FIFA 2003 was my first ever FIFA. I got it as a Christmas gift in 2002. My love for that series started there. It lost me at around FIFA 14. But until then every FIFA game had a killer soundtrack. Because of FIFA, I probably wouldn’t be listening to a quarter of the things I do today. I have fond memories of FIFA 2003. I was seven years old, and there were songs on the game that I more or less managed to learn the words to even if they were coming out of the smallest TV speakers.

‘Independent’ is a song on the game by German band Sportfreunde Stiller. I don’t know any other song by the band; I’ve never really been inclined to listen to any of their other stuff. This was one of my favourites in the game. If not my favourite overall. I don’t know how to speak German but I’m 100% sure that I sang along to this track pretty accurately, eventually. I just voiced what I heard and I think it came out pretty good. It must have been this track that first showed me that no matter what language it’s in, a good song is a good song.

It’s a punk song at heart. Starting off with it’s killer guitar riff – the rest of the track is just an onslaught of pummeling drums and a strong bassline. Translating the lyrics into English shows that the song concerns the singer’s thoughts about how his image is perceived by the public when the band is shown on TV or on magazine covers in stores. He wishes for better days when he was a kid and didn’t have to think about those kinds of things. I’m sure that stuff can wear you out. I wouldn’t know, honestly.