New Music: Optimistic (Radiohead Cover)

This one of those tracks that I am really proud of. Not because of any special involvement on my part but more so that sense of surprising “wow, this turned out awesome”. That’s also not to say that I didn’t think it would either (just get on with it).

Basically the guys from the Champion were asked to cover a Radiohead song for a compilation and I helped tracking the drums and then got to mix the track. It was one of those things were I was involved for a little of the creative process (on the recording side) and then I got take all these wonderful tracks and turn them into a mix. As nerdish as it is, when I was pushing up those faders it was like like presents of audio – “ooow look what I’ve got here, ahhh that’s cool, oh listen to that …” – so on and so forth.

It was a delight to mix and like I said at the start I am very proud of the end product. I think it’s one of those sum of all the parts type of thing where even though you are right there and have “control” of sorts of the process it turns out more than you could have hoped.

As far as any special notes about it. Drums were tracked very dry because I wanted to be able to trigger some acoustic and electronic samples. There’s still plenty of real drum there of course but layering those other timbres really lends depth to the original sound. I made heavy use of Logic’s Enverb on the vocals for that slightly odd and ethereal backing vocal sound.

Fave bits. Pretty much the whole thing. The “Hey’s” – brilliant idea. The synths – add such depth but are not over kill. Bass – smooth and melodic. Bridge section just works so well and is big and nasty. I loved the way Dave described the over powering synth in the bridge when I was mixing it and not quite getting it (something along the lines of)- “He’s like that guy who comes into the party and you can’t ignore him cause he’s so loud and belligerent”. Brilliant.

Enough talk – here’s the track.

The Champion & His Burning Flame – Optimistic

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