Winnipegger mashes up Queen, Trek for Klingon Rhapsody

Man translates Queen classic into Klingon A Winnipeg musician has put a new spin on the Queen classic ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ by giving it a Star Trek-related twist.

WINNIPEG — To boldly go where no man has gone before is just what Winnipegger Rusty Matyas did by mashing up Queen and Star Trek into an otherworldly masterpiece.

Matyas, who is a musician and producer, decided to combine Bohemian Rhapsody with the fictional language of Klingon from the popular sci-fi TV series.

He said he started this project last year and wanted to create something that was a bit of a challenge.

"I decided to give myself a musical challenge of making a song in Klingon and Bohemian Rhapsody is about the most epic song that I could think of," said Matyas.

He said he was able to find several translations of English to Klingon online that helped him bring the words to life.

Once the music was all in place Matyas and the group he was working with had to learn how to pronounce all the words.

That might seem like a difficult task, but apparently not, as he said they found a local translator rather easily.

"We spent all day just laughing, all day in the studio. Not laughing at Klingon, but with it, because boy did it sound funny and it's such a challenge to sing passionately with these guttural sounds you have just learned."

Now the music wouldn't be complete without an actual music video to go along with it.

Matyas said they had a plan originally to use the Park Theatre to make the video but that changed once COVID-19 hit.

"We adjusted and adapted and we had people send in videos from their homes and it turned out to be even more creative."

Now that the video is online, Matyas said he has become rather popular. CNN wants to interview him and he gave an interview to Australian media. As of Friday, the video had more than 47,000 views on YouTube.

Despite the attention, Matyas said he is just happy that he could make something that brought joy to others, especially during this difficult time.

He added there is another creation coming soon, which isn't Klingon related, but he hopes people enjoy it just the same.

When asked what he plans to do when life gets back to normal, he said he wouldn't mind performing the song live at future comic expos.

"Comic-Cons listening, I'm in."