Music Makers

behind the remix with Vien Kohl

I Enjoy Remixes vol. 2 is OUT! On Bandcamp, and now on streaming too. Sugardeer and Vien Kohl remixed each others' songs, it's a whole vibe, you should get into it...

I sent a "behind the remix" questionnaire to both artists to get the scoop on their Remix Attitudes. Today we have John Bukovac, who as Vien Kohl remixed Sugardeer's "Coughing Fit"...

I thought about what kind of contexts I’d like to hear Danny’s voice in. To me, Sugardeer music sits in a very particular valley between natural and electrical sounds, and I wanted to strike a balance between those environments, but with a different palette. If the original version of the song is a lot of pinks and blues, I wanted to make my version a lot of blues and whites.

The little outro tag at the end was definitely the last thing I came up with. I think I felt like the remix didn’t have enough “vien kohl” to it, so I decided to add some by literally inserting myself into the mix. I don’t know Danny’s original intent with the lyrics, but I wanted to write them from a contrasting point of view, almost like a response from the other party that’s mentioned in the song. The impression that I got of that person was not a good one, so I wanted to paint them in that light. Danny also uses chords really nicely in this song so I wanted to play with them. I also realized how the bad the stems I sent to Danny were (sorry Danny!)

I really like a lot of the echoing effects on Danny’s voice, and the transformations I made to it in general. Danny is very expressive, so it was fun to kind of try and remove that, in a way. I learned how to use a formant shifter for this remix, funnily enough, since I could hear some of the sounds I wanted in my head but didn’t know how to get them.

Remixing is about translating something into a new language, rather than writing
something in a language I already know. It’s honestly way more fun and freeing than writing original music, since I don’t feel the pressure to make sure that the song feels like a “me” song. All the hard work is done, I just get to play with toys.

Oh god, that’s a hard choice. I like A.G. Cook’s remix of "Windowlicker," the Purity Ring remix of "Knife Prty" by Deftones, the 100 Gecs remix of "Where’s Your Head At"...anything that takes the original apart and puts it back together in a way where you can recognize the base material but it’s also its own distinct thing.

Nah, I don’t think any of them are online.

Enhancing what makes the original work as a song, but changing the perspective on it. Do it with intention. Rip it apart. Get weird with it! It’s the same thing with a cover of a song; if it’s too similar to the original then why would I want to listen to it?