Jaden | Music

Allow me to introduce one of my newest friends, and hands down one of the most talented musicians/singers I have ever met – Kristen Fletcher. We met on what started out a gloomy Saturday morning, at one of the infamous “Shai Breakfast Club” gatherings. Note that I say gloomy, only in terms of the weather – not of the company or the festivities. Just for the record, your parties rock Shai!

Kristen and I, along with some of the other musos we met there shared the privilege of jamming together and talking music into the wee hours of the evening. It was very quickly established that we shared an insurmountable adoration for the eternally inspiring Stevie Wonder – possibly the strongest foundation two music-lovers can build a friendship on!

After catching up for a few jam sessions and the like, we decided to start collaborating on some original music. “Live My Life” first sprouted from some thoughts Kristen told me she had been pondering recently, since reading a particular book (I don’t recall the name of the book, so it will be K-10’s little secret for now).

We started playing around with a few different chords, Kristen on the keys and myself on my Maton – and came up with some catchy verse and chorus progressions. This was followed by some rather hooky vocal ideas (if I don’t say so myself). Following this, we spent a couple of sessions refining the lyrics/melodies and laying out the song structure.

Being the gun that she is, it only took Kristen a single session to lay down the bulk of the vocals – leaving me with a whole lot of great stems to play with – “play” being the official term reserved for all that super-technical stuff we producers do in our studios after the sun goes down and regular people go to sleep ☺

Now, it is my pleasure to present the collaborative sounds of Kristen Fletcher and Jaden Music -“Live My Life”.

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Come here Rude Boy!!

Nic - June 23rd, 2010 § 2

Well folks, it looks like the Jaden Remix segment is becoming a weekly installment! Our latest piece of work comes to you courtesy of the deliciously deviant Rihanna, in the form of her most recent single “Rude Boy”. After hearing the first 10 seconds of this track, I was totally sold on it! It took me back to some of my fondest musical memories – particularly a little number you may remember from the late 90s called Pony, by Ginuwine (produced by Timbaland).

Much to my delight, I very quickly managed to locate a near-immaculate acapella of Rude Boy and got straight down to business. We had an absolute ball putting this one together – keeping a little bit of that reggae vibe, funking up the bass, and then rocking out hard on the guitar. What better way to spend my day?!!

Anyhow, enough background information – bring on the tunes!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhzW7i2kFx8[/youtube]

PS I am currently taking song requests, so let me know if you’ve heard something recently that is just asking to be remixed!

Usher – OMG ft will.i.am (the Jaden remix)

Nic - June 17th, 2010 § 0

Hey all, it has certainly been a week for remixes. I was feeling particularly inspired following our efforts with the Justin Bieber track – so here is another one for y’all to check out… Usher’s club banger O.M.G (although I’m still not entirely sure whether the “G” stands for “Gosh” or “God”… perhaps both! )

And if you are digging on either (or both) of these remixes, be advised that there is another one on the way very soon – a recent release by a certain R-Rated individual (there’s a hint for you).

I am not feeling particularly typeractive tonight, so… Enjoy!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DcWjRYsLLk[/youtube]

Jaden Music’s official launch on iTunes!!!

Nic - June 12th, 2010 § 0

Jaden Music has finally hit the shelves – officially launching our first single release “10 Seconds from Mars”!! As of today, this is now available for purchase and download from the iTunes Store. We are over the moon to finally be able to share our work with the world, and are absolutely ecstatic with the finished product. You can listen to a preview of the track here – 10 Seconds from Mars, and of course you can also buy it if you like it!

A big thanks again to my crew, and to Cass for her superb work with the vocals. This is really just the beginning for us, and we hope that you will continue to share our musical journey with us!

Much love,

Nic on behalf of Jaden Music

Justin Bieber – the Jaden Music way

Nic - June 12th, 2010 § 2

I had to laugh (or perhaps it should be LOL?) the other day when I was browsing through the News.com.au website and came across this headline – “Justin Bieber’s voice hitting a sour note” – basically an article about how the hottest new pop-star of the music world’s voice is breaking. The first point of the article read “Puberty wreaks havoc on Justin Bieber”. Oh my, I never thought I would live to see the day that the number one national Australian news headline involves a rare phenomena known as puberty! Luckily for his many fans, it looks like Bieber will pull through this turbulent phase in his life.

I must say, despite the many avid (and might I add, extremely vocal) haters he seems to have accrued around the world, I really have no personal dislike for the young man – rather on the contrary, I actually quite like some of his songs… hell, what’s not to like about catchy hooks, top notch production, and the backing of one of the RNB greats – Usher. And besides, can the 200 million odd people that clicked on his “Baby” clip on Youtube really be wrong? Give the kid a break man, chances are he’s already earned more money in his 16 short years than the majority of us will earn in our entire lifetime.

Now, to get to the point of my post – Daniel and I were last weekend discussing the topic of most unlikely remixes that could Jaden do – and surprise surprise (yep, you guessed it), Bieb’s name came up. We thought, why not have a crack at doing Baby – sounds like a bit of fun, and it will almost certainly address a group that is a little left of centre from our usual target demographic.

For anyone not familiar with the process of remixing a track, you basically get a hold of a vocals only (acapella) recording of the track, then build the beat and instrumental components from scratch. As there is no official acapella of the track, we used a version that was electronically ripped out of the original – so my apologies if the vocals sound a little messy – this is just an inherent byproduct of the process (a big thanks to whoever it was that made this .wav available for us to use)!

Gracias for reading, and we hope you enjoy our own interpretation of Justin Bieber’s “Baby”.

PS for anyone wanting the full low-down on the JB voice-breakage, here is the full article

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0r1EEuW03U4[/youtube]

A Day at Sea: the wrap-up

Nic - May 13th, 2010 § 0

Let me start this blog by apologising for my tardiness in posting it. There was some unforseen delays in getting our hands on the photos, so I thought it better to wait and at least have some visual stimuli to go with the rant!

For those of you that missed it, A Day At Sea was a huge success – beautiful sunny weather, a great crowd of our friends and fellow music lovers, and some rocking tunes courtesy of one half of Sydney-cum-LA rock outfit 11:11 (the band formerly known as Crash Hot) and local Sydney band Black Diamond Hearts. For those of you who made it down, thanks again for supporting the day and contributing to the great atmosphere and fun times! A Day At Sea was what we envisage to be the first of many more successful Jaden Music events coming in the foreseeable future.

Given that the decision was made to go ahead with the cruise only 3 weeks prior, I feel like it was a day which exceeded expectations and impressed all involved. Considering we were able to organise two great bands, a handful of DJs, artwork and promo all in this short space of time, I think everyone has earned a big pat on the back. A special thanks goes to Kristian, Serg, Wilson & crew, Black Diamond Hearts, the DJs, Tristan for capturing the day on film, Blair for the stunning flyer design, and last but definitely not least Joel and Daniel for busting their asses to make it all happen.

The boys and I are now casting our gaze to the next Jaden event, and we have some great guest appearances in the pipeline – details of this will emerge a little closer to the date. But I can assure you the next cruise will be well worth the wait, and even bigger than the first. Be sure to keep your eyes and ears open for more details, and until then may you all be joyous and fruitful in your lives!!