I’m insanely pleased to announce my latest remix, this time of Yeasayer’s “Ambling Alp” from their upcoming record “Odd Blood.” If you’re unfamiliar with Yeasayer, please take a moment to check them out, as they are an UNBELIEVABLE band. They write wonderful wonderful music, and they manage to combine live instruments with electronics & samples in a totally unique and inspiring way.
As I told their guitarist, Anand, within minutes of hearing the remix stems, I was completely floored. I was already a big fan, but upon hearing each instrument isolated, I couldn’t believe my ears. They labored over every little sound with the utmost care, from the tiniest percussion slaps, to their singer Chris’ own voice re-pitched through a sampler… All I could think was “man, I gotta step my game up if I’m gonna do this song any justice.”
I tried to approach my remix with that similar attention to detail in mind. I re-harmonized the song into a minor key, and I mixed a number of electronic sounds (synths, bleeps, boops) with live instruments (banjo, live hi-hat & snare drum). The song struck me as having some African influences deep in it – I tried to tease those out a bit more, although filtered through my bizarre-child-of-the-80s lens…
I’m especially proud of this, and I’ve gotten a great response from the band about it – I really hope you like it, too! And as always, please feel free to download and share it with any and everyone you know! HELP ME SPREAD THE WORD!
Also, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE support the band and pick up their album when it drops next week. And check out their psychedelic not-safe-for-work video, below, and the also not-safe-for-work website Ambling Alp Experience:
Man oh man it’s been a busy weekend at AW central. Writing some new music, doing a lot of work with my pals Project Jenny Project Jan for their new record (which is AMAZING and getting closer and closer to done!), and I’m wrapping up my latest remix. I expect/hope to be sharing it with y’all in the next few days! Just tweaking the final mixing and mastering on it + testing it out on a few different soundsystems, and then Bon Voyage.
As a little preliminary taste, I video-taped myself tracking some of the percussion parts that I play on it. You’ll have to excuse the audio, as it sounds a little crude…
And moving right along, my Chester French remix really took the old intynet by storm! Even managed to top the Hypemachine Twitter charts for a few days (screenshot). And picked up some nice writeups, too – check it:
Aside from all the critical acclaim and my own personal enjoyment of the series, I have an alterior motive for posting about the show… They used my song, “Bad Mamma Jamma,” to soundtrack the following episode from their new season!
And because I’m SOOOOO nice, for a limited time I’m offering up a free download of “Bad Mamma Jamma” just for you!
Check out my song, “The Hustle,” in the new video (above) from Nika Water. Nika is a California-based 100% carbon-neutral bottled water company:
“Through the sale of our premium bottled water, NIKA hopes to bring a voice to the world’s poor who suffer without the basic right to clean water and simple sanitation. And by donating 100% of our profits to support clean water projects in impoverished countries, NIKA will provide the basic tools and critical assistance to help thousands of families improve their lives in a meaningful way and end the cycle of poverty. Furthermore, by enlisting today’s newest generation of kids through our Agents of Change program, our goal is to create awareness and knowledge to serve as a catalyst for thousands of youth to get involved in our quest to bring clean water to the impoverished world.”
Please visit Nika’s wesbite, http://www.nikawater.org/, to learn more about their mission. Simply put, they are doing great things for the world, and I’m honored to be involved.
I’m extremely pleased to share my latest remix of “C’mon” by Pharrell-protégés, Chester French. I was tapped by CF, alongside San-Fran electro-bangers, Pance Party, to assemble a special FREE HOLIDAY DOWNLOAD just in time for the New Year.
If you aren’t already familiar with Chester French, then you’ve probably been living under a rock… In the past year, they have toured with Lady Gaga, Blink 182, and Weezer, been featured in Vogue, The New York Times, and pretty much every major media outlet in existence… and their debut record, “Love the Future” was recently listed as one of iTunes’ top pop albums of the year… It should also be noted that CF-frontman, D.A., is just an all-around awesome dude.
