Recording - December 2011 - 20

The Project
This is a complex project involving many names. Is there a logic to the list? Eric Alexandrakis: Electrons began by me calling up some friends, and people that I greatly admire, with the idea that we could do some unconventional music projects. The remix project begins with David Lynch, who has produced and co-written an album called This Train, with Chrysta Bell on vocals. The song from that album that we worked on is called “Friday Night Fly”. So where does Electrons come into the picture? Anthony and the album’s project manager (who is Chrysta’s and Electrons’ manager) go way back, and it all just came together from behind the scenes. This Train is a really modern-sounding electronic record with Chrysta’s sexy, slinky vocals shimmering all over the songs. You really wouldn’t expect that an artist who is primarily known for his extraordinary film work, and is somewhat older than us musicians who play for a living, would come up with something so completely modern. We passed the track around for a while, hung out and talked about it in between meetings and things, and decided that we wanted to do something completely unconventional using the wonders of technology. The word “remix” has evolved in such a loose way over the years, we were looking at it more with the mind of making it our own sound, rather than pleasing someone. So we basically wrote a whole new piece of music and brought in Chrysta’s vocal on top while staying inspired by the vibe of the original track. But there’s more to it, of course... In what form did the project come to you? When it got to the point of us working on it, we received an entire Pro Tools session and shared that around. How? We all have a shared account via Apple’s MobileMe, and even used Dropbox. Who took the lead? Anthony started off with some cool beats and ambient pulses, which if I recall is literally like 200 tracks. This set our dark, electronic vibe that we were subconsciously after. Anthony is a totally unique producer/ multi-instrumentalist/songwriter/mixer who creates soundscapes like you wouldn’t believe. That whole satellite telemetry part, amongst other things, was his creation for example. What about the others’ parts? Then Warren came up with the main guitar riff, he did several passes using various effects. Some clean parts, clean pulses, straight distortion, distorted pules, note loops, muffed parts, etc. Warren is the type of creative force who is able to come up with 20 new groundbreaking ideas in the course of a week, so he easily inspires. His guitar riff was really the main catalyst. He wasn’t crazy about recording over the Internet, as he, like all of us, loves the studio interaction. Feeding off of people in a room is the best, but it was an interesting challenge that we all enjoyed I think. He also likes to do things going straight to CD-R at times, dropping samples into various spots. Warren, Anthony and Roger are all Ableton wizzes.

Famous players, a famous filmmaker’s musical vision— and home studio magic
Interviews by Lorenz Rychner

Remember filmmaker David Lynch?
Mulholland Drive, The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet? Dark, edgy, sometimes weird, often wonderful, never dull? And the riveting television series Twin Peaks that gained a cult following? If you’ve seen any of these, imagine what his music would be like if Lynch were a musician! Turns out David Lynch does make music, always has, and, sure enough, his music sounds like his movies look— dark, edgy, sometimes weird etc. etc. Here at Recording we have brought you detailed reports on remixing projects, and on the techniques and benefits of long-distance collaboration. This is a story involving both, and while the project under discussion started out as a brief for a remix, it ended up being a recreation, done in collaboration by a group of individuals with stellar track records: Warren Cuccurullo, Steve Ferrone, Roger O’Donnell, Anthony J. Resta, and the man who herds these cats, Eric Alexandrakis. See the sidebar for their career highlights as soloists and members of other bands, many of which will be well known to all our readers, and well-known to the charts as well. Collectively they are known as Electrons (you can learn more at www.bopnique.com/electrons and at www.electronsmusic.com).—LzR
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RECORDING DECEMBER 2011

http://www.bopnique.com/electrons http://www.electronsmusic.com

Recording - December 2011

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