Inside The | Backrooms...

“How the Addiction Formula Can Transform Your Songs Into Audience Magnets Step-By-Step”
Inside the Backrooms...

Let me ask you something (and please be honest here):

…Are you scared shitless of not being able to make a living with your music? Of not being able to support a family or pay off your debts and rent?

…What if it turns out that your songs aren’t good enough? What if no one “gets” your music? Or worse: What if no one even hears your songs?

…What if you fail? What if you have to admit to yourself that being a professional songwriter just isn’t cut out for you? What if you have to work at Burger King for the rest of your life?

…What would your friends say? What would your parents say? What would those guys from high school who always doubted you say? What would it mean to you?

These are some of the questions that haunted me back when I started my songwriting studies. All bridges were burned, no way back, I was doing this. My life was about music now.

Of course, everyone had told me I shouldn’t.

Artists starve, everyone knows that. But I believed in my songs, KNEW I could do it if I tried hard enough. I had been writing songs for various bands for the past 5 years. I felt confident.

But then I met the other music students. And I realized I wasn’t as great a songwriter as I had thought. I might’ve been the best from everyone I knew back in my home town, but here…
Inside the Backrooms...
This hit me hard. All of a sudden, my dreams seemed destroyed. I was going to die an insignificant, lonely death, humilated and ashamed. I felt like a loser.

But then one day, SOMETHING HAPPENED.

We had a hit songwriter/producer do a guest lecture for us. We all showed him our songs and got our feedback. The guy listened (usually until the second verse), stopped the song and began with his feedback.

Then we got to my song. And something strange happened: He didn’t stop the recording. The whole class listened to he entire song.

When it was over, nobody said a word, the song still hanging in the air. Even the producer was quiet for another couple of seconds (which felt like minutes) before he said “Wow…”

(By the way, my song wasn’t even overly short – quite the contrary actually, it was over 4,5 minutes. And it certainly wasn’t my production skills either – I was definitely the worst producer in the class)

There was something about that song. I didn’t know it then, but in my five autodidactic years before my studies I had taught myself an approach to songwriting that none of my colleagues knew about.

I never saw this approach anywhere else, but I heard it in literally every hit song of the past 25 years. Without knowing it, I had found a rule of hit songwriting.

It has been my secret ever since and I now use it systematically to captivate my audience. I call this technique “Lyric-Less Storytelling” and it plays a huge part in my Songwriting Circle:
Inside the Backrooms...
Arc & Energy (in the upper left corner) are what Lyric-Less Storytelling is all about.

The first time I consciously used this formula in a song, I immediately won an award with it (two years in a row, actually). And after that, everything happened rather quickly:

My music went to Cannes Film Festival, I played HUGE festivals in front of over 100,000 people, performed on prime-time television, wrote for Ubisoft and Apple, and worked for Erwin Steijlen (Pink, Shakira), René Merkelbach (Within Temptation) and Jeff Rona (God of War).

Look, I don’t mean to brag, but I want to show you that this formula actually works. Using Lyric-Less Storytelling in your songs will give you a clear advantage over 99.9% of the writers out there.

So This Is About Hook-Writing, Then?

Actually, far from it. Captivating an audience has nothing to do with hooks. This is a common misconception amongst songwriters, but

Hooks don't actually hook.
Read that sentence again, because it is important: Hooks don’t hook. They may be useful for other things, like memorability, but they don't grab your attention.

Why do you think A&Rs only listen to the first 15 seconds of a song to see if they can sell it? They turn your song off before they even HEAR your hook! They are listening for Production, Up-To-Date-Ness and… Lyric-Less Storytelling.

Inside The | Backrooms...

Where Inside the Backrooms distinguishes itself from other Roblox horror titles is in its sophisticated entity AI and level design. The entities—from the passive, observing “Lightning Bugs” to the relentless “Hounds” and the terrifying “Bacteria”—are not mere reskins of standard foes. Each has a distinct behavior, sound profile, and counter-strategy. The infamous “Bacteria,” a slithering mass that slides through corridors, forces players to listen for its wet, squelching footsteps and hide in lockers or under desks, holding their breath in a tense minigame. The “Hound,” a quadrupedal nightmare, requires players to maintain eye contact to prevent a charge. This forces a terrifying choice: run and risk its attack, or stare down the beast while backtracking through the maze. The game’s structure, progressing through “Level 0” (the entry zone), “Level 1” (habitable zone), “Level 2” (pipe nightmares), and beyond, introduces a difficulty curve that teaches the player how to survive while constantly subverting their expectations. A door that led to safety in one run might lead to a dead-end trap in the next.

