Remix - Untitled

My remix project was very challenging, as I had to take the song “Happy Pills” and utilize at least one element of it in a song of a completely different genre. For my genre, I chose industrial rock, which is easily one of my favorite genres. The structure of this song took inspiration from bands like Nine Inch Nails and Ministry, and I used the holy trinity of industrial rock to make it: DI driven guitar, analog synths, and drum machines/samples.

I started off this process by crafting four different drum sequences that would take the song through multiple different sections. For the drums sounds, I settled on classic 808 and 909 sounds that would have been found on tracks from this genre. For the bass, I used a DI Squire VI through the EQD Dunes drive and Chelsea fuzz, as well as recorded it as a stereo signal through the Avalanche Run stereo reverb and delay. I also utilized the strings behind the bridge to create some ambient plucks during the Latin-style beat towards the end of the song. For guitar, I used a Les Paul with P90 pickups running through a Life Pedal V3 and a Dunes drive, which sounded super impressive through a cabinet simulation plug-in. I double tracked the guitars and played around with playing different parts on both sides instead of pan automation. For the synth parts, I used a Behringer Poly D to add layering to the soundscape and create sound effects. I ran this as a stereo signal through the Avalanche Run and as a mono signal through the Life Pedal and Dunes.

A major part of the industrial sound is layering. This can either be with sound samples of factories, movie audio, or whatever you can record with a microphone. Most of the time you don’t even think about it being there, but without those indistinguishable audio clips, the song loses its mojo. That being said, I decided to use some of the drum tracks from “Happy Pills” as my sound layers. I chopped up and pieced together a drum loop that fit the tempo and off beats of the song, reversed the tracks, and added it to different parts of the song where I felt it was necessary.

Personally, I wish more music nowadays experimented with sampling like this, and not just using key parts from other peoples music (which I do enjoy from time to time). Sampling is truly an art form, and albums like The Downward Spiral wouldn’t be what they are without it.