SUMMARY 0.0.2 INTERVIEW WITH GAVIN RUSSOM
0.0.3 INTERVIEW WITH DIAMOND CUT
0.0.4 INTERVIEW WITH oOoOO
0.0.5 INTERVIEW WITH MORGAN PAGE
After Screamworks “Love In Theory And Practice Chapter 1-13”, HIM give us their new gem: SWRMXS. SWRMXS is the first remix album in the history of HIM. a very important step that enables HIM to explore in a deeper way their music. You may can call it “the Screamworks trilogy”, the studio album, the acoustic album "Baudelaire in Braille," and finally SWRMXS to close in a perfect way this year. A year in which HIM gave to the fans everything they could give, and in the best possible way! This month Himi interviewed some
of the great artists who collaborated on SWRMXS: Gavin Russom, oOoOo, Diamond Cut and Morgan Page. What are you waiting for? Flip through the pages and explore the heart of SWRMXS! SWRMXS is available on heartagram.com in the bundle pack version or in the normal version: http:// www.heartagram.c om/splash/ Enjoy the reading!
Interview with: GAVIN RUSSOM
and I really ended up creating a new track which was especially inspired by the intro of the original HIM song. How everything started?
You have been making and unmaking synths since a young age while searching the unity between man, machine, and art, you basically build your own tools, effects and sounds... How everything started? I was always interested in creating sounds for music. I studied both musical composition and sculpture and I became interested in a way of combining the two processes. I built many acoustic instruments to try to achieve this but when I discovered analog synthesizers they were obviously the way forward. I learned the basics and began to create instruments and instrumental systems to create the music I wanted to hear. How was to work on the HIM's song Ode To Solitude for making the remix? It was a very interesting process. There was a lot of material to work with
I suspect the band was aware of my music and remixes and was curious what I would do with one of their tracks. Surely, the fact that you use your own instruments, is important for the final result, but what they have in addiction respect the other ones, which is the basic advantage? I think creating instruments and understanding electronics on a very basic level allows me to approach making music in a very physical way. I use a lot of commercial instruments as well, and I think knowing them inside and out gets me to use them in a very deep way, and in unusual combinations. Do you usually prefer, during a song remix, to maintain the main idea, the main structure of the track, or you like to rebuilt it, highlighting the other potentiality that the song itself offers?
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I like to maintain something of the original, but to take it to a really different place, so that someone listening would instantly know the original, but be surprised by the remix as well. Ode To solitude is surely the heaviest song on the album, what we have to expect from your remix? I tried to find an equal heaviness, but through a very different channel. And especially to highlight the dark mood of this song, even to increase it. You can also see in the track listing that it's quite long. www.myspace.com/ gavinrussom www.gavinrussom.c om/
Interview with: DIAMOND CUT
How your Diamond Cutting Room project started? I really wanted to start a project that represented what I love about great electronic music: emotion, clarity, power, intensity. So I started with the Diamond Cutting Room & started referring to my remixes as "Diamond Cut" which I thought sounded cool & reflected the precision I like to put into my work. It's built into a nice mysterious project where no-one really knows who I am or much about me! I like that mystery. Tell us your setup. My studio set up is a mixture of the old world and the new world. I have a whole bunch of great vintage synths, and a couple of new ones, which form some of the backbone of my sound, and I also use Logic and Pro Tools a lot. But I've also done several remixes on my laptop in hotel rooms, mixing on iPod
headphones! Maybe the result isn't as precise but I think the paints & brushes are less important than the picture you're trying to paint. You have a bright crystal style, like a diamond, with some 80's influences that fits with the happy mood in the HIM's SW album (i mean the music, what we have to expect from your part? Thank you, that's a great response to the remix! I really loved the SW album because it has a lot of production values that I relate to & love. It was easy to find things to grab onto for inspiration. I love the 80's aesthetic but I try not to get too stuck in reproducing that sound too much. I use some of the vocabulary but I try to speak my own language! I always try to maintain my own individual style & I'm going to continue down that path. I think it's crucial in electronic music to have a unique touch! How did you started working on the "Scared To Death" track, did you worked together with the band or on your own? Ville approached me saying he'd heard some things that I'd done & thought we had some
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common ground... turns out we love a lot of the same music! So I created my remix after talking with him a lot about music. And I was really glad that the band liked it enough to include it on their release. What is the main difference (in the approach) between remixing a rock track and a pop track? The main difference between remixing a rock track & a pop track is usually the vocals. Rock vocals tend to be a bit more aggressive & leave lots of room to build intensity. Pop tracks hopefully have vocals that are great for melody & mood. But often in pop tracks there will be instrumental parts which you can grab & build from, whereas usually with a rock band it's easier to start with vocals, or a segment of vocals. It really depends on the track! The great thing about Scared To Death was that it had some great instrumental parts which I was able to use and build from, as well as a great vocal to work with. www.myspace.com/ thediamondcuttin groom
Interview with: oOoOO
You are an artist that try to escape from the biographical details (your name oOoOO is an example right?) to focus in a very original way on the final work, the music. How everything started? I started out making remixes and moved on to original tunes. oOoOO isn't even really a name, its the absence of one. I just wanted to be an anonymous producer. I'm definitely more interested in people hearing the songs than hearing about me. You remixed "Shatter Me With Hope" for the SWRMXS album: a mythological, enigmatic and melodic track that fits very well with your latest work "CDR": dark, misterious and elusive, how was to combine the two styles?
down and added a lot of synths. But yeah, the song is kind of dark, and I enjoy working with tracks like that. I tried to make it even darker, I guess. How was working on that song and with the band? Did Ville gave you some specific guidelines for the song or not? No, I was pretty much told to do whatever I wanted to, which is cool. Ville seems cool. Your music style is original, haunted, gothic... But i'm wondering... Which are your main inspirations? A lot of other music, especially pop, but film and photography are important to me, too. i like to make music that feels like a lot of my favorite photographs feel to me. http:// www.myspace.com/ wkwkwkwkwkwkwkw k
I'd never really remixed a song based around guitars before, and the original is pretty fast, so I slowed it
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Interview with: Morgan Page
Morgan Page Acclaimed Producer, Remixer, and DJ; Morgan Page is one of the brightest stars in US Electronic music. Page has built a loyal following from his string of club hits including The Longest Road, Fight For You, and his latest single, I’ve Had Friends. As a remixer, his recent productions include tracks for Adam Lambert, La Roux, Madonna, Katy Perry – and most recently HIM. His style merges punchy House beats with strong melodies and song structure that connects resoundingly with dance music veterans and newcomers alike.
You remixed Nelly Furtado, Katy Perry, Madonna but also Korn and Coldplay, how it's the way of approach a song? And the original genre of a song influence you and the final result? I always start by focusing on the vocal I take the acapella, drop it over
a beat, and start working on the syncopation and then the chord progression. The arpeggios and other leads follow after that. I try to work quickly, and make music without over thinking it.. you have to trust your gut, in order to get your best work. Your latest album "Believe" fits perfectly, in my opinion, with the directions and the intentions of the latest HIM's work, even if the two genres are really different, but what genres do you prefer to remix? I like to remix anything that has a strong vocal and a good song to begin with.. once you have that foundation, you can do anything with it.. I find it very difficult to remix instrumental songs. Music Piracy is affecting every artist in the "Internet" era, also HIM, now sell like 10.000 copies is like to sell 100.000 copies in the '80, and is also frustrating for an artist touring the whole world, with tons of sold-out gigs, even if the album, that took so much work, didn't sell so good. According to you, there is a solution for that? The biggest problem is over-saturation - there's just so many bands and DJs, and there's only so many channels for them to reach people. You have to find new ways to stand out. 0.0.5
You have to make music that excites people and makes them want to Shazam it, ask what the DJ is playing, and track the record down. The record business is done, but the music business will continue to thrive. 4- Talking about the HIM's remix on their upcoming album SWRMXS, how did the idea born and how everything was developed? HIM wanted a club remix, and I had done some work for Warner Bros in the past remixing Madonna, so they sent me all the parts - and I took the vocal and just made a club mix that I would play live. all the HIM's fans are waiting for buying the album, we didn't hear anything, but we are super-excited of this much needed work and important step for every rock band, even if HIM are making remix since 1997. What we have to expect from your part? I'm excited to hear all the remixes.. I heard that Tiesto did one as well. I hope everyone enjoys my mix! :) www.morganpage.com www.myspace.com/ morganpage
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I’m a monster, but you made me.