I’ve purposely tried to get out of my shell, musically, and collaborate with others this past year.
And I figured I ought to tell you about it. Why waste the opportunity to get more listens on projects I spent so much time on, after all?
Here are just some of the ones I can actually talk about.
Building a New Track for Etlantic+Acid42 – Pulse100
As part of the Music Weeklies challenge on Twitter, musicians are given a weekly creative prompt that they can use to jump start their creativity. One of them was to find collaborators and form a virtual band that could work on music together.
I wasn’t actually planning on contributing to this challenge, but then saw a post by Etlantic asking if anyone wanted to do something with this loop-based track he’d put together. It sounded like a perfect canvas to paint some synthwavey sounds on, so I contacted him for the audio files and proceeded to build an entirely new track and arrangement using his loops and stems. The result is “Pulse100.”
Backup Vocals for Kiffie – Home
One of the people on my Twitter feed asked for volunteers to record backup vocals for a minimal synthpop ballad he was recording. He wanted crowd vocals for the choruses. I figured, “Why not?” Not only was Kiffie super appreciative, he began including me in all his tweets and helping to promote my account to others who needed people to follow. Which was a surprise, I admit. But one that I welcomed wholeheartedly. From acquaintance to comrade-in-arms in one fell swoop.
Remixing Duties for Kiffie – Butterflies (Acid42 Remix)
The backup vocal work I did for “Home” led to Kiffie offering me a chance to remix a track from his next album. (Get this, Kiffie produced 12 albums in 12 months in 2021!) Again, I thought why not? The track “Butterflies” sounded great, and I could hear areas where I could place my Acid42 twist to the music. “Sign me, up!” I told him over Twitter. The result is below:
Backup Vocals for Lavallette – No Easy Way Out
Once again, the Twitter #synthfam provided me with an open call for backup crowd vocals. This time, the group Lavallette were putting together a synthwave remake of the theme from Rocky IV, “No Easy Way Out,” and it sounded phenomenal already with its driving guitars, solid rhythms, and powerful vocals. Recorded my backup vocals in one go and gave them harmonies as well as the melody to use as they saw fit. The final product? Lav ette!
Remixing Lake Sedge – Night is Young (Acid42 Remix)
Over on the Reasoners subreddit (a part of Reddit devoted to those who use the Reason DAW for music production), someone posted “Anybody wanna remix this? I think it has potential but I can’t tap into it, let me know if you want the stems!” And so I asked for the stems and built out a remix for Lake Sedge, just as a creative exercise. The result is here:
My Approach to Collaboration
I actually wrote down some rough guidelines in my journal to allow me to prioritize these collaborative projects and to keep me from doing every little thing that crosses my path. This is what I came up with:
- If it sounds exciting and you have the bandwidth, do it.
- If it aligns with your value, beliefs, or causes, then go for it.
- If it was initiated by people you know in real life, or those whom you respect even from afar, then by all means, do it.
- If it will bring positivity and joy to others, why not?
- If someone asks you for help musically, then consider it.
It’s not, by any means, a comprehensive framework for decision making. These are just notes that occurred to me after the fact. The truth is: I’ll try to fit in musical collaboration if I can do it at all. Because it’s fun and it’s always an opportunity to learn something new or make friends with other musicians and producers. I’ll work on more this coming year!