claiming that he found a recording in an old DVD backup.
Carl92 shared a 17-second snippet of the song in the forum and answered a few questions on how he discovered it, writing, “Probably I was simply learning how to capture audio and this was a leftover.”
The song became one of the most infamous mysteries on WatZatSong with the original post receiving the most comments since the site launched in 2006.
Carl92 eventually stopped posting after users asked him several invasion questions but the search soon gained popularity on Reddit adding thousands more into the mix.
A new subreddit was created exclusively dedicated to the search for the song in June 2023.
In August 2023, user HeyScarlett found a song registered under the name Ulterior Movies in the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) database.
Using HeyScarlett’s lead, Reddit user South_Pole_ball identified the song on April 28, 2024, along with the names of the Booth brothers as the songwriters.
Others suggested that Carl92 was affiliated with WatZatSong and made the post to increase web traffic to the site with the search.
Finally, on April 28, 2024, Reddit user South_Pole_Ball shared a video on r/EveryoneKnowsThat of the full song.
The discovery sparked a new search as users have asked the brothers to release a studio version of Ulterior Motives but the Booths say that’s easier said than done.
“We’re very well prepared to go in the studio and re-record it vocally,” said Christopher.
“We have quite an impressive studio in our house and started pulling up tracks without digging too deep,” Philip added.
“We started listening for where she could find this track and came across a lot of our eighties stuff that we recorded at the time.”
The brothers said they would likely re-record the vocals if they couldn’t find the vocal tracks but shared that they still have the same equipment from the 1980s.
“Everybody said, ‘How do you get that guitar sound?’ and at the time it was a MIDI guitar, where you’re triggering keyboards at the same time you’re running the outpost of a regular guitar,” said Philip.
If it’s a true search, then we need to deliver. We are embracing what happened and are so humbled by this.
Philip Adrian Booth
“So it’s gonna be a lot of fun. It’s been such an uncertain, surreal experience.”
Philip also clarified that the lyrics that Redditors used to identify the song were incorrect.
“The real words are ‘Everyone knows it,’ not ‘that.”
While the brothers are the most recent case of “lostwave,” a term used to describe music that has little to no information available about its origins, they aren’t the only ones.
In 2016, the British indie rock band, Panchiko, gained attention after their 2000 demo extended play, or EP, D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L, was discovered at a thrift store and gained a cult following.
Online users were able to track down the band members, who had broken up in 2001 and had no idea that people were looking for them.
The band reformed in 2020 and now has over one million monthly listeners on Spotify.
However, another song known as The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet, which many believe was recorded in the early 1980s, remains unsolved.
COMING SOON
While the brothers have enjoyed all the new attention they’ve received, not all of it has been great as several fake videos have been posted to YouTube and other platforms claiming to be the official version of Ulterior Motives.
“I think it’s important to address that anybody telling you or promoting that the song is out is lying,” said Christopher.
“It has not been released by us. A lot of people have put it up [on YouTube] and a few have even remade it with the wrong lyrics and different musicians.”
Philip called it “a little frustrating and disappointing” that some have tried to take credit for the song, saying that it was disrespectful to the online community who searched so long to find the track.
What is lost media?
Lost media is any media (books, flims, TV shows, songs, video games, etc.) that either no longer exists in any format or is not available to the public.
In the early days of filmmaking, many shows and radio broadcasts were recorded on magnetic tapes that were either lost or destroyed. It was also an industry standard to tape over, or “junk,” previous recordings.
Formats such as film, tape, CDs, DVDs, and digital data stored on hard drives also naturally decay over time if they’re not kept in proper storage conditions.
In modern times, websites, livestreams, and blog posts that aren’t properly archived can also be lost if the website is shut down or deleted by the creator.
Lost media restoration is often fronted through online communities or dedicated databases.
Source: Lost Media Wiki
“If it’s a true search, then we need to deliver,” he said. “We are embracing what happened and are so humbled by this.
“The least we can do for all the support, and we’ve had millions and millions of people reach out to us, is put out a version that’s not half-a**ed.”
There have also been new theories that have come out since the brothers came forward as the musicians behind Ulterior Motives from the brothers being AI-generated to Christopher being a 13-year-old Japanese girl.
“Back then the vocals were high but I am the real singer and for me to re-record it is going to be a bit of a challenge because you grow older, your style changes, your body changes, and your voice changes,” he said.
“But I’m pretty sure I’m going to be able to do most of it. Maybe with the high notes I’m going to have to, you know, really squeal to do it.”
The Booths are hoping to have the song ready for a summer release but are still wary of any obstacles they’ll have to go through.
However, since they found other tracks from the 1980s, they’ve been playing around with the idea of releasing an extended play, or EP, with three or four more tracks.
“It would be wonderful if everybody wanted that,” said Christopher.
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