We completed our first songwriting challenge on Song Talk Radio in early 2020. The team including Phil, Mike, Don, and myself, each shared a song based on the suggestion to write “a positive lyric in a minor key.” Mike shared his beautiful acoustic ballad, Rich in Love, and asked us if we wanted to re-mix his song.
At first, I thought of adding a sweet string arrangement, and maybe some piano. I tried this, but the result was pretty uninspiring. So I decided to take a more deconstructionist approach and completely change-up Mike’s song. I knew this would be more work, but it felt like a fun challenge.
The Re-Mix Process
I wanted to take Mike’s medium-tempo acoustic balled and transform it into an upbeat, electro-pop ditty. To do this, I knew that I would have to re-build most of the instrumental parts, including the bass, synthesizers, and lead instruments. I only retained the lead vocal and lead guitar part from his original recording.
Since no one wants to dance to a song at 80 BPM, I increased the tempo. Then I added synths one a time: bass, keys, pad, lead, and drums. I applied heavy-handed Daft Punk-esque processing to Mike’s vocals.
I recorded a video of how I did the re-mix, where I go through the details on the tempo change, the synths I used, the vocal processing, and more:
It’s always fun to work on someone’s else song; in some ways, you’re more free to play around, make really broad strokes, and be bold in your decisions. Writing your own songs may start that way too, but once your song is well developed, you tend to scrutinize over every little detail and obsess over stuff. It’s refreshing to start with a finished song rather than a blank page.
There’s a cool tension that was created when I literally smashed my approach to songwriting and producing up against Mike’s. Surely Mike wouldn’t have taken this approach, and I never would have written such a heartfelt, earnest ballad, let alone put it to an electronic beat.
I was bored just adding strings and piano to his song; it sounded like the same song. By turning the song on its head, I opened it up to a fresh new sound, and offered a different interpretation.
I also think remixing is an easier, perhaps, avenue towards songwriting and learning the flow of a DAW. You don’t have to invent the melody, nor the beat, you simply have to make it your own. If you can guess at the notes, which most people should be able to do with some effort, you can remix. Most DAWs these days have drum loop libraries so people can start with that and then progress towards own custom programming. This is such a tantalizing topic I will post about it on my blog as well. So far I’ve remixed Backstreet Boys, Orbital, Robert Miles and Fugees as well as a mash up of Queen and 2PAC. And I can safely say remixing is a ton of creative fun despite not having to start from scratch. You’d think it’s not original so it doesn’t showcase the musician, but in this Mondo remix I can hear the Neel vibe quite easily. It has a positivity to it that is difficult to not associate with your personality. Great work.
Thanks for your thoughts Bojan! Glad you like it.