However, the most compelling layer of Inside the Backrooms is its cooperative dynamic. While playable solo, the game is designed for a team of up to four players. Communication is not just a tool; it is a survival resource. The use of proximity voice chat (or careful text chat coordination) means that getting separated is a genuine crisis. Hearing a friend’s voice fade as they wander down the wrong hallway, followed by a sudden scream and silence, is more effective horror than any scripted cutscene. Players must divvy up roles: one navigates the map, another holds a flashlight, a third listens for entity footsteps. When a friend is cornered by a Hound, the team must decide whether to risk their own life to draw aggro or abandon them to save the group’s progress. This creates emergent, unscripted narratives—stories of betrayal, heroic sacrifice, and desperate last stands—that are unique to each playthrough, cementing the game’s replayability. Inside the Backrooms...

The genius of Inside the Backrooms lies in its meticulous adherence to and expansion of the source material’s core aesthetic. The original 4chan post described “mono-yellow” rooms with fluorescent lights humming at an infinite frequency. The game captures this perfectly, but adds a crucial layer: interactivity. The player is not just an observer of liminal spaces; they are a prisoner within them. The sticky carpets, the geometric absurdity of rooms that repeat with subtle variations, and the oppressive, droning soundscape create a state of sensory deprivation and hyper-vigilance simultaneously. Every corner looks like the last, yet promises the potential for danger. This environment alone is suffocating, but the game understands that a static maze quickly becomes boring. Therefore, it populates its purgatory with a cast of entities that feel less like monsters and more like violations of physical law. Where Inside the Backrooms distinguishes itself from other

In conclusion, Inside the Backrooms is far more than a fan game or a Roblox trend. It is a definitive adaptation of an internet mythos, a carefully engineered engine of dread, and a brilliant study in cooperative tension. By forcing players to navigate the familiar architecture of corporate failure, listen for the whispers of things that should not exist, and rely on the fragile bond of teamwork, it captures the essence of the Backrooms: the terror of being lost not in a strange place, but in a place that is almost home. It reminds us that the most frightening monsters are not the ones with claws and fangs, but the ones that hide in the buzzing lights and empty hallways of our own forgotten spaces. And that is why, long after you exit the game, the hum of a faulty fluorescent bulb will never sound quite the same again. The infamous “Bacteria,” a slithering mass that slides

Critically, Inside the Backrooms also serves as a cultural bridge. It took a niche internet aesthetic—one rooted in nostalgia, urban decay, and psychological dread—and made it accessible to a massive, younger audience on Roblox. In doing so, it validated the Roblox platform as a legitimate space for serious horror game development. It proved that a game built around atmosphere, sound design, and tension could compete with and surpass games reliant on graphical fidelity or gore. The game’s success sparked a wave of imitators and inspired a new generation of creators to explore liminal space horror.

In the vast, ever-expanding universe of internet horror, few concepts have captured the collective imagination quite like the Backrooms. Originating from a now-fabled 2019 4chan post, the idea of “noclipping” out of reality into an endless maze of damp, yellow office corridors has spawned countless adaptations. Among these, the 2022 Roblox experience Inside the Backrooms stands as a landmark achievement. More than just a game, it is a masterclass in environmental storytelling and cooperative terror, translating the liminal space aesthetic from a static image into a visceral, interactive nightmare. Inside the Backrooms succeeds not through cheap jump scares, but by weaponizing the familiar against the player, transforming a mundane office into a sprawling, intelligent labyrinth that preys on human psychology.

Inside The | Backrooms...

Inside the Backrooms...BUY NOW

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Inside The | Backrooms...

👎
The Addiction Formula is NOT for you if...

