The debut of the band “44.” is like an inspiring success story: they present a song with Maksas Melmanas and deny any typo in the title

Over the weekend, a series of photos appeared on social media, sparking quite a bit of intrigue. They depicted elements of a relationship drama between a girl and a boy, hints at a possible detective story, and all were tied together by a barely visible caption “2x2=5.” Today, the mystery is no more. This is a creative collaboration between former members of the band “Basi,” Edvardas Mikulis and Rokas Arciševskij, now forming the new duo “44.”, and “Biplan” frontman Maksas Melmanas – the result is the song “Dukartdupenki,” which gains even more meaning through a movie-like music video. The answers to all the questions raised by the photos lie within this clip.

The trio’s musical friendship began unexpectedly and resembles yet another brave young artists’ success story. The members of “44.” pulled a song out of the drawer – one they had created a year ago, which only lacked lyrics and vocals. At that time, they hadn’t even dreamed that the “Biplan” vocalist, someone they had admired since childhood, would soon agree to join them.

“There was no doubt that Maksas would fit this music best, but we didn’t know him personally. So we decided to write him a message on social media, inviting him to join. We attached the initial version of the song. Who would have thought that this entire adventure would turn into such a memorable experience, a wonderful song, and video,” says “44.” guitarist Rokas.

The lyrics were born out of Maksas Melmanas’ deeply personal experiences

“For me, this whole project is about intuition, that first impulse. In my opinion, that’s the most important thing in music – you have to listen to your heart. I remember when I got the message, I was in the kitchen cooking dinner, and the moment I heard the song, I knew I wanted to finish it with them. There were no questions about rationality, financial benefit or not, doubts about why I needed this or why they wrote to me in particular. Just the realization that what I heard resonated with me. I had carried the idea for the lyrics inside me for about half a year, I had been gathering emotions for a long time, but hadn’t put them into any song yet. These lines are deeply personal to me. And, to get ahead of the questions – there is no mistake in the song’s title. 2x2 doesn’t necessarily have to be 4. That’s the beauty of math – we all have our own life formulas, our own ways of calculating, and we don’t always follow the rules written in books. That’s what “Dukartdupenki” is – I believe everyone will find their own meanings in it,” says M. Melmanas.

“I felt that the lyrics were coming from a very deep place in Maksas. We didn’t dig into his heart or ask why the words were so emotional or what experiences they revealed. But without them, the music would have remained just music, so Maksas’ contribution is huge and impactful. We’re very proud that he was moved by our work, that he appreciated us, shared advice, and at times brought us back to earth in a friendly way,” says “44.” keyboardist Edvardas, sharing his joy about working with the leader of one of Lithuania’s most well-known bands.

The video features a well-known film and TV actress

The “Biplan” frontman, who this year will be celebrating 30 years on stage with the band, is equally generous with compliments for the musicians of “44.” – calling them amazing creators with a vision and, most importantly, great passion. Although they didn’t know each other beforehand, Edvardas and Rokas are no newcomers to the Lithuanian music scene. They previously played together in the band “Basi” and continue to write and produce songs for other performers.

The name of the duo came about simply: “Four plus four is eight. Flip the eight and you get the infinity symbol. And in general, the number 44 often follows me in everyday life, so that’s how we symbolically chose our name,” says E. Mikulis.

The song “Dukartdupenki” is presented with a music video that feels like a short film. According to Maksas, the team behind the video agreed to work on it because they immediately believed in the idea and wanted to be part of it. There was no need to convince actress Akvilė Žirgulytė, who took on the lead role in the video and is well known to viewers from films and popular TV series. During the shoot, this talented actress contributed not only with her acting but also with ideas on how to improve the storyline. Her suggestions were so spot-on that the team included them in the final script without hesitation.

You can check out the song and video here: