Nerves in Patterns on a Screen

alandistro:

Short post version: This is the remix of Meghan Tonjes’ “The Fault Is In Our Stars” that I made. It’s now available on iTunes here: http://dftba.com/starsremix

Long post version: Remixes are fun. Remixes give songs second and third lives. And good remixes usually reveal a new side of an old song to familiar listeners. Gah, I love ‘em.

For my remix of Meghan’s “TFiiOS”, the only elements from her original recording that I used were her gorgeous vocals (of course), and I looped the very first four or five note guitar riff she played and used that riff throughout the verses. Everything else is new and unique to this remix. The bass guitar, the piano, the numerous bits of percussion, a number of sound manipulations to create wind and other haunting effects, the electric guitar, etc.

I didn’t mess with Meghan’s song structure at all, it was perfect to begin with (ie, I didn’t extend any breaks or shift around verses and bridges, etc.) And I didn’t autotune or digitally stutter her vocals at all, which seems to be popular in recent remixes. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. (listen to Meghan’s original recording)

What I did do though, is present the song in a completely different sonic environment from Meghan’s solo guitar performance. Hopefully this new environment will help bring a few new fans to the song. I truly believe “TFiiOS” is one of the top ten best songs DFTBA Records has released so far.

The Talk-About-It-Before-It’s-Really-A-Thing post wrap-up: I really enjoyed working on this song. And I had fun working on my remix of Alex Day’s “Forever Yours” last year. I think it might be interesting to work on a full EP of remixes of my favorite DFTBA releases. 

There’s some technical difficulties that might stand in the way. First, most of our artists don’t keep their multitrack sessions and without those, a remix is out of the question (we found this out when we tried to release a Rock Band version of DFTBA Records Greatest Hits and no one could provide us with the multitrack material we needed). 

And second, some of those who do hang on to their multitracks don’t record to a tempo track, again, making a proper remix very difficult to impossible without a lot of hours spent cleaning up and resyncing their performance to a tempo track. But for songs where the original multitrack material exists, and where tempo tracks were used (and where I LIKE the song), I think it could work. 

The big question is, is there enough interest to make it worth the time and effort? Let me know by buying my remix of “TFiiOS” on iTunes: http://dftba.com/starsremix ;)