German band in global 'mystery song' hunt stunned by late success

For the last 17 years, a worldwide army of online sleuths has obsessively tried to figure out the title of what has been dubbed "the most mysterious song on the internet." Now, they have the answer after a chance discovery by one intrepid researcher, who triumphantly reported his breakthrough on the online Reddit: it is called "Subways of Your Mind" and was recorded by a little-known 1980s German band, FEX.

68-year-old Michael Haedrich, who played keyboard and guitar and sang backup vocals for FEX, told Der Spiegel magazine that the former band members are "absolutely overwhelmed" by the news. He admitted that the band had been oblivious to the online phenomenon.

The mystery began in 2007 when a German brother and sister uploaded a track online that they had digitized after initially recording it as teenagers on a cassette from the radio. They asked for help identifying it, and audiophiles soon took up the challenge.

Logo for band FEXReddit

The track did not appear in any music database, but online sleuths tried to determine what instruments could be heard and analyzed the lead singer's accent. Initial attempts to identify the song, soon classified by many as being in the 1980s' "New Wave" genre, yielded little.

It was only when the track was uploaded onto Reddit in 2019 that global interest exploded. A Reddit sub-forum called "r/TheMysteriousSong" attracted tens of thousands of members, and the hunt was reported on in German media and beyond.

The big breakthrough finally came earlier this week when a user called "marijn1412" said he had identified the song as "Subways of Your Mind." He said he came across former FEX members while researching an event for up-and-coming bands organized in the 1980s by a public broadcaster in northern Germany.

Old image of the German band FEX in the studio in the 80sReddit

The Reddit user wrote that he had contacted members of a four-piece outfit from the northern city of Kiel, who sent him a version of the mystery song and revealed its long-sought-after name. Haedrich, still a musician, told Spiegel it was the first time he had heard about the massive search effort.

"I thought it was amazing that someone was interested in music by a band that was only successful regionally, if at all, and that was over 40 years ago," he said. Haedrich, who lives in Munich, said the band members now want to reissue "Subways of Your Mind" and are trying to track down the song's original recording. Their success may have been decades, but he said, "For us, it has just come suddenly."