Risky Remixing 212: Phil Painson Embraces Shelean Newman
FLATBUSH, BROOKLYN: A lifetime spent as a drummer, DJ, percussionist and programmer is great preparation for excelling as a remixer. Phil Painson, with remixes for the likes of Bush, Mazzy Star, Meredith Brooks and the Crystal Method already under his belt, was asked recently by Shelean Newman to put a new spin on her inspiring single “Embraceable You”.
He let us in here on the tricks to making a remix that sticks.
Phil Painson crosses styles in his remixing.
Q: Where are your musical pursuits taking you now?
A: Lately I’ve been DJ-ing a lot, or at least trying to, developing my own digital DJ-ing style. It kind of helps me when I’m writing music — it gives me ideas to work on, and keeps me in a different brain altogether.
Q: Where’s your studio – how did you equip it to do what you need for producing, composing and mixing?
A: I have a couple of studios that I use: I have a small set-up in Brooklyn on a Macbook running Pro Tools and Logic, and I share an HD2 system with someone in Manhattan running the same setup. Between those two systems and their programs, I’ve figured out what I really need, or what really helps me produce music. I usually jump between the several programs.
So nowadays I’ve figured out what’s not working, or which program or plug-in I don’t truly need. There is just so much gear and software out there. I love everything Pro Tools, Logic and Ableton have to offer to DJs and remixers these days. Powerful things can be done strictly in the computer, it’s an amazing change.
Q: What makes remixing fun, and what makes it tough?
A: What makes it challenging is being able to take an original piece of music, and take it to a totally different direction that has nothing to do with the original song or to flip it to another level, that’s a reward right there, that’s why I enjoy it so much.
Q: What kind of mindset do you have to have in order to be a good remixer?
A: Well, you need to be able to take a chance, to take a risk, to trust your instincts and your gut feeling. I think the main component when you are going somewhere new with a track is to tell yourself, “I’m going to stick with that direction”, commit to it and don’t second-guess yourself constantly.
Q: Why do you think people tap you to do a remix?
A: Usually, they’ve heard a remix or a song that I’ve done, or a project that I’m involved in, and feel that I could add something new to a song, or bring it to another sonic or musical level.
It’s also usually in a couple of different capacities: I’m co-producing, or co-writing, or I’m writing or producing by myself. But when they’re familiar with my work helps, because they already have a much better idea about which direction I can take the track.
Q: How do you think the art of remixing has evolved over the years? Where is it now?
A: Remixing has evolved incredibly over the years, due to the developments of so many new software packages — they make it very simple and very powerful for anyone to remix songs. You have an idea and can take this idea to so many places, and play around with the many different genres that exist today. This is what brought up the popularity of remixing in general.
Q: Why were you asked to do this recent remix to “Embraceable You” by Shelean Newman?
A: The label heard previous remixes and mixes that I’ve done and they knew that I can actually do it. Meaning: I can structure the song, organize the track in such way that it can be remixed for a different musical genre, and that it will work in this new and different version. (Hear the original version here. Phil’s remix, “Embraceable You: Smooth Poetry Mix” can be heard by a quick visit to iTunes).
Q: How did you approach executing it – what elements did Shelean provide you with? Let us know your artistic and technical process.
A: The first decision is usually the tempo: Which tempo and which groove will work for this specific remix, what will make this song work? What tempo will make the remix groove and bounce?
Tempo, for me, has such a powerful influence in the initial stages of the music remixing process. Will it be faster or slower? Am I going to time-stretch it or time-compress it? This usually effects the song somehow, quite strongly. Sometimes it doesn’t sit quite right as you thought it would, so you need to play around with the BPM’s until it sits really correctly.
The next thing is to figure out which elements you are going to use. Sometimes you get everything — in this case with Shelean we got quite a bit. So you can have more of the original material in the remix. But sometimes you don’t get so much: just the vocals or half the vocals, or the tracks are not separated, and you just have a stereo comp mix. So you have to be able to work with less given material as well.
Q: How would you describe the resulting remix that you created? What makes it differ from the original?
A: The resulting mix is totally different from the original and has almost nothing to do with the original. The only things that I kept from the original song were electric guitars and the acoustic guitars, lead vocals and the background vocals. For one of the versions, the tempo stayed the same but the whole vibe of the song is completely different.
The original is live drums, live guitar, nothing really programmed. The remix is completely programmed, restructured and edited. Plus there were keyboards, synths and drum sample and percussion loops added.
Q: Do you share in sales of the remix? Or is it a strictly flat fee-type project?
A: As far as I know, right now there are mostly flat-fee contracts. Although as a mixer or engineer, I have been involved in projects where certain parties did get a share of the sales.
Q: What advice do you have for people reading this who may want to get into remixing?
A: First, do as many remixes as possible, the more the better. After a while, you will get a sense of what is working for you and what is really not working in terms of style, genre, technical know-how, and your own musical ability.
Q: Why do you like working in NYC?
A: As we know, everything in NYC happens really fast. The challenge is to keep up with all the people who are coming through here, and with their new ideas. It’s exciting to be in the middle of it.