You’re already selling songs like crazy. Hey, don’t fix what ain’t broke. If you are already making a living off of writing and selling songs, you probably won’t need this book. But if you’re interested in improving your songs even further and how to make them virtually irresistible then I highly recommend checking it out. You will love what you learn in Part I of this book!
Songwriting is just a hobby for you (like knitting). If you’re just writing songs for yourself and you don’t care what anyone else thinks or if your songs turn out great, then you won’t need this book. If however music is your life and you have the drive to become the best songwriter the world has ever seen then I know that this book will become an important step on the way there for you and I highly recommend trying out the technique.
You’ve never written a song before. If you’re trying to figure out how to write your first songs, this book is going way, way too far for you. In the beginning, just write. Listen to songs and see what other artists are doing and start out just copying what they do (try a different artist each time). After a while, your songs will get better naturally.

Inside The | Backrooms...

👍
Get this book immediately if...

Your songs don’t sell and you don’t get the respect you deserve. With the subtle, psychological triggers that come with the Addiction Formula your songs will stand out and speak to your listeners on a deep, subconscious level. They won’t know what hit ‘em!
You have learned a technique or approach … but for some reason it didn’t work for YOU. My teaching style is targeted at helping you implement what you learn immediately. Moreover, after reading Part I of the book, your whole view on songwriting will change so that your writing style becomes more addictive AUTOMATICALLY.
It takes you forever to write a song. The Addiction Formula comes with a 10 step process that will severely increase your productivity so you can write songs within a day (AT NO QUALITY LOSS!)
Friends tell you that your songs sound like a lot of other stuff that’s already out there. In the book you will find a 4-step technique to building your own, unique techniques. This is the only songwriting book in the world that does this.
You are having problems writing strong, memorable pop songs. With the in-depth explanations on the “Hollywood Structure” taught in the book, you will be able to write the perfect pop song.
You have had some HIT & MISS SUCCESSES but you haven’t figured out a reliable method yet that gets you there every time.
You can only write when you’re not tired or uninspired. All the techniques given in this book can be used ANYTIME, ANYWHERE. Once you understand the approach, you will be able to turn any song addictive without even thinking about it. This is invaluable when you have to make a deadline!

Inside The | Backrooms...

Option A (you don't get the book)
If your audience does NOT get hooked by your music, they will NOT listen to your entire song, which means they will not even HEAR your hook, which means they never even get to the best part, which means they will NOT hum your song in the car, which means they will NOT come back to it, which means they will NOT buy it and they will NOT tell their friends about it. In other words, you will die alone with your cats.
Option B (you DO get the book)
However, with the Addiction Formula, your listeners WILL be intrigued to hear your entire song, they WILL hear your hook, they WILL hum your song in the car, which means it’s very likely that they WILL come back to it, tell their friends about it and buy it!
💸 Tell me which one pays the bills.
Inside the Backrooms...BUY NOW

or get the PDF

Inside The | Backrooms...

If you wanted to, you could probably figure out this stuff on your own. I know, because that's what I did. But it's cost me thousands of dollars and ten thousands of hours when I add up what I've invested, spent, tested, and WASTED figuring out the "good stuff" that actually works... and works consistently and predictably.

So you can invest a ton of money and time trying to figure out what works or you can short-circuit that whole process and do something of a "mind-meld" with me... and then you can be putting this material to work in your life tomorrow.

Stay gefährlich,
Friedemann

Inside The | Backrooms...

Friedemann Findeisen (*1989, BMus) is a creator, songwriting coach and public speaker. After jumping onto the scene in 2015 with his best-selling book "The Addiction Formula", today he is best known for his YouTube channel "Holistic Songwriting" and the Artists Series.

To this point, the YouTube channel has gathered over 400K subscribers and a total of 10M views, making it one of the biggest songwriting channels in the world.

Friedemann is also the creator of "The Songwriting Decks", a new inspiration tool for songwriters which overfunded by 230% on Kickstarter. Friedemann is a sought-after guest speaker at music conventions and tours Europe with his masterclasses on Structuring Songs and Getting Things Made.

In his free time, he designs board games that tell stories, invents escape rooms and writes music. His 2020 debut album "Subface", which he released under his artist name "Canohead" has been labeled the "Album of the Year" by the Nu Metal scene.

Friedemann lives in Cologne, Germany with his wife Joanna and their cat Lyric.