Trying to finish off this record by the fall proved to be a difficult task indeed. After a massive creative spurt during the spring, during which I created four tracks for the CD, my muse unceremoniously went on vacation to Maui and I haven't really seen her since. It's been frustrating to say the least. But soldier on, I must, and I've been trying to finish off tracks I've started, start tracks I've heard in my head and generally try to keep my musical ear busy so I don't lose my chops.
Something I end up doing just by way of this has been creating remixes or cover versions of other people's tracks. It's a great way for a producer or engineer, first of all, to see how 'the greats' were able to put the whole thing together and see the song from the inside out, so to speak.
This summer and fall, I've done an unprecedented amount of cover versions. Rather than doing these songs under the PEM moniker, I decided to rise EtherReal from the ashes and create these songs under the anagrammatic Earl Three. It all started most recently when I was struggling with a fifth track from Stop/Time, and I gave up on what I was working on, and started messing around with an acappella version of Michael Jackson's "They Don't Care About Us" that I found on P2P. I hadn't been really impressed with any of the remixes that had come out for this in 1995, so in the words of Prince, "Whenever I want to hear some new music, I just go and make some."
Michael Jackson - They Don't Care About Us (Earl 3's Earban Remix)
Actually, I first realized how fun and rewarding this kind of thing was for me at Mopalooza a few years back when he asked me to come up with some backing tracks for the jam band. He wanted 80's tunes, so he basically knew where to come for that. We came up with a list of 5 songs, and I recreated them as best I could using software synths and in some cases samples of the original instruments from the tracks themselves. Mo was ecstatic.
Kon - Kan - I Beg Your Pardon (Earl 3's Club Instrumental w/Reprise)
Yazoo - Don't Go (Earl 3's Instrumental)
New Order - Bizarre Love Triangle (Earl 3's Respect-A-Shep Instrumental)
It didn't stop there. At the right in the PEM music widget, you can see the other Earl 3 tracks that have surfaced since that time. I've progressed slightly in that I'm not merely recreating the musical bits, now I'm actually singing the vocals myself, now that I'm a little more content with hearing the sound of my own voice. Although, there is one other one that I would like to add in this post, a Pet Shop Boys cover, a straight copy from Disco 3, no remixing involved, other than adding my own vocals.
Earl Three - Here (PSB-Style Remix)
As fun as this is, here's hoping that a new record will emerge early next year.
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