CCreative Commons Magnatune Lisa DeBenedictis Remix Contest
On Sunday, 31st July, the
the CCMixter
Lisa DeBenedictis remix contest closed. I only found out about it two days before,
and had one eight hour session to write, record and produce an entry (the contest had been
open for two months), I nearly didn't bother, but I'm glad I did.
What it was
The deal was this: given a couple of acapella vocal tracks by Lisa, and samples and loops
from the whole catalog of the (non-evil) internet record label Magnatune, create an original
remix. There where two vocal tracks: "Cuckoo" and "Below" to base the track on, and about 1,700
other songs to sample.
By the end of Sunday, there were 209 entries, and the range of styles and interpretations is
amazing, as is the quality (check them out
here).
These must be the two most-covered songs ever, or at least most-covered in a short period.
As well as being chance to show creativity, the contest highlights the emerging "open source" music
market, where musicians release music that may be freely downloaded, shared and even sampled/modified,
under a Creative Commons license. I'll write more about this idea in another blog entry, cuz it really
could be the start of something big in the music world.
The Making of Icebox
My entry is the song
Icebox, a hybrid acoustic/electronic
tune that closely follows the key and tempo of Lisa's vocal track. I haven't often added music to a
pre-existing song (just Margot's
Sunday Morning), so
it might be interesting to look at the process:
- I started by playing Lisa's vocals over and over to get a feel for the mood of the song, and just jammed
along on electric bass, mostly following the melody. This suggested a dark, trip-hoppy mood (funny, that...).
- Then I recorded the bass and added some basic bongoes to get a bare-bones track with the vocals, taking the tempo from the bass line, 116bpm.
- Next up, figure out some chords on the guitar. A repetative Cm/Dm sounds boring on its own, but
fitted the vocals well. For the chorus "down from the ceiling floating", Cm/Eb/Gm gives a floating-down
feeling, and finally, the sequence Cm/Bb/F lends a sense of closure to the song. I treated the song as if it
was in Bb, but it doesn't really have a major feel to it, so it probably the minor key of Bb, however you
figure that out... I think I had intended to use the guitar just to write the
song and swap over to some synth or sampled sound, but there wasn't much time, so the guitar stayed.
- Added Lisa's own harmony track, which I used pretty much as is, moving a couple of parts around to suit
the arrangement - it had such a unsettling, haunting quality that it was perfect for the song I wanted
to create. I just added some tape-echo to it and used that to fill the breaks.
- Added an analog pad sound to fatten the sound up, and used gated-volume on the intro and at the
end to give due notice that this is a not a happy-clappy love song.
- To underline the mood of the lyrics in the middle: "i’m a stranger in this room with its heat that
doesn’t stay" (for some reason, this made me thing of Massive Attack's "Heatmiser"), I used the backing
vocals as the oscillator input of a analog synth, and got a real chilling ambient sound, kept very much in
the background and a bit delayed.
- Added compression and some symphonic chorus to the lead vocals to give them a moodier feel, and
so that the vocals blended into the track better.
- Toward the end of the track, the vocals take on a looping, insistant pace ("...and i’m driving home,
..."), this I emphasized by looping a short chord sequence and bringing in more beats.
- Finally, a short break of bass-only and back into this driving beat until the end.
Hot or Not?
I'm happy with result, I would like to redo a few things, like the guitar, which has an odd rhythm of its own,
but I dunno, I would make it less original if I did. I'm pleased with the way the song develops, I think that
it emphasises the meaning of the lyrics. The second half could be longer for an album version, and I'm tempted
to add a Adrian Utley style guitar break...
The big problem with the short notice is not the lack of time to create the song, there was plenty,
its just that you have worked on and listened to the same track so intensely, you don't hear it anymore,
and its best at this point to put it away and revisit a week later, or at least to get someone else to
have a critical listen. I had time for neither, so after a quick one hour mastering session on Sunday,
the track was submitted.
Any chances of getting into th top ten? I don't think so, the marks are being given out as 40% for
originality - should be OK there, 30% for creative use of samples and loops; not so good, as I only used
Lisa's vocals tracks, being new to remixing (although the "ice" sound from processing the backing track
might be worth a point or two), with the final 30% being given for production (didn't really have time
to produce the track, just a quick mix 'n master job). Should get a 60% if I'm lucky, a pass perhaps...
Check out Lisa's
website - favorite quote:
Who do I think I am? Moby?
Click here to download the free Emotive Force EP
This work is licensed under a
"Icebox" will be featured on GarageBand.com as Track of the Week in Alternatibe Pop next week. See http://www.garageband.com