Only 90s kids will remember Canal Nostalgia’s subjects, and that’s just how creator Felipe Castanhari planned it. The Brazilian YouTube channel recently endured a battle with ContentID, and the ensuing support from the YouTube community helped push it over the one million subscriber mark. Here’s our chat with Castanhari:

Tubefilter: How does it feel to have one million subscribers on YouTube? What do you have to say to your fans?

Canal Nostalgia: It feels awesome, never thought that my small channel could grow that big. I can only say thank you! And keep watching me so I can pay my bills.

TF: How do you choose which nostalgic pop culture icons to examine? Is it entirely based on what the fans want?

CN: I only choose themes that were a part of my childhood, I can only talk about things that I REALLY know, that’s what makes my fans go back to my channel. Yes, I try to listen to my audience, but the most successful themes were not asked for in the comments.

TF: Why do you think nostalgia is so popular on the Internet? Do you think it is more popular in Brazil than in other places, and if so, why?

CN: People like to remember their childhood, the nostalgia feeling is something that people can easily relate and share. I’m ONLY popular in Brazil, maybe in Portugal or other places where people speak Portuguese. The language barrier is a huge thing, I think I would reach a LOT more people if I had born in a English-speaking country.

TF: What is the YouTube community like in Brazil?

CN: It’s really great, we have a lot of HUGE channels in Brazil: Galo Frito (5 million subscribes), Porta dos Fundos (7 million), Barbixas (3 million), Desce a Letra (2 million) and a lot of other GREAT channels. I’m friends with everybody here. Seriously, I know almost everybody that produces YouTube videos here in Brazil, and I’m also living together with the girl from Galo Frito, so, yes, we have a great YouTube community that really helps each other here.

TF: How much do you model your channel after English-language channels? Are there any particular YouTubers who inspire you?

CN: I did a video called ‘Nostalgia – Inspire Me’ tagging everybody from outside of Brazil that really inspirse my work. I am a consumer of YouTube videos. I really like Ray Willian Johnson, Epic Rap Battles, Egoraptor, Ryan Higa, Tom Ska and the AWESOME asdf movie series, and all the Newgrounds animators (I’m a 3D animator myself).

TF: What’s the current status of your channel’s legal battle? Are you still in danger of having the channel deleted?

CN: No, I can finally breathe. The legal issues with Fox have been a pain in the ass, but they removed the strike and I’m safe.

TF: What sort of response have you seen from your fans regarding your ContentID battle?

CN: The best one! The all Brazilian YouTube community was touched about my situation. They made videos and tried to contact Fox. It was really awesome to see how my channel was cared for here. Also my fans were the BEST ones, they inflamed the Fox Fan Page, Twitter, and YouTube, even though I never asked for that.