[Music]
remix things cool it's good exercise you
know because it cuts out a lot of work
that you know that you you might be
stumped on or something like that and
there's there's plenty of online
collaborative websites that kind of
thing where you know when artists will
release stems and stuff like that to
other artists to use as tools to remix
their work and whether it's for a
contest or for fun or whatever but
ultimately it's it's just a good thing
to look at other people's work sometimes
and say oh well that's an interesting
way of you know making a drum sound that
way or you know a certain effect being
applied that way and it can be fun at a
at a time if you if you can really take
a what the true meaning of the
derivative work is out of what they've
done as opposed to taking what they've
already done and then changing just a
few things and passing it off as a remix
so my remix is I like to call them
reworks because they're the only I only
take one element the way I do it as I
only take one element out of a song and
and usually for a remix it's a vocal or
a certain phrase and that's it and I
will rework a whole new body of work
around it I would reinvent the track
completely saying like well if this
singer came in and just saying blindly
into a microphone what would you write
around it so I tend to ignore what
they've already done musically
terrifically or whatever and then just
throw that all out and then just use the
vocal and put a clock behind it and then
start writing around the vocal that to
me it's is a remix even though by
definition a remix could very well be
the same song but just mix differently
in terms of process that is what
technically a remix is I don't know how
it got kind of mixed up in the
terminology that this is a remix of this
and I'm like well remix is in it wasn't
mixed right the first time and now
they've taken all that same track
information and just mixed it properly
you know and then it's like no it's an
entirely different song it's a remake
it's a recreation it's a
it's not a remix
[Music]
there are some tracks that in my mind
you know are just so good that like
really I don't think that you know
changing it in any other way but um
sometimes you're surprised that someone
was able to actually take something good
and make it better you know but it it's
kind of rare because sometimes they take
something good and then they just kind
of do a mediocre version of it or
something lesser than what it was and
stuff like that so when you hear a
beautiful piece of work
I don't immediately think oh I wish
someone would make this better you know
or I wish someone would rework this in
the way that I like it better you know
so because then that would mean that the
music wasn't up to my Park I hear a
shitty track I say it all the time god I
wish someone remake so did this
differently or you know because I've
heard a lot of really brilliant ideas
being poorly executed but since they're
like you know big artists nobody can
take that and do something with it
because it's their intellectual property
or this no pun intended you know what I
mean but it's their property and that
sucks that bums me out but you know I
I'm not surprised when you know people
put out beautiful bodies of work that
are both you know masterful and in
design and in sound and then they're
like expecting a remix of it it's like
why you know when I do do a remix is
usually commissioned meaning that I'm in
contact with the original artists that
did this stuff so I can ask for specific
things meaning like hey just give me the
vocals and that and that's usually what
I do is say just give me the vocals and
I'll redesign reengineer rewrite
recompose all new melodies to the same
vocal because just because she sings to
C doesn't mean I'm restricted to playing
a low a you know what I mean as a tone I
got to just go up here and there and
then design a different chord structure
around her same melodic top line and
that's how I go about doing it so I'm
not actually doing anything that I
wouldn't normally do when making a whole
new track
[Music]
my sounds my sound and I don't take it
from somewhere else it's inspired by
something else or like in terms of a
remix it's just like I'll take a weird
dissonant melody out of something and
actually what had happened was if I
wonder if I have it let me let me open
this up give you an example so this was
a vocal snippet that was sent to me by a
Skylar Grey and Ryan raden or cascade
and he had asked me if we wanted to
collaborate on this track and I was like
yeah okay so what I had sent was I think
that was after all right so I wrote this
melody
[Music]
so I wrote this melody and had sent it
over to Ryan and then Skyler came back
with a vocal that was like but she never
wrote it - that she wrote it - something
completely different so this whole
melody up here was written you know
completely separate of this so she
didn't sing to that she sang to
something Brian did and and then it kind
of inspired me to write all this rest of
this track and this key so that was like
an interesting case where and then what
had happened was is okay so I had this
track and it was gonna be called beneath
with me and all this stuff and I don't
know Ryan couldn't get his shit together
Skylar's impossible to get on the phone
so I ended up doing this which was a
beautiful thing because not well it
wasn't because I had to delete a fucking
perfectly placed vocal but this is no
longer a remix it's an original track so
I won you know what I mean because it's
like well sorry you guys couldn't get
your shit together but if I just do that
strike the vocal none of this you won't
in it's mine so we don't have to go
through all this bullshit just so I can
get something out you know while not
waiting on your ass you know to get
something done so that that's like one
of the things I like about remix this is
enough that in in legal sense they don't
workout or the guys being a dick or
somebody JumpShip halfway through the
deal you're like cool whatever you know
it's it's my track you know so it's a
rework you know and then when you're
playing it live well rules don't apply
so you can throw the vocal back in if
you want and then they're just like yeah
you know because it's a performance well
you might have to pay a little royalty
here but you know they don't own it they
don't want to publish I mean they don't
own the masters so that's the one sneaky
little trick I do that I think a lot of
people are gonna start doing
three four and five remix there we go
found it they did an insane remix and it
was one of the best remixes of my stuff
that I ever heard but let's say this
really no one's really heard this
[Music]
this is what I would look for in a remix
you know something that's not the same
song with a big room beat or a couple of
big sins this is a proper rework and the
way they redid the chords was gray
[Music]
it's the same chord structure it's the
same song it's the same lyric it's just
just a range definitely affected like
it's a whole new track out of that it's
a complete derivative work whereas now
this is Tommy trash this remix to the
valve
it's the same note order it's the same
thing it's just done with a grind ear
synth and you know one really attractive
unattractive thing about this track now
this this was six seven years ago and
Tommy has learned a lot since then but I
[Music]
don't have the volume turned up that
much but you can hear the distortion in
the limiting and how jacked it is it was
like way over the top but it sounded
loud at festivals so of course everyone
loved that over the original which was a
lot more had a lot more dynamic range
and it was technically louder but it was
just a little more de soft you know in
in in in in terms and his was really
abrasive really aggressive so everybody
loved that more so Tommy's trash made
out and then and then freeform five
degree mix was just like actually the
better products you know so that so
that's what I look for in remix is I
mean other guy might look for exactly
what Tommy did you know you know
something to get the crowd hyped and all
that stuff and even though it was
technically inferior and phonetically
inferior to many a thing out but it did
its purpose so I don't know if it's a
deliberate thing and maybe people should
learn to mix like that because that's
what works
hey balls in your court man I'm not
gonna tell you what to do I'm just gonna
tell you how it works you know
[Music]
if I give this stems out force a
snowcone or whatever it is we end up
choosing them I'm looking to hear
entirely new derivative works of that
meaning maybe one element out of that
and then a completely new body of work
written around that or you know you
could use the you can use the stems as a
learning tool kind of thing or or
whatever but ultimately what I would
like to hear is a complete rework around
a theme that's featured internet track
as opposed to just a replacement of the
drum loop but everything else stays
perfectly the same