Eugene Maima was surprised when someone recognized him at a local Target from his Vines. But he was even more surprised when Billboard Magazine contacted him to write an article about those Vines, which collectively have more than 18.5 million total views.

“Of course I was super excited,” Maima said. “When they called me and conducted the interview I did a victory lap around the dorm, and when they posted it, that was even better.”

Maima, known as Eugene the Dream on Vine, was recently noticed for his Vine “Hit That Supermario!” that features remixed sounds from the well-known Super Mario video games and his own recording of his voice rapping along to the music.

William Gruger, a writer for Billboard Magazine, emailed Maima proposing to write an article on Maima’s Vines along with a collaborator and fellow Viner Caleb Reyes. Reyes is known for his dancing, and though the two never met, Reyes created a dance to Maima’s beat that caused the Vine world to want to do the same.

“So with Super Mario, I had played the game recently and I heard the theme and I thought it was interesting, so somebody suggested I remix it,” Maima said. “I chopped it up, remixed it, added my own flare to it and people started to dig it.”

“Dig it” is an understatement — the Vine has over 565,700 loops and 12,200 likes. Others are also finding inspiration in his Vine, as hundreds of people are making remixes of their own dance moves to his beat, including well-known Viners such as Jason Mendez, Chris Jay and AlliCattt.

This isn’t the first time one of Maima’s Vines has garnered a lot of attention. In one of his videos, he remixed and danced along to beats from the show “Spongebob Squarepants.” Stars like Kylie and Kendall Jenner have made their own video using Maima’s remix.

“I think I’ll keep making more Vines,” Maima said. “The Spongebob Vine just blew up. I want to keep going in that direction. Really famous people seem to like that, so I’ll keep going in that direction.”

In August 2013, Maima was in a car accident and needed something to do while he recovered and was confined to a wheelchair. He’d always loved making music — he plays guitar, piano, saxophone and drums — so he decided he would create beats for Vine.

“I listen to a lot of old cartoons, and different nostalgic things and remix it in a way that people wouldn’t think about,” Maima said.

Maima said the experience has been both a wild and surprising ride. Though he’s always been interested in music and many friends supported him, he never thought his Vine would go viral. But if you ask his friends or fans, they’d say they could call it from a mile away.

“He’s always making new music and running it by me,” said Trevor Chesler, Maima’s roommate and a freshman political science major. “It’s all good stuff. The dude has a lot of talent.”

Chesler said he is a huge fan of music along with Maima — the two of them frequently jam together at night in their room. Another student, Matt Barba, is a fan of Maima’s work as well.

“I follow him on SoundCloud,” said the freshman music industry major. “He’s a talented kid with the personality to match. He’ll definitely succeed in life.”

Published on October 14, 2014 at 12:01 am

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