Chris DeLine

Following the release of Status Reign’s Brutally Honest LP (which includes such standouts as “Dedicated” and “The Chorus“) comes a new release from another member of Minneapolis’ Background Noise Crew, T.Q.D.Serving as an aptly titled lead-up to more new material which should drop later this year, The Appetizer 3 is an “odds-and-ends collection” which does well to show off a variety of different aspects of the MC’s style. In this edition of Influenza T.Q.D. explains the development of the new EP, in particular focusing on a remix of “Desert Sky” which has matured into its present shape over the course of the past four years. The Appetizer 3 is available as a free download via Bandcamp.

When I was thinking about what I thought the third volume of my Appetizer EP series would sound like, I decided I wanted the EP to be five to seven self-produced remixes of previous songs that I felt showed potential, but didn’t quite turn out the way I wanted. I didn’t follow through on that plan completely, but I ended up making a couple remixes. I’ve always enjoyed a good remix to an okay songs. Most songs are fine just way they are or are so bad they can’t be saved, but some just need a little extra seasoning.

The original “Desert Sky” was a collaboration between myself and a good friend of mine named Bob Benson in 2007. His graduation assignment from IPR was to produce and engineer a song for another artist and I was chosen. The beat he made had a synth feel with some guitar. He also sang a hook and bridge as well. He said he wanted lyrics that fit in to the inspire/overcome category. Even though I wasn’t going to say no, as someone who prefers downer music, it was a challenge, but one that I welcomed. It never ended up on an album, but was released digitally on a certain not-so-hip anymore social networking site. The song turned out okay in my view, but I always thought it could be better with a few changes.

Fast forward to earlier this year when I brainstormed this EP and it was time. Even if I didn’t do any other remakes for the EP, I felt like this one had to be made. I had trouble cooking up my own beat, so I tried out a few others I had and a beat I had just bought from Arsenic seemed to fit like a glove. I rearranged the words a bit, changed the hook and I was ready to go. The beat I used for the remix was definitely more uptempo and lighter than my usual choices, but when shopping for beats, I had to have it and knew I’d end up using it for something.

It was one of the easiest recording times I’ve had. Everything was done in one take. It just felt right and I’m happy with the way it turned out.

[This post was first published by Culture Bully.]