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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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!

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]

Water is all around me, streaming down my face and shoulders. Falling down, down, down… Lapping at my ankles, pouring down through cracks that have forced their way up and out of the ground below me.  Darkness precedes all that is, or will one day be. I am in a moment where everything around sounds faint, far away…  I am travelling through time – through space – and through my mind… one second at a time…

I open my eyes, blinking, as bright lights cut a path through the haze that has settled all around me – intruding upon my own, home-made reality and returning me to the present. Reaching for a towel, I dry myself off and step out of the shower. My journey to Mars has begun.

Often the best ideas come at the most unsuspecting moment, at a time when the mind is completely at ease and carefree… Uninhibited. When they come, you have two choices – 1. go with it, or 2. forget about it. I pride myself on being able to recognise a good opportunity when it stares me in the face – in this case, an opportunity by the name of Creativity.  Quickly hauling ass into my studio (conveniently located in my home), I breathed life into my iMac, grabbed a pen and pad and got busy.

As the idea began to take shape, I brought Joel, and long-time friend/super talented singer Cassie Wallace into the picture to join me in the songwriting festivities. The first few hours were draining ones – the three of us brainstormed, jotted down lines, scribbled them out, debated, and then re-wrote – always striving for perfection. Once the lyrics were finished Cassie stepped up to the plate – or in this case the silver plated Mic. She literally flew through the vocals, bringing to the table the kind of melodies that I can only dream about. She bounced from harmonies to BVs to adlibs, before sinking into a chair with utterances of contentment – 2 long sessions later.

Now that the scene has been set, please close your eyes, sit back, and prepare to descend with us onto the Red Planet.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnYG24IeErA[/youtube]

Rihanna has unveiled plans to release a book about her life in late June 2010. See the full story @ starcentralmagazine.com

Lil Wayne is named by three different women as the father of their newborn babies in 2009.  You can catch the full story here - StarCentral Magazine

Kelly Clarkson accuses Ryan Tedder of recycling his beats and selling the same track used for “Already Gone” to Beyonce Knowles for “Halo”. Check out the full story on StarCentralMagazine.com - here