Intermission: Electric HEAT (Spring 2025)
Goal
Reimagine our Alternative Rock EP HEAT as an Electronic Rock version. I wanted to combine the heaviness of dark Rock, the drama of energetic arches in songwriting and the groove of Electronic Music.
Production Frenzy
Being back at home in NYC, I was eager to dive into the new
HEAT adventure. I listened to our debut EP Elements and then kicked
off the new project with Flare. I wanted to create a mysterious atmosphere
in the verses to enhance the groove and the energy of the chorus. Thought and done,
I sent over a first draft to Volker, and he was excited. This was a good path to
stay on.
A couple of days later I found myself on the plane going to SxSW 2025 in Austin,
Texas. I was booked to perform at the German Haus and despite being nervous about
the upcoming live shows, I was so caught up in the HEAT project that I wrote
the electronic versions of Blaze on the plane and of Furnace during
my week in Austin. The other two songs quickly poured out of the ether when I got
back home.
Digging Through The Archives
It was exciting to sift through all our recordings and look
for add-on and solo guitars that we did not end up including in the original Rock
versions. All this great material that was just patiently sitting there in our
archives was artistic fodder for my creativity.
To get a similar vibe for all fives songs of the EP, I only used a very limited
amount of synths sounds which are heard in every tune. I treated the vocals a bit
differently and changed up several transitions and bridges in the arrangements.
That was it. By April, I was ready to get into mixing and mastering, sending
files back and forth to Volker to get his feedback.
And after four months ... the wrestling matches with the mixes were won and the Electronic Rock state of our EP HEAT had materialized.
Homework:
- get into TouchDesigner