“C’mon” was particularly fun for me to work on, as it’s such a complex piece of pop. It’s full of unpredictable chord changes, half-measures, and countless twists n’ turns. As usual, I tried to keep within the form of the song while putting my own spin on it. Hope you like!
You can stream or download my remix here, and please feel free to share it with EVERYONE YOU KNOWWWWWWWW!!!
It’s been a little while, apologies for being a bit out of touch. I was busy stuffing myself full of Turkey and enjoying the drive through Connecticut. Hope those of you Stateside had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and a pleasant regular old week to the rest of you international folk!
I’ve been hard at work over here, a few exciting tidbits to report:
1) I’ve completed a brand spankin’ new remix for a very talented band, and friends of mine from college. I would have shared it with y’all already, but there’s been some talk of a potential “official” release for it… so I’m in a bit of a holding pattern there – stay tuned!
2) I’m about 2/3’s of the way finished with another remix for an artist that I have truly loved and admired over the years. By some insane stroke of luck, I’ve been corresponding with him over email and working on a new single from his upcoming record. I shouldn’t say who he is just yet, but I WILL say that fans of the show Mad Men will be especially excited about this one.
3) Been hard at work, co-producing for my pals, Project Jenny, Project Jan, on their new record. We’re entering the tracking stages. The skeletons are in place for all the tunes, now on to recording different live parts and honing, editing, and honing some more. It’s gonna be awesome.
4) Wanted to share a few more studio videos with y’all from my adventures with Rob a few weeks ago at his studio in Greenpoint. If nothing else, these videos are a neat little way of demystifying the recording process a bit…
Man oh man… My Shwayze remix has been getting an outrageous response… THANK YOU SO MUCH to all the folks who were kind enough to listen/tweet/share/write about it! Thanks to you, I spent 3 days straight at the top of HypeMachine’s Twitter charts, as well as on Elbo.ws’ “Hot Tracks” List. Not too shabba-labba-ding-dong.
Before I jump to the blog recap, just want to share my utter excitement for the next few remixes I’ll be working on. Been in touch with some truly wonderful bands & artists whom many of you probably know quite well, and I’m SO pumped to work on their stuff!
Also, spent the majority of this weekend writing and recording with my talented friend, Rob. Here’s a little footage of me chunking along on the drums… I’m self-taught & only started playing 2 yrs ago, so hopefully not too crappy all things considered:
Here’s what peoples are saying about the Shwayze track:
Craziness! Was just doing a little self-google-alerts-ing (not that I’m vain or anything), and I discovered that I was on KCRW twice for my Temper Trap remix! OUTRAGEOUS! It’s the not first time I’ve been on, but I’m feeling pretty cool right now, nonetheless…
Thank you so much to Jason Kramer for throwing me in the mix, let alone two times!
Pleased to share a new remix I made of Shwayze’s “Get U Home” (iTunes) from their upcoming album, “Let It Beat” (which hits stores Tuesday, Nov. 3rd). This is my first foray into official-remix-for-a-major-label territory, and it has been… well… more or less the same experience.
My remix was included on an Official “Get U Home” Remix EP, alongside some pretty heavy-hitters: Paul Oakenfold, The Bloody Beetroots, LMFAO, and Travis Barker, to name a few… Which one is your favorite? (pick ME, pick ME!)
For those unfamiliar with Shwayze, he is a California pop rapper and is produced by Cisco Adler. “Get U Home” presented an interesting challenge for me as Shwayze’s brand of music is not my usual fare. It forced me to step out of my comfort zone and find creative ways to insert my personality – wound up being quite a bit of fun to work on!
And attention record label folks, if you’d like me to remove this link, please email me at “info [at] wilcassettes [dot] com,” and I will promptly do so…
Welcome to Wilcassettes, the home of everything Alan Wilkis. Alan is a Brooklyn-based musician, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and general musical mover-and-shaker... This is his blog